Retired Brigadier General Joseph Schroedel urged attendees at the “Strategies for Storms, Flooding and Sea Level Defense Investments” conference to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mission to upgrade the nation’s flood control and waterways infrastructure. Schroedel also urged support for budgetary increases in the next Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) which funds USACE projects.

The WRDA passed in 2020 included key provisions to invest in U.S. ports, harbors and inland waterways; build more resilient communities so that  the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can build projects in an economically and environmentally responsible manner.

Schroedel is currently the executive director of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) and was introduced by Arvind Acharya, president of the San Francisco District of SAME. The conference took place on April 13th via Zoom  and was a collaboration between the Propeller Club of Northern California and SAME.

John Cullather, executive vice president of International Propeller Club of the United States, commended Pete DeFazio, chair of the House, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee which spearheaded bi-partisan passage of the WRDA 2020. DeFazio will be an important champion for President Biden’s infrastructure bill, Cullather said.

Many conference presenters argued that the infrastructure bill must incorporate investments for resiliency and sea level defenses for coastal and inland communities as well as U.S. ports.

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PMSA’s Jacob Warns Oakland A’s Howard Terminal Ballpark and Condos Pose “Long-Term Threat” to Port of Oakland Maritime Operations

Mike Jacob, vice president and general counsel, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA), called the recently-released City of Oakland draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) analyzing the Oakland A’s proposed ballpark and condominium complex at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal “inadequate.”

Jacob said the report was vague in its analysis of the complex’s impact on harbor trucking, air quality and container rail movements.

Jacob warned that, if approved, the A’s project poses “a long-term threat to growth at the Port of Oakland.”

Nevertheless, the City of Oakland is moving forward with approving the complex at a time when the Port of Oakland:

• Attracted new container ship business from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
• Attracted it first port of call ocean carrier service from Asia with CMA
• Is the only the third port in the United States to handle 18,000 twenty-foot unit mega-container ships
• Is installing new mega-container ship to shore cranes at the Oakland International Container Terminal built in China by ZPMC. 

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The decision by French ocean carrier CMA CGM to make the Port of Oakland its first port of call in a new service from Asia is a reflection of importers and exporters developing new markets closer to their customers: “First-call status demonstrates the market is viewing the Port of Oakland more strategically which will attract increased cargo volumes,” says GSC Logistics Harbor Trucking President Dave Arsenault.

CMA CGM First Port Of Call

In an interview, Arsenault who took over as GSC president in January, told AJOT: “We’re already hearing from customers who are requesting to expand our existing partnerships in order to accommodate increased cargo volumes scheduled to arrive on those ships.”

Arsenault spent more than a decade with Charlotte, NC-based Sea-Land Service and also served as president and chief executive officer of Hyundai Merchant Marine (America).

GSC Logistics said it transported an all-time record number of containers last year from ports in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. It anticipates significant growth in 2021, indicating that trade dynamics favor its home market in Northern California.

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Ed Denike, president SSA Containers, said that ocean carriers tell him that vessel congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is likely to continue until March.

Denike, who spoke to the Propeller Club of Northern California via Zoom on January 12th, explained that congestion delays have seen as many as 40 ships waiting to be unloaded that amounts to a 7-8 wait per vessel.

Causes of Congestion

The primary reason is the large increase in container ships arriving at the two Southern California ports: “There has been an unprecedented increase in container ship traffic going to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

The delays and back-ups of ships waiting to enter the two ports comes at a time when there has been a 10% reduction in longshore workers showing up for work related to the COVID virus and a parallel delay unloading import containers at California warehouses due to a reduction of workers also related to the virus.

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