The Benjamin Franklin’s first visit to North America was at the end of December 2015, at the Port of Los Angeles, when it was a brand-new ship.
It has a container capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), or 9,000 40-foot-long boxes, but, when the $1.3-billion Middle Harbor terminal is fully completed in 2020, that facility will be able to handle 24,000-TEU ships, as well as move 3.3 million TEUs a year, according to Lee Peterson, media-relations lead for the Port of Long Beach.
“When Middle Harbor is completed in 2020, that’s when [the port] is completing that third berth, down at the end, where there’s just the old terminal and some water right now,” Peterson said in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune. “But, in 2020, that will be the third berth, and that berth will be able to handle up to 24,000-TEU ships.”
Peterson said the new terminal will open in spring of this year but it will undergo a transitional period.
“Because of the way it was built in phases, we were able to build the first phase, and now is the time when, over the next many months, Long Beach Container Terminal will transition from their old terminal into their new one,” Peterson said, likening the adjustment period to moving into a new apartment, when a tenant has a brief grace period during which their old residence is still available to them. “They’ll be able to move over to their brand-new one, get established there, get everything up and running, still operating the old one until the end of this year, before they’re completely moved out of there.”
Peterson explained that, rather than shutting down any terminals, the port will continually upgrade its existing facilities, implementing technology that is being utilized in the newly renovated terminals.
“We’ve had some projections come out that we’re looking at about possibly up to a 4-percent growth in cargo each year, from now through the foreseeable future, which is about 2030,” Peterson said. “So, we’re looking at… not enormous, but a pretty solid growth. So, we do expect that there’s going to need to be capacity in the harbor complex for cargo to come in and out.”
Port officials are heralding the Middle Harbor terminal as one that will be the most technologically advanced in the Western Hemisphere. As a nearly all-electric, near zero-emissions terminal, the facility is a “green, highly productive model for the worldwide shipping industry,” say port officials, who also indicate that the project is part of an ongoing $4-billion capital program to modernize facilities at the port to foster long-term, environmentally sustainable growth.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-02-26-at-10.41.32-AM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”In a Feb. 19 photo, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship ever to dock at a North American port, is shown at the Port of Long Beach. The megaship was docked at the port until Feb. 24.” captionposition=”left”] “The Port of Long Beach is the most direct route from Asia to U.S. markets,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Jon Slangerup in a recent press statement. “We are strengthening our value proposition by working with all of our customers and stakeholders to optimize the speed and efficiency of our marine supply chain as we continue building the Port of the Future.”
Officials say that in January, the port had its seventh straight month of cargo increases, showing a 24.8-percent jump in container shipments over the same month last year.
Terminals moved 536,188 TEUs last month. Imports were up 30.3 percent to 278,491 TEUs. Exports increased 8.4 percent to 106,739 container units. Empty containers rose 28.6 percent year over year, to 150,958 TEUs. Empty containers that were filled with items for post-holiday sales were sent back overseas to be reloaded with goods, officials say.
“We are encouraged by the strong start to the year, which stands in stark contrast to the congestion we faced a year ago,” Slangerup said in a port press release. “Our January results are another indicator that the hard work by our entire port team— our customers, employees, business partners and key community stakeholders— continues to deliver superior results. We are off to a solid start in 2016 and will continue to make the necessary strategic investments in capital, energy and innovative solutions to ensure that Long Beach remains the port of choice for international trade.”
Port officials say longshore workers moved about 12,500 cargo containers on and off the Benjamin Franklin before it left the Port of Long Beach this week. The figure is two-and-a-half times the world-leading 5,000 containers that Long Beach terminals move during the call of an average-size vessel, officials said.
The ship’s owner, CMA CGM, is the world’s third-largest shipping company, established in 1978 by founder and chairman Jacques R. Saadé. According to the port, the company, which is based in Marseilles, France, transports 13 million container units each year with a fleet of 470 vessels to 400 ports around the world.
