In an interview with AJOT, Elaine Forbes, executive director, Port of San Francisco said the Port could be facing up to an $80 million deficit by the end of 2021. She is hopeful about an economic rebound in 2022 and that $250 million designated by the State of California for ports’ recovery might be partially utilized to reduce Port losses suffered during the pandemic.

Earlier this month, Forbes told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors: “The Port is in a crisis. We have cut our capital budget to below life support. We’ve used our savings and we will be facing layoffs of essential employees without support and tools to right our ship. Our revenues have fallen nearly 50% for a total loss of $60 million and a projected $80 million over the next two years.”

Since then, Forbes said that California Governor Gavin Newsom has decided to allocate $250 million for California ports recovery. The funds come from the $26 billion California received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

Forbes noted that the funding for ports must first be approved by the California Legislature and then meet the approval of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). The office will decide on final allocations: “The Port of San Diego is facing similar problems that we are. Other ports may also seek assistance,” she said.

As a result, “we are looking at the end of the year before we can get relief. In the meantime, we might be able to obtain a $20 million loan from the City of San Francisco to tide us over and avoid having to make draconian cuts in staff and Port operations.”

Forbes said that the loss of cruise ship revenue hurt the Port’s revenues during the pandemic. Rent payments have also plummeted from the Port’s tenants. The Port forgave about $14 million in rent for 225 tenants during the ‘shelter in place’ mandates that included restaurants and other businesses shutting down during the COVID crisis. The Port has also deferred collecting tens of millions of dollars in rent from others. Parking revenue has also declined.

Read Entire Article

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. 

Read Entire Article

Jim McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), reported that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have seen the highest number of COVID cases among U.S. West Coast ports and that thirteen longshore workers have so far died.

McKenna, who spoke to the Propeller Club of Northern California on February 2nd, said that approximately half of the current 855 COVID cases afflicting longshore workers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had occurred since January 1st.

McKenna reported that there have been 74 COVID cases in Northern California including two longshore worker deaths and 110 cases at ports in Oregon and Washington with no deaths.

McKenna said “we mourn this loss of life and are working with the ILWU to constantly provide the best protection for our workforce so that they can continue to do the vital job that they do to support the U.S. supply chain.”

McKenna said that the State of California had elevated the importance of longshore workers as essential to receive COVID vaccines, but at the moment no vaccines are available.

To assist longshore workers who become ill, the ILWU and the PMA have established two web portals. One portal allows longshore workers to report positive and negative tests of the virus and a second portal allows longshore workers, who have been taken ill by the virus, to be compensated during their convalescence.

Read entire article

The Texas Legislature will be asked to approve a $26 billion coastal defense network, including $12 billion for storm surge gates to protect Galveston Bay and the Port of Houston from hurricanes and storm surges, according to Tony Williams, environmental review coordinator for the Texas General Land Office.

Williams was addressing the first day of the Storms, Flooding and Sea Level Defense 2020 conference produced by the Propeller Club of Northern California and the Society of American Military Engineers which took place on Zoom on November 18th.

Read entire article

A Mercator study commissioned by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) warns that high U.S. rail costs and other factors could cause U.S. West Coast (USWC) ports to lose between 15% to 45% of intermodal import business to British Columbia (BC) ports by 2030.

The report says 15% of “Intact Intermodal import volumes” could be lost by 2022 and over “45% of the USWC’s current intact intermodal import traffic is at risk of diversion to BC ports over the balance of this decade.”

Read entire article

Popular Pioneer Seafoods is netting long lines at the Port of Redwood City.

Previously operating out of San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf, the business that prides itself on catching high-quality seafood in sustainable fashion was forced to shut down and relocate due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new Redwood City location features a rolling fish market and restaurant. Customers can select from over 40 different types of fresh local fish as well as purchase food such as fish and chips from the rolling restaurant. The rolling restaurant is open from noon to 6 p.m., six days a week. Fresh fish can be purchased on the weekends depending on weather conditions.

Read entire article