HJS Handled over lmillion TEUs. on the Long Beach Port

According to the Port of Long Beach, during the last year, Hanjin Ship
ping Co. Ltd. handled the equivalent of more than 1 million 20-foot co
ntainer at its 170-acre Pier A cargo terminal at the port of Long Beac
h. Hanjin is the first Long Beach port tenant to surpass the 1 million
container-unit milestone in a single year.
Port officials honored Hanjin on Dec. 21 with a dockside ceremony and
luncheon for topping 1 million 20-foot equivalent units(TEU).
And, the Port of Long Beach has completed construction of a multimilli
on dollar overpass, allowing trucks and cars to pass unimpeded over th
e port’s main railroad tracks. The $41.6 million Anaheim Street Grade
Separation Project, near Ninth Street in West Long Beach, includes a
1,450-foot-long bridge that was fully opened to traffic on Jan 4. The
new bridge provides three lanes in each direction and is the last of s
ix grade separation projects designed to ease traffic congestion at ra
ilroad crossings in and around the port. The port has spent $135 milli
on on the decade-long grade separation program.
Also, the Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved foreign trade zon
e applications submitted by the electronics component company TDK Corp
. of America, outdoor clothier Timberland Co., and the San Gabriel Val
ley Economic Partnership.
With the vote, the port will submit TDK’s application to the Foreign
Trade Zone Board in Washington to designate TDK’s facility in Cypress
as an FTZ subzone. The subzone would encompass TDK’s 3.1 acre wareho
use. The FTZ designation will allow TDK to defer or avoid custom dutie
s on products they import, store and distribute from the facility. The
port and TDK will enter into a FTZ operations agreement that will def
ine the port’s terms and conditions for activation.
The board approved an operations agreement with Timberland, within the
port’s FTZ site in Ontario. Timberland is operating a $5million, 420
,000-square-foot distribution center at the Ontario complex to tempora
rily warehouse footwear made in the Far East. The factility employs be
tween 90 and as many as 2,000 workers.
The San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership is seeking to expand its F
TZ status to cover nearly 64 acres at four sites: a five-acre light as
sembly, manufacturing and warehousing facility in EL Monte, 5.9 acres
for trade shows at the Fairplex grounds and 50 acres for light manufac
turing and warehousing at the former General Dynamics/Hughes aerospace
plant in Pomona, and nearly three acres in San Gabriel to be used for
light manufacturing.