Port of Hueneme had its best revenue year

The Southern California Port of Hueneme had its highest performing revenue year with strong showing from its car, container, and banana businesses, according to Kristin Decas, Executive Director, Port of Hueneme.

Decas, who spoke at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition Annual Meeting in Tacoma, Washington told AJOT: “So setting aside all the uncertainty in terms of trade policy developments and in terms of the tariffs at Port Hueneme we are going to have our highest performing revenue year, and we are seeing strength in our containerized freight and our automotive markets … So, our container business is up 6% and then the cars, we just did 409,004 units that is our highest year ever in history.”

Rising Container Volumes

Decas said that “for containers … we are up 6% and we are within 2% of our highest … year… ever. And the reason we were a little low on containers last year is because there were weather issues … in Peru … and Mexico that affected both our blueberries and our banana trades. So that is recovered and … back to normal highs.”

The rise in container volumes comes from agricultural shippers such as the banana and other agricultural shippers seeking to shift bulk shipments from bulk carriers to containers. The result is the Port now deploys six container cranes where it once utilized one to accommodate its growing container business that gives it a capacity to handle container ships of up to 3,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs): “So the way I describe us is like, we are more like a limousine or a taxi. It is point-to-point. You pay a little bit more for a new … taxi or an Uber than a bus … But you are going to get there faster. You are going to have the speed to market benefit.”

Strong Banana Market

Decas noted volumes of “bananas are strong … Bananas really are an inelastic economy. People eat bananas whether it is a good year or a bad year. The banana and the blueberry business really are doing quite well.”

She is worried that tariffs on banana imports could change this: “So I think because it's such a tight profit margin for the banana trade, you're probably going to see the prices go up on bananas. But how bad is that hit going to be to your pocketbook is questionable because … I've heard from my stakeholders in the industry right now, it's like (a) 4 cents hike in banana prices.”

Decas expressed concern about the future of the Port’s car and Ro/Ro business because of the Trump administration's tariffs on cars and the U.S. Trade Representative’s proposed fees on foreign-built ships sailing to U.S. ports.

USTR Proposed Fees on Foreign-Built Ships

Decas is very concerned about proposed actions by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in which fees are planned to be assessed on Chinese and foreign-built ships: “Forty-six percent of the Port's revenue is tied to cars, and 96% of the cars that come through the Port are imports. So, there is a huge trade deficit there. And then you couple that with the (U.S.T.R.) shipping rule that initially proposed charges of $150 per CEU (Car Equivalent Unit). So, an average auto ship is 6,500 cars. And that is conservative. Some can hold as many as 8,000. Using that example, the 6,500 vehicles on a ship is a fee assessment of $975,000. And it would not just be if the ship was made in China ... And there are only two American Ro/Ro ships in the whole world. So, all the car carriers are foreign-built. So, they are looking at paying a million dollars, approximately, for each ship … coming to the United States.”

Fortunately, those proposed rules have been revised: “Now USTR says they scaled that back now, and they say they are going to charge a fee based on the ship's actual freight on the ship as opposed to the capacity of the ship. But they did not define in the latest rule that I saw what that fee is. Now we do close to 400 Ro/Ro ships a year …”

The result is uncertainty in 2026: “So, there are still a lot of question marks … I will not name customers, but I think there are different companies that are more prone to not being able to absorb the increased cost of shipping and tariffs. Meaning we have customers that are very diversified. They do not just make cars; they make other things. Whereas other ones, all they do is build cars ... And how can they not inflate the cost of their vehicles to the U.S. consumer if these 25% tariffs on cars really go into play? So, … we are kind of up against the uncertainty question mark...”

At the same time, the Port is losing high and heavy cargoes such as tractors and wind turbines: “We're seeing less high and heavy. They go on the same ships, the Roll on/Roll off ships so we are seeing some decreases in high and heavy, but there is also some movement in that segment of our business portfolio where you are seeing a lot of high and heavy cargoes … creep into where warehouses are and more warehouses are getting built in the Southeast and … down in the Gulf area than … in California. So, it may explain a little bit of the loss in high and heavy, but it is not a huge business segment for us, but it is an important one.”

Shore Power Replacement

Decas said the Port received $40 million in disaster relief funding from Cal OES (California Office of Emergency Services) after a flash flood “knocked out our shore power generation, and vessels could no longer turn off their engines and power them from shore-based electricity. We are out to bid for rebuilding … And we are going to rebuild it. And then in the interim, we have those emission control barges coming in. We have two of them working on our ships.”

Decas says the goal for the Port is to generate zero emissions by 2030: “There's a tremendous effort to have … our goal … be zero emissions by 2030. We got a $43 million grant from the EPA to convert 95% of our equipment to zero-emission technology. We can plug in all those new cranes I was telling you about. So, there is a commitment to the environment. There is a commitment to community.”

Port of Hueneme’s Economic Impact

The Port moves $16.1 billion in goods each year and consistently ranks among the top ten U.S. ports for automobiles and fresh produce. Port operations support the community by bringing $2.8 billion in economic activity and creating 25,000 trade-related jobs, of which approximately 3,500 are direct jobs. Trade through the Port of Hueneme generates more than $236 million in direct and related state and local taxes, which fund vital community services.