Long Beach Port Reached Historic Volume | What’s Happening Now?

Los Angeles ports had record imports in 2025. Is this trend going to continue in 2026, and how is it going to impact the Southern California's economy? Our guest today is Noel Hasegawa, who's the CEO of Long Beach Port. He's here to tell us where the investments of the port going into the supply chain system, and in the long run, how would the import-export look like? If we don't step up our game, if we don't continue to invest in our infrastructure, if we don't find ways to reduce transit time, then some of that cargo may leave. That's the reason why 2050, our new vision, is so important. I'm Siamak. Welcome to California Insider. Noel, it's great to have you back on. Welcome back. Thank you so much. Always a pleasure to join you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming, and we want to talk to you about important issues in California. One of them is the supply chain. We are hearing that there's issues with trucking and the supply chain, and the state is facing challenges. You're sitting in a very important position at the port of Long Beach, which you have a lot of volume of cargo coming in. Can you tell us what you're seeing right now? As a matter of fact, in 2025, we set an all-time record for cargo volumes, 9.9 million TEUs, and the story there is all the front-loading that the shippers employed in an effort to try to get ahead of new tariffs catapulted us to a record year. But that should not overlook the fact that there are certain segments in the supply chain that have struggled because of the trade policies and because of the tariffs. For example, you mentioned trucking. That industry has been in what they themselves call a freight recession since 2022. What happened there is during the supply chain crisis, when there was a dearth of capacity, a lot of companies rushed to meet that growing demand for truck capacity. When volumes changed, then all that capacity was no longer needed. Unfortunately, that segment of the supply chain has been impacted and has been, you could say, disproportionately impacted as a result of recent shifts in trade policy and tariffs. We're very well aware of that. We need motor power. We need motor carriers. We need drayage providers that pull those containers out of the port into the Southern California region and beyond. Just to give you an example, the reason they're so important is right now, the ratio between truck and train is about 75% to 25%. 75% truck. Yes. Three quarters of all the containers that arrive into our port leave the port complex on a truck. That's an important segment of the supply chain that unfortunately has been severely impacted by the shifts in trade policies and the tariffs. You are seeing a lot of growth in your port, right? This is applying to the LA port as well, right? Yes. The Southern California port complex, what is known as a San Pedro Bay ports complex comprised of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, we are the nation's largest gateway. We account for approximately 40% of all waterborne imports. Forty percent. Forty percent. That's almost half. Together, we handle about 20 million container units a year, which is a staggering number. I would add without any congestion backlogs or delays. Where do you think things are headed for this industry of logistics in California? That's a big question, right? 2025 in many ways was unusual. Earlier in the year, there was a lot of doom and gloom predictions about what might happen to the economy, what might happen to cargo volumes vis-a-vis liberation day and all the announced tariffs. But in the end, we actually ended up experiencing the opposite with 9.9 million TUs, a record year for us. I think 2026 is going to be another busy year. We may not have another record year, but we will be busy nonetheless. We're projecting that we'll end up with one of our top five years of all time. And again, that's a testament to the resilience of not just the shippers, but the global supply chain and the resilience of the American consumer who continues to buy, even in the face of uncertainty. From what you're seeing, do you think things will get resolved for the trucking space? Or do you think it will take time? I hope so. I hope so. It's a very important segment of the supply chain. We need our drainage providers and the trucking companies. They are vital partners. In fact, in recent years, we've been investing in tools to make their operations more efficient, make it easier for them to access appointments at our different terminals. We're using our newest digital tool called CargoNav, which is enabling our truck providers and our marine terminal operators to offer a universal truck appointment system. Right now, each trucking company has to go to each individual marine terminal operator to book an appointment. With CargoNav, they'll have the ability to book appointments across the entire port complex in Long Beach, and eventually the port of Los Angeles as well. And that's going to make life a lot easier for them, make the booking of appointments easier for them. It will also give predictability to the marine terminal operators. So we are very concerned about that segment because they're so vital to our operation, and we're doing everything that we can to support them through this uncertain time. And there's another element that cargo theft that we've been covering on the show, that truckers are getting tricked to go and pick up cargo, or shippers are getting tricked, and there's hacking, and there's valuable cargoes. Can you tell us what you are saying on this? Yeah, so cargo theft is something that's been emerging in recent years. Thankfully, it's not something that happens inside the port environment. As you can imagine, the port environment is extremely secure. The cargo theft activity happens outside the port. That being the case, disruption anywhere in the global supply chain threatens the entire supply chain. It threatens certainty. It threatens predictability. And so we've been working very closely with all of the authorities at the local, state, and federal level to do our part to ensure that we're putting all the resources to use to mitigate it, to prevent it, and to work with all of our partners to make sure that if it does happen anywhere in the supply chain, it's immediately addressed. There's some legislation at the federal level, for example. It's currently making its way through the House of Representatives. It's known as CORCA. And this legislation, among other things, establishes a multi-jurisdictional task force to address crime rings and the use of cartels, for example, to employ cargo theft. So this is at the highest levels of the government. They're very much aware of this and how important it is for ports like ours to give shippers the peace of mind that this issue is being addressed. We ourselves, just in the last year, have convened summits and forums bringing all the stakeholders together so that we can share information, share best practices, and draw attention to this very important topic. In terms of your role at the port, you're now the CEO of Port of Long Beach. And when we met first time, you actually, it was in the middle of the crisis. Yes. Now you have record volume. What's happening at the port? What have you guys done to improve the way you guys process things? Well, we've learned a lot. We've learned to work better together. I think there's better coordination and communication across the different segments. I'm talking about the ships, the trucks, the trains, the marine terminal operators. Our workforce every day steps up, setting all sorts of records each day. We've also invested in infrastructure. Infrastructure has enabled us to move more cargo more efficiently, safely, reliably, and sustainably. And as part of that, we're also investing in systems and digital infrastructure that makes visibility better and puts actionable data in the hands of our partners and customers so that they can also maximize their operations. So I think we've all learned to work better together. What I call the secret sauce in our ability to handle record volumes without 109 ships at anchor. I think when you and I first met, that was my biggest headache is how are you going to get those 109 ships at anchor to berth and get all those containers to charge? It cut across counties. It was incredible, right? But I'm just so proud of how the entire supply chain came together and how we as a port authority, with the support of the White House at the time and the state of California, how we all came together and we figured it out. And we never shut down our port a single day. Our dock workers showed up, they masked up during the pandemic and we moved those containers. And that's why I like to borrow a quote from John Maxwell quite a bit. Teamwork makes the dream work. And it's the teamwork that has put us in a position to handle all these record volumes so well. You had some accidents in your port, and then there was another one. There was a fire in the LA port. Can you tell us about that? There were a couple incidents that you're referring to. One happened within the Port of Long Beach at one of our terminals, Pier G. There was a ship that was at berth, and it was what I would call a once-in-a-lifetime mishap. And we still don't understand how it happened. It's all under investigation currently, and we're going to let the investigation take its course, of course. But there were just shy of 100 containers that were dislodged and fell off the ship, some on the water, some on the dock. I'm just so grateful and just thank God that there were no casualties, there was no impact to human life. I can tell you that when I received the text and I received that image on my phone, my heart sank because immediately I thought of the workers who would have been aboard the ship or who would have been there. But thank God those containers collapsed and there was no impact to human life. But you know, to me, what that signals is how important it is for a port like ours to be resilient, to be safe. I mean, the first responders, the Coast Guard, the Fire Department, Police Department, the Marine Terminal Operator, the ILW workforce, everyone, everyone swung into action immediately. Within three weeks, that ship was removed. And so that just shows you how vital it is to be resilient. The other incident that you referenced happened at a terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. And that's where in November, a ship caught on fire. And again, thank God, there was no impact to human life. All of our first responders, they all came together. And again, thankfully, they were able to move that ship out of the berth at anchor. And that's a testament to the resilience that we've all been able to develop and build over the years, coming together to make sure that we respond immediately to these incidents. And I can tell you that there will be many lessons learned from both incidents once these investigations are concluded about how we can prepare, how we can mitigate, how we can prevent in the future. How closely do you work with the Port of LA? Because you guys are both, this is two strategic assets for California. You know, we work very closely together. If you look at a map for one port complex, and there's a political boundary that separates us, but we have to work together and we do work together. In fact, when it comes to environmental sustainability, the two ports are celebrating this year, 2026, the 20th anniversary of our groundbreaking cleaner action plan. We are the cleanest ports on the planet because we've been at it for 20 years. And when it comes to environmental sustainability, reducing emissions, decarbonizing the industry, doing our part to do that, we're joined at the hip. Just last November, we also collaborated with the Port of Los Angeles and with all of our stakeholders to reach a cooperative agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which was a huge, huge victory for the ports because this enables us to reduce emissions on the basis of an agreement that begins with developing an infrastructure plan that will put our ports on a path to decarbonize and reduce emissions from operations. And these are just two examples among many. I mean, during the supply chain crisis, we collaborated with the Port of Los Angeles to advocate for funding, for our infrastructure, for our port operations, and we were very successful. So that level of collaboration is very important, and it's especially important when it comes to safety and security. And the incidents that you mentioned earlier are two examples of how we came together, we provided mutual aid, and we worked hand in hand to respond to these incidents. And Nual, in terms of the economy changing and some manufacturing will come back to the U.S., is there a way for California to compete for these manufacturing jobs, given that we have these ports right here? I think California, one of the reasons it's the golden state, the fourth largest economy in the world, is because of our ports. And I'm not just referring to the ports of LA and Long Beach, but all the ports. I happen to have the honor currently of serving as the president of the California Association of Port Authorities. All California ports together, we handle over half of the country's waterborne imports. So we are vital to the states and to the nation's economy. And I think having major gateways and major ports like ours here in California is a huge advantage for California to compete for manufacturing. If you think about it, U.S. manufacturing requires machinery, parts, supplies, components, and to have a series of ports along the coastline to support manufacturing anywhere in the state, whether it's Northern California, Central California, Southern California, is a huge advantage. It reduces transit time. It brings all these important parts and supplies and machinery closer to the manufacturer more quickly. So I think that our ports are actually one reason why California is so successful financially, and one of the reasons why it puts California in a great position to grow in the area of manufacturing. In terms of this infrastructure, how much value do you guys have for the economy of Southern California and California in general? When you look at the Port of Long Beach alone, we generate one out of 17 jobs in Southern California. That's about 700,000 jobs. Across the nation, that's 2.7 million. But when you add up all the ports across the state of California, you're talking about millions of jobs that depend on our ports, that depend on port activity. So it's the tracking. Yes. Does it consider the retailers as well, or is it the people that are touching the cargo? Yeah, I'm referring just to the movement of cargo, right? So any touchpoint along the voyage of that container, from the time it arrives to the time it reaches destination, we're talking about the dock workers at the marine terminals, talking about the ship crew, the rail operators, the motor carriers, the warehouse workers, the distribution centers, the chassis providers, all those jobs that are required to move those containers from point A to point B are generated and counted as port activity. And that's about six percent of the jobs from what you're saying, one in 17. Yes, I mean it's massive. In California, just Port of Long Beach alone, that's over 1 million jobs in the state of California. And that's 2.7 million jobs across the United States. So again, massive, massive numbers. Even more massive numbers when you count all the ports in California. So we are definitely important assets, massive economic engines. We support the goal in state. And I think we put the state in a great position for more economic opportunities, especially in the area of manufacturing. Do you see growth? How do you see the economy in your position? When you look at the key economic metrics that we all track to get a sense of the health of the rural economy, you look at the unemployment rate, it's hovering around four percent. You look at inflation, it's reaching adequate levels. You look at the interest rates and the actions that the Federal Reserve has taken just in the last year, three consecutive quarter basis point reductions. They're all trending in the right direction. Consumer spending is still positive, not by a large margin, but still positive. Some would argue that's because the high income earners are still spending on experiences and travel. And some would argue that this is a low hire, low fire environment. Everyone's taking a wait and see approach. There's a K-shaped economy. Having said all of that, what we see on the ground at our port is that those containers continue to come. And as long as demand is there, as long as businesses are still investing, as long as consumers are still buying, those containers will continue coming. And that's why I like to say that goods movement is literally the economy in motion. Noel, you're very passionate about logistics. How did you get into this? And grateful and honored to have this opportunity. You know, like many people in our industry, I fell into it. This is a story. I was working in the private sector and I attended a luncheon representing my company at the time. And the function was called the state of the port. And I had purchased my ticket in advance, went to the venue, checked in, got my seating assignment. I went to the table I was assigned to and every seat was taken. So either someone stole my seat or there was a mishap. So what I did is I said, well, no, no, no problem. I'll just find another seat. And the only table that had seats open at the time was a table furthest away from the podium, right next to the exit doors. And I said, this is perfect. I can excuse myself if I have to leave a little early. So I take a seat. Low and behold, I ended up sitting right next to the human resources director at the Port of Long Beach. And we must've chatted for about five minutes. We exchanged business cards and I did have to leave a little early. When I excused myself, I, you know, said goodbye to her. And she says, can I have another one of your business cards? I said, sure. Gave her another business card. And I excused myself. Two weeks later in my mailbox at my work office, I received a job bulletin and to make a long story short, I applied for it. And that's how I ended up at the port. That was my very first job at the port. And this is why I'm so passionate about the because jobs and careers like these shouldn't be the result of what I call providence, what some people would call luck, but we should make these jobs and careers available to our youth. And this is why at the Port of Long Beach, we are a leader in introducing youth, high school students, college students to careers in goods moving, because these are great careers. And as we build the port of the future, we need to train and equip the workforce of the future. What is it like now that you're leading the organization? This is a very big organization with billions of dollars of investments that you're overseeing. It's a great honor. To me, this is another form of service. I'm serving, certainly I'm serving my port, my city, our state, our nation, had the great honor of representing our city, our state, and our country at the World Economic Forum recently on the global stage, the only U.S. port that was there. What an honor. But the thing that really energizes me and excites me is to be able to work with our team. And this new vision that I unveiled earlier this year, 2050, 20 million TEUs by 2050 has got our team inside the port and all our stakeholders so excited and so pumped up. I'm using a lot of football metaphors that really has a lot of our teammates energized. And I'm really, really excited about what's ahead of us. Our port's been around for about 115 years, and we are at an inflection point. And I see it as my job to shift trajectories and put us on a path to succeed. And I'm very excited about this new vision. I think that that new goal line is going to give us all that vision we need to rally around and do what we have to do to put our port in the best position to succeed, and more importantly, support our city, our state, and our nation. So you want to double the volume of the port by 2050? That's correct. And there will be an economic impact for California? Absolutely. So if you think about what our economic impact today, it's over 1 million jobs just for the state of California. So if we double our throughput, we're going to double our economic impact. And this is why coming into this role as CEO, I wanted to do three things. I wanted to clarify our vision, I wanted to simplify our mission, and I wanted us to amplify our impact. And when I talk about amplify our impact, it's exactly that. It's making sure that we're creating more jobs, good-paying jobs, life-forming jobs, making sure we're supporting businesses, business activity, economic activity. And I'm so passionate about that because I know how much our port means to small businesses, how much our port means to our city, to our state, to the nation, and how many jobs rely on us. In a sense, you could say that our job is to make sure 2.7 million people keep theirs. What do you need from the federal officials and state officials, the community? We actually have a lot of people watch our show nationally and on the state level. What do you need from the community and the state and federal officials to achieve what you want to achieve? I'm so glad you asked the question. Ports today are a little more known than we were before the supply chain crisis. During the supply chain crisis, I like to say we went from being invisible to being infamous because people were blaming us. Where's my appliance? Where's my furniture? And all of a sudden we became important. And the federal government, the state government stepped in a big way. They invested billions of dollars in ports like ours to support our infrastructure projects and to help us in our transition to a more sustainable port operation. So what could our government leaders do to support us? Policies that help the flow of cargo move more efficiently, more reliably, more safely. For example, we're currently partnering with the Deep Draft Navigation Project that will improve energy security, national security, and navigational safety. We're also the recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to support our pure beyond dock rail support facility. This is going to triple our on dock capability because rail is the key to our future. If you think about it, as a port, in order for us to remain relevant and be competitive in the years ahead, speed to market is a key to our success and rail connectivity is a key to our future. So investments in infrastructure, connectivity, policies that provide clarity and certainty, these are ways that both legislators, policymakers at the state and federal level can help ports like ours thrive. And here's the thing, an investment in a port like ours is an investment in the US economy because we create 2.7 million jobs across the United States, over 1 million jobs across California. So we are worthy of being invested in and we're so proud to have their support. And when there is investment in a port like yours, does that show up in productivity increases? How does that create an impact? Absolutely. So investments in infrastructure don't just expand our capacity. What they do is that they make us more resilient. They make us more efficient. They enable us to move more cargo containers more quickly, safely, and sustainably. I keep mentioning rail. Rail connectivity is so important for us. Why? Because if you look at a map, we are located on one end of the country, Southern California, but two-thirds of the containers that arrive at the Port of Long Beach end up east of the Mississippi. So the only way we can remain competitive in the future is if we find ways to move more containers more quickly, more reliably, to east of the Mississippi, to these key inland markets, whether it's Memphis, Kansas City, Chicago, Dallas. And so our ability to invest in our infrastructure and move more containers via rail is a key to our success. Do you see a lot of competition from other ports across the country? We do. There are other gateways across the country that have invested in their infrastructure and also the rail connectivity in recent years. But for the most part, we all serve different markets. Here in Southern California, we are in the Trans-Pacific. 90% of our business is with Asian countries. And so a lot of the other gateways, whether it's the Gulf Coast or the East Coast, they serve other markets. If we don't step up our game, if we don't continue to invest in our infrastructure, if we don't find ways to reduce transit time and find ways to move cargo more quickly, sustainably, and reliably, then some of that cargo may leave. That's the reason why 2050, our new vision, is so important. I want to put our port on a trajectory to double our container throughput by 2050. And in the process, you know what we're going to do? We're going to build the port of the future. A port that's faster, safer, more resilient, and more sustainable. In terms of the rail investment, you mentioned that. Who should do that? Is it across different states? Is it private companies? Is it the federal government? So our piece of that is within our jurisdiction. So this Pier B on-dock rail support facility, what we're doing is we're literally building the largest in-port rail yard in the country, possibly the world. We're going to be able to move nearly 5 million containers on a train right out of our port to all these key markets. No one else is doing that. What the class one railroads are doing, they're keeping a close eye on our investments and they're asking themselves how can we leverage the investments at the port of Long Beach to make their operations more effective and more efficient. So you look at some of the recent developments in the railroad industry. BNSF Railway, they're building out Barstow International Gateway. That 4,000-acre site is going to help us at the port of Long Beach maximize the advantages and the velocity of our Pier B project. Union Pacific and their proposed merger with Norfolk Southern, the first transcontinental railroad. We believe that a lot of these strategic moves and decisions made by the class ones are in some ways catalyzed by the investments we're making here at the port of Long Beach. And again, this is so important for the nation's transportation system, but equally important for the nation's economy because goods movement is literally the economy in motion. Noel Hatagaba, CEO of Port of Long Beach, it was great to have you back on California Insider. Thank you so much. My pleasure. What do you think of this conversation with Noel and California ports in general and the role they play in our economy? You can always email us at siamakacaliforniansider.com or comment. We read all of your emails and comments. I'm Siamak Khorrami. This is California Insider. We'll see you next time.