Trans-Pacific Maritime
Special Report
In addition to proposing what would be the first new container terminal in Los Angeles in a generation, the port of Los Angeles is expanding two of its existing terminals and developing an 89-acre chassis operations facility, while neighboring Long Beach plans to construct a new zero-emission container terminal aimed at express services carrying e-commerce goods.
“ We must build bigger and we must build smarter: bigger capacity, smarter technology, increased sustainability,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said during his State of the Port address Jan. 22.
Although the two ports compete with other major US gateways for discretionary cargoes, their dominance in the trans-Pacific market cannot be understated. Nearly half( 49.5 %) of all containerized imports from Asia landed in either Los Angeles or Long Beach last year, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S & P Global. Since 2020, trans-Pacific imports through the port complex have grown at a compound annual rate of 2.8 %, just below the national average of 2.9 %, a significant achievement given the ports’ already strong cargo base.
“ We must build bigger and we must build smarter: bigger capacity, smarter technology, increased sustainability.”
Officials say the port complex is operating at about 60 % capacity utilization, a far cry from the 90 %-plus rate seen during the post-pandemic cargo surge, but volumes are forecast to double by 2040. The various expansion projects around the complex will ensure that terminals are ready to handle that long-term volume growth and perhaps capture even more existing demand in the short term.
Faster, greener
The new zero-emission container terminal planned for Pier S at the Port of Long Beach, for example, will be designed for“ regular” e-commerce merchandise sold online and shipped in ocean containers under a speed-tomarket model, according to the developers of the project.
“ The market is already there,” said Bob Owens, CEO of Nautilus International Holding Corp., which is partnering with Brookfield Properties to design and build the 1.8 million-TEU Metro Express Terminal.“ We’ re just looking to serve that market.”
The idea is to attract smaller, independent container lines that offer express services with shorter transit times and, often, expedited handling once containers are offloaded. Those carriers typically operate vessels with 9,000 TEUs or less of capacity, as opposed to the mainline trans-Pacific carriers operating vessels of 15,000-TEU-plus capacity.
“ The nature of express services is not that the ships go faster; it’ s that they get in and out of the terminal faster,”
Peter Stone, senior vice president of strategic projects at Brookfield Properties, told the Journal of Commerce.
“ The carriers and [ third-party logistics ] companies we talked to are asking for this type of product,” Stone added.“ They want a fast transfer from ship to warehouse.”
With no need for on-dock rail— containers arriving at the Metro Express Terminal will be hauled by truck to local warehouses or off-dock transload facilities— the terminal will only utilize about 105 acres of the 160-acre Pier S site. The terminal’ s ship-to-shore cranes will be electric, and its zero-emission cargo-handling equipment will be manually operated by longshoremen.
Because the facility will operate around the clock, thereby making better use of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union( ILWU) workforce, containers won’ t dwell on the docks as long. Owens said the increase in efficiency could enable the ILWU to achieve container crane productivity that rivals terminals in the US Southeast.
Once the design agreement is finalized and the necessary environmental approvals are secured, the facility
12 Journal of Commerce | March 2, 2026 www. joc. com