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California port named the nation’s leading ''international gateway''

LOS ANGELES - 01/07/05 - The Port of Los Angeles is the nation's top international freight "gateway" in 2003, based on figures released in a new report published by the US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
 
According to the report - America's Freight Transportation Gateways - the port handled $122 billion in total volume during the year with exports valued at $17 billion and imports worth $105 billion during the year moving through its terminal facilities.

The dollar value of the port's total amounted to $10 billion more than that generated by New York's JFK International Airport, which had held the number one spot since 1999 and has dropped to second place. 

The Great Lakes port of Detroit ranked second on the list at $102 billion, while the Port of New York/New Jersey did $101 billion in import/export business during 2003.

The Port of Long Beach, which abuts the 7,500-acre Port of Los Angeles (POLA) on Southern California's San Pedro Bay saw $96 billion in business and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) ranked seventh with $64 billion.

The port, which had 2,845 vessel "calls" in 2003, handled 6.7 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent containers) in 2003 in addition to a total of 147.5 million metric revenue tons (MMRT) of cargo.

The MMRT total was divided between 131.9 million tons of "general dry" cargo, 10.6 million tons of liquid bulk cargo (mainly petroleum products, petrochemicals, caustic soda, and vegetable oils) and 4.2 million tons of dry bulk cargo such as coal, petroleum coke, sulphur, grain, and fertilizer, according to the Virginia-headquartered American Association of Port Authorities.

The America's Freight Transportation Gateways report will be released later this month. Information on the complete report is available at www.bts.gov.

Last month, POLA signed a sister port agreement with Puerto Valparaiso, Chile, marking its first such agreement with a South American port. It currently maintains an international marketing office in the Chilean capital of Santiago since 1995.

Chile is the world's leading exporter of fresh "winter fruit" - mainly plums, nectarines, and grapes - with Los Angeles handling more Chilean-grown fruit than any other US West Coast port.
 
In 2003, the Port of Los Angeles received 253,533 tons of fresh fruit from Chile, a 9.7% increase of 22,508 tons compared to the 2002 calendar year total.
 
POLA handles all West Coast-bound Chilean avocado exports - approximately 65,000 pallets, or 228 million avocados annually - as well as more than 113,000 tons of imported fresh grapes.
 
In addition to Santiago, the port currently holds sister and friendship port agreements with 15 different ports around the world including Guangzhou, Nagoya, Keelung, and Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.

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