L.A. & Long Beach Ports Losing To Rivals

The modern demand for goods has consumers expecting shipments faster and faster, which has led to congestion at the SoCal ports, especially compounded with the average ship size being three times larger than 10 years ago. This congestion, combined with recent labor strife and the inability to keep up with overall demand has meant that ships are being rerouted to east coast ports and then trucked across the country in order to keep up with consumer demand.

East Coast and Gulf Coast ports have deepened their ports in recent years in order to prepare for the post Panamax era. They are seeing benefits for deep dredging faster, as ships are rerouted east.