MSC’s Long Beach Terminal Hosts White House Envoy for Tour of Container Dispersal Measures

Total Terminals International (TTI) Long Beach Terminal, hosted a tour by the Port Envoy to the Biden-⁠Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force John D. Porcari on 16 November.

Joined by International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), International President Willie Adams, port leadership, local legislators and elected officials, Port Envoy Porcari visited the terminal to assess the ongoing work to address the global supply chain crisis and highlight policies to help ease congestion and alleviate backlogs.

The following day, 17 November, TTI Long Beach was once again selected to host California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press event, given the terminal’s willingness to support the 24-hour port opening promoted by the Biden-Harris Administration in October. In fact, TTI Long Beach Terminal was the first terminal in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area to operate all through the night, back in September.

The Governor thanked the collective work of California and its partners for the swift action taken across the board to address congestion and increase capacity to move goods quickly, stressing the cooperation of both the public and private sectors – from the Federal government, to the ports, the workforce, the retailers, and the shipping lines – for the additional commitments made to tackle the backlog.

The two California ports form the main gateway for goods into the U.S. economy and have been heavily congested during the global supply chain crunch, due to a combination of record volumes, full warehouses, and shortage in chassis and truck availability.

The congestion issues throughout the supply chain have cascaded down into longer waiting times for vessels arriving in the San Pedro Bay before they can be handled, creating significant inefficiencies, and destroying some of the extra vessel capacity that carriers have deployed to support the volume surge.

In response to the supply chain crisis, MSC has increased its ocean fleet capacity by 22% since Q3 2019, as well as adding 11 new mainline trade services and expanding its rail offering in some parts of the world.

MSC’s direct investments through TiL (Terminal Investment Ltd) in port infrastructure have helped to develop the required handling capacity and to allow an active intervention in times of crisis. There has also been proactive work with the port community on initiatives to reduce the dwell time of containers, introducing flexible night gates, buying extra terminal handling equipment to reduce the truck turnaround time, and working with other marine terminal operators to amend PierPass to a system that incentivizes truck traffic in off-peak windows.

TiL is one of the world’s most geographically diverse container terminal investor-operators and the third biggest container terminal operator in the U.S., with an investment portfolio across five continents. TTI is 80% owned by TiL, which is in turn majority-owned by MSC.