Dec. 29, 2015—Successfully working the two largest container ships ever to call at a North American port in the same week required an extraordinary effort involving container lines, APM Terminals, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the railroads, chassis providers and three federal government agencies, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said.
Now the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach must repeat this process week after week to convince trans-Pacific carriers that the largest U.S. port complex is up to the task of handling mega-ships with capacities of 15,000 to 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) on regularly scheduled services. “This was a good statement that we are headed down the right path,” Seroka said.
The 15,000-TEU Maersk Edmonton arrived at APM’s Pier 400 on Dec. 22, the first time a vessel of that size called at a North American port. The Maersk vessel was still being worked at the APM terminal on Saturday when the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin arrived at Pier 400. Two smaller vessels were also at the APM/California United Terminal during the past week.
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