Port of Long Beach, United States

The Port of Long Beach is also located in the west coast state of California and just a stone’s throw away from the Port of Los Angeles, which is also in San Pedro’s Bay.The seaport generates approximately $100 billion per year in trade and employs more than 316,000 people in Southern California.

The San Pedro Breakwater was started in 1899 and over time was expanded to protect the current site of the Port of Long Beach. The Port of Long Beach was founded on 800 acres of mudflats on June 24, 1911, at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. In 1917, the first Board of Harbor Commissioners was formed to supervise harbor operations. Due to the booming economy, Long Beach voters approved a $5 million bond to improve the inner and outer harbor in 1924.

The San Pedro Breakwater was started in 1899 and over time was expanded to protect the current site of the Port of Long Beach. The Port of Long Beach was founded on 800 acres (3.2 km2) of mudflats on June 24, 1911, at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. In 1917, the first Board of Harbor Commissioners was formed to supervise harbor operations. Due to the booming economy, Long Beach voters approved a $5 million bond to improve the inner and outer harbor in 1924.




The old Municipal Pier was rebuilt into the Municipal Wharf in 1925. In 1925 construction started on Pier A and Pier B, with opening of Pier A in 1930.




By 1926 more than one million tons of cargo were handled, and additional piers were constructed to accommodate the growing business.




In 1921, oil was discovered at the Long Beach Oil Field on and around Signal Hill. In 1932, the fourth-largest oil field in the United States, Wilmington Oil Field, was discovered; much of this field was underneath Long Beach and the harbor area itself. The hundreds of oil wells from Wilmington Oil Field provided oil revenues to the City and Port of Long Beach. The first offshore oil well in the harbor was brought online in 1937, shortly after the discovery that the oil field far extended into the harbor. In the mid-1930s, the port was expanded, largely due to the need to transport oil to foreign markets, as the immense output of oil from the Los Angeles Basin caused a glut in US markets.




The extraction of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil caused concern for subsidence, as the overlying land collapsed into the empty space over time. Engineers and geologists were promptly assigned to the problem, building dikes for flood control at high tide.




On July 3, 1930 the Federal River and Harbor Act authorizes expanding the San Pedro Bay breakwater by 3.5-mile completed in 1949.




Long Beach became a home port for the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet in 1932. In 1940 the navy purchased 105 acres on Terminal Island built the Long Beach Naval Shipyard there.




The first bridge linking the eastern end of Terminal Island and Long Beach across the Back Channel was an unnamed "temporary" pontoon bridge constructed during World War II to accommodate traffic resulting from the expansion of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. In 1968, it was replaced by the Gerald Desmond Bridge.




In 1946, after World War II, the Port of Long Beach was established as "America’s most modern port" with the completion of the first of nine clear-span transit sheds. Pier E was completed and Pier B was expanded to two times its size in 1949. Pierpoint Landing completed on Pier F in 1948, becoming a large sport fishing spot.




Concerns regarding subsidence increased until Operation "Big Squirt," a water injection program, halted any progression of sinking land in 1960.

In 1971 Pier J expansion is complete with a 55-acre container and car import terminal, becoming Toyota's Western distribution center. In 1972 International Transportation Service completes a 52-acre container terminal on Pier J with a 1,200-foot wharf and two gantry cranes. Maersk Line Pacific completes on Pier G a 29-acre container terminal. Port of Long Beach is the largest container terminal in America.




With the rapid expansion of the port, pollution also increased. The Port of Long Beach instituted programs to prevent and control oil spills, contain debris, and manage vessel traffic. Due to its efforts, the port was awarded the American Association of Port Authorities Environmental "E" Award. Long Beach is the first harbor in the Western Hemisphere to receive such an award.




In 1979, with improved relations between the United States and China, the port sent officials to the People’s Republic of China for the first time. Less than a year later, the China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO) inaugurated international shipping and designated Long Beach as its first US port of call. Relationships were forged with other international powers, and South Korea's Hanjin Shipping opened a 57-acre (230,000 m2) container terminal on Pier C of the port in 1991. Following this, COSCO, secured business with the Port of Long Beach in 1997.







Intermodal freight transport ship-to-rail transfer of containerized cargos at the Port of Long Beach

From the late 1990s through 2011, the Port of Long Beach saw increased traffic and growth with the leasing of terminals. In 1997, approximately one million containers were inbound to the port. By 2005, this number had tripled to nearly 3.3 million containers. If outbound containers are included, then the number increased from 3 million containers in 1997 to nearly 6.7 million containers in 2005.




In 2001 U.S. Navy closed its footprint at Port of Long Beach, the Navy transfers it last lot of land on Terminal Island to the Port of Long Beach. The shipyard was closed in 1997.




The surge in vessel traffic and cargo prompted increased environmental efforts by the port. In 2004, the Port of Long Beach reached compliance with an air pollution mandate by handling petroleum coke, one of the port's largest exports, in improved ways. By using enclosed conveyors and covered storage areas, the port reduced the amount of dust emitted by the petroleum coke by 5%, down 21% in 1997.




In 2007, the seaport launched banned older diesel trucks from serving the port. On October 1, 2011, the Clean Trucks Program was launched by the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The program set a goal to reduce air pollution from its truck fleet by 80% by 2012. Trucks built prior to 1987 that fail to meet the 2007 clean truck standards set forth by the United States Environmental Protection Agency are denied access to port terminals. In compliance with the clean truck initiative on October 1, all trucking companies conducting business with the port must have a port-approved concession outlining the regulations they must abide by. By September 23, 2011, nearly 500 trucking companies had applied for concessions, amounting to more than 6,000 trucks.







A south looking view of the Port of Long Beach with Santa Catalina Island in the background.

In 2012 International Longshore and Warehouse Union went on strike, that closed down the ports of and Long Beach and Los Angeles. The eight-day strike cost California about $8 billion. Ships were backed up into the pacific ocean. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service helped end the strike. The strike impacted retailers getting ready for the holiday sales.




In April 2019, COSCO Shipping-owned Orient Overseas (International) Limited announced that it would sell their Long Beach Container Terminal business to a consortium led by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for $1.78 billion. The federal government demanded the sale of the terminal after a 2018 review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.




A decision in 2020 by the California Public Utilities Commission allowed building a fuel cell plant at the port to move ahead. The joint venture by Toyota and FuelCell Energy would produce power and hydrogen from natural gas.




In 2021, the port had issues processing container ships. 86 container ships had to wait outside the port.