By Joel Anderson
President and CEO of International Warehouse Logistics Association
Competition for international trade is changing as the global recession caused shippers and receivers to reevaluate their supply chains. For the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, this means restoring their reputation as freight friendly distribution points and mini-bridge centers. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach need to act quickly before ports elsewhere use the current reputation of the southern California ports to shift the focus of Asian import trade from the West Coast to other ports in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

 While a modest rebound in May 2010 shows volumes returning, the landscape for a new geographical distribution in North America remains a threat to the West Coast. The global recession was the tipping point for West Coast ports' 10-year-long run as Asia's largest trading partner in the North America. The ports now find they must fend off challenges from ports on the Gulf and East Coasts in the U.S., as well as growing competition from Canada and Mexico.

Although West Coast ports handled nearly 70 percent of the traffic coming from Asia until recently, the reanalysis away from southern California ports will gain because of the widening of the Panama Canal. One of the largest transportation investment projects in the world, the widening of the canal in 2014 will increase the options for shippers to divert freight to an all water route and in a few short years, the post-Panamax mega-ships will no longer be captive to LA/Long Beach.

Ultimately the solutions to retaining and growing Asian market share for LA/Long Beach are increased velocity, efficiency and courtesy among all partners in the movement of freight. The West Coast could gain from a coordinated campaign to respond to these real competitive threats.

IWLA California Conference is pursuing an agenda that includes working for improvements to transportation infrastructure, labor relationships and marketing of our highly-skilled labor force, along with promoting competitive transportation costs and the shortest time to the market that have made California's ports Asia's natural partners.

Rail connections, throughput and velocity haven't been optimized in Southern California. Now that 2014 and the Panama Canal investment of a $5.25 billion expansion is looming, the ports need to forge stronger alliances with Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads to head off competing investments from the East Coast, Mexico and Canada. The ports also must promote their labor force reliability, efficiency and experience in moving large amounts of cargo so that Asian shippers recognize those strengths are part of the ports' ability to achieve unbeatable velocity.

The ports also need to work within California to make the public and policymakers aware that by moving forward with the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, California will inevitably create another round of freight being diverted to Canada and the Panama Canal.

California must act soon to invest in infrastructure, improve port velocity and do what is needed to support competitive transportation costs. If not, the southern California ports' place in the global trade pecking order will be forever changed by other nations' and other states' investments and marketing efforts. My money is on California, and we at the IWLA ask you to join our efforts to sustain and protect the dominance of the Ports of LA/Long Beach in handling the U.S. portion of the Asian trade.

-- Joel Anderson is president and CEO of the International Warehouse Logistics Association. The IWLA represents a range of warehouse operators, mostly third-party logistics providers. Before joining the IWLA in 2006, Anderson spent 28 years with the California Trucking Association, stepping down as CEO in 2005, after being diagnosed with cancer. Before that he was an economist at the California Public Utilities Commission.

--The Cunningham Report