{"id":341110,"date":"2026-06-01T07:59:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341110\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:59:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:59:47","slug":"ports-examining-the-shift-los-angeles-business-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341110\/","title":{"rendered":"Ports: Examining the Shift – Los Angeles Business Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2015, about 65 out of every 100 container-equivalents loaded with imports arriving at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach originated in China.<\/p>\n

That ratio amounted to more than 4.9 million TEUs crossing the Pacific Ocean that year \u2013 significantly dwarfing the second \u201clargest\u201d share of import cargo from Vietnam, which accounted for just over five of those 100 TEUs.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward five years. China-sourced imports climbed in raw numbers in 2020 to nearly 5.4 million TEUs \u2013 the acronym for 20-foot-equivalent units, the standard measure of cargo across varying container dimensions. However, total imports grew at a much higher rate, by nearly 1.1 million. Total imports from Vietnam more than doubled, along with its overall share of the pie to 10.1%.<\/p>\n

Last year, import numbers from China were essentially flat compared to 2020 \u2013 up by just 15,000 \u2013 but its share of the big picture dropped sharply \u2013 from 61% in 2020 to 53.4% last year. Over a decade, trans-Pacific goods sourcing to the busiest container port in the United States \u2013 which accounts for at least a third of the nation\u2019s imports \u2013 grew by about 2.5 million TEUs, eroding China\u2019s 11.3% share.<\/p>\n

What happens at San Pedro Bay doesn\u2019t stay there. The cargo decisions made by global manufacturers and government trade negotiators are reshaping supply chains, industrial real estate and port infrastructure across Southern California \u2013 and the region\u2019s port leaders are betting billions that they can parlay disruption into dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig picture, this shift reflects a broader realignment in global trade patterns and underscores the continued investments in ports like ours,\u201d said Noel Hacegaba, the chief executive of the Port of Long Beach. \u201cIn 2019, 70% of the port\u2019s cargo was tied to China. Today that figure has fallen to 60%, while trade with Southeast Asian nations continues to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Trade: Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Noel Hacegaba says the port is preparing for continued and diversified growth. (Photo by Thomas Wasper)<\/p>\n

While the shift is notable, it isn\u2019t exactly surprising.<\/p>\n

From the early days of his 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump banged the drum about the United States\u2019 trade deficit and was especially critical of our reliance on Chinese imports. The sloganeering about the tariffs that would come to define each of Trump\u2019s presidencies focused on Beijing\u2019s hostility toward the United States as well as the loss of domestic manufacturing jobs to outsourced labor abroad.<\/p>\n

Between Trump\u2019s two presidencies, former President Joe Biden essentially continued the pivot away from China by pursuing additional trade agreements and pushing through legislation to bolster domestic manufacturing capacity.<\/p>\n

The evolving global trade landscape drew the attention of panelists at the Milken Institute\u2019s Global Conference last month, where U.S. Council for International Business President and Chief Executive Whitney Baird said we\u2019re at an \u201cinflection point\u201d and witnessing a \u201cfundamental reassessment\u201d of the status quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the perspective of the Trump Administration \u2013 and frankly the administrations that came just before,\u201d Baird said, \u201cthere has been a reassessment of the U.S. place and support for the (World Trade Organization) and other multilateral institutions that I think, from their perspective, didn\u2019t serve the United States fully and didn\u2019t successfully discipline non-market economies like China that didn\u2019t really play by the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

The beneficiaries of this shift have so far been developing or newly industrialized nations in Southeast Asia. Last year, Vietnam exported nearly 1.55 TEUs through L.A.-Long Beach, representing 15.3% of its yearly haul and a 292% increase over its 2015 exports. Thailand has also rapidly risen to become the third-largest trading partner at our ports, accounting for 5.62% of the 2025 import haul. Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia have also seen significant gains in their exports to the San Pedro Bay over the past decade.<\/p>\n

And this is all happening as imports in general continue to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as the volume of trade with China has fallen over the years, our cargo volumes continue to grow,\u201d Hacegaba said. \u201cLast year, we set an all-time record. Other countries in Southeast Asia are picking up the slack.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also picking up the slack in cargo valuation. Research from Jones Lang LaSalle, published in April, indicates that cargo imports through L.A., Long Beach, and the Port of Hueneme in Ventura County have exceeded the value of Chinese imports since March 2025. Additionally, cargo from other East Asian nations has remained competitive with China since May 2025 \u2013 even surpassing China\u2019s twice.<\/p>\n

The sheer scale of China as a geopolitical power limits how much its trading neighbors can disengage from it.<\/p>\n

After all, even with the shift, China remains the point of origin for more than half of the imports to San Pedro Bay. The reality is even more pronounced for nations in immediate proximity to China.<\/p>\n

According to Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka, it\u2019s because of this that supply chain and procurement professionals tend to adopt a \u201cChina plus one\u201d philosophy when sourcing materials for their companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe institutional knowledge that\u2019s carried with China manufacturers, logisticians, shippers, relationships, et cetera is really hard to break,\u201d Seroka said. \u201cFolks have been trying their level best to say, \u2018OK, if I\u2019m sourcing 80% of my goods out of China, I want the other balance 20% to come from XYZ country,\u2019 and therefore they can build up a little bit of the capabilities from design to manufacture to delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Negotiate: Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka touts overseas relationships as vital for trade shifts. (Photo by Thomas Wasper)<\/p>\n

Baird noted this was a strong reason why companies and business leaders, to some extent, desired a return to the status quo and away from unpredictability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the board, there are inputs that China produces that at this point can\u2019t be produced elsewhere. I do think that China\u2019s threats on critical minerals definitely got the administration\u2019s attention and you see a strong pivot with this administration pushing investment and diversifying the supply chain in critical minerals,\u201d she said. \u201cBroadly speaking, for U.S. business, the best outcome would be something that maintains a wary respect, some guardrails and a continuation of a relatively predictable set of supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said that \u201cbroadly speaking, the administration will continue the work of the last several administrations, which is looking at ways to lessen U.S. dependence on China as a source of inputs and production.\u201d<\/p>\n

That dependence means that more Western-aligned trading partners will have to find ways to leverage economic concessions from how China does business. This comes at a time when Beijing has articulated a plan to escalate its so-called \u201cBelt and Road\u201d initiative to export manufacturing prowess overseas, particularly in the Global South.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about the level of investment of China in Asia-Pacific, in Oceana in particular: decoupling from China is just never going to happen,\u201d said John Denton, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce, in the Global Conference panel. \u201cCan you imagine Indonesia unpicking all the factories? It\u2019s not going to happen, so we actually have to work out how to live with this, but part of that is China has to change and actually evolve its economic model to be more aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s expansion of its Belt and Road initiative was outlined in its latest five-year plan this past November. Experts and observers have signaled that this level of foreign investment by China in its neighboring partners could significantly escalate global trade disruption \u2013 and serve as an end-around for tariffs placed on Chinese imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to go around the world and set up operations. That\u2019s what the changing world scenario will be \u2013 in the past, it was all \u2018let\u2019s just put tariffs on China.\u2019 That\u2019s no longer going to work,\u201d Michael Roberts, chief executive of HSBC Bank, said at the Global Conference. Considering the numerous companies worldwide competing against Chinese businesses, \u201cthey need to understand this massive amount of capital-to-production capacity is coming out now and will come out in a very intensive way for the next 15-20 years and I think that\u2019s going to be the most sizable change to the world economic order going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders at the San Pedro Bay ports are aiming to capitalize on new developments and shifts as they implement plans to essentially double their cargo-handling output in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

Part of this plan, Seroka said, is to demonstrate that, amid whatever changes in Washington, his past 12 years at the helm remain consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the environment during meetings with overseas trading partners has changed substantially. Folks step in a little bit more leery to begin with, and then once they understand that Los Angeles remains its own place \u2013 that the people here at the port and in the supply chain remain constant \u2013 there\u2019s a bit more ease that comes through in the conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cPart of our job is to continue to foster those strong relationships and maximize the trade, even though now we see more trade barriers than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infrastructure upgrades will help the twin ports keep pace with the ever-increasing volume of cargo flowing through them. Their combined cargo numbers in 2025 set an all-time high, and although projections indicate a dip from that this year, imports have remained above the five-year average for nearly all of the past 24 months.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Land: Workers fill in a slip at Pier G at the Port of Long Beach to enhance its ability to berth larger ships. (Photo by Thomas Wasper)<\/p>\n

As terminal and channel upgrades improve ship access, efforts are underway to speed the movement of cargo out of the port complexes. This has become especially important as more cargo is sourced from Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

The $1.8 billion Pier B on-dock rail support facility project at the Port of Long Beach \u2013 which will triple on-dock rail volume by 2032 \u2013 is a key piece of that puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen cargo is sourced from Southeast Asia instead of China, that adds two or three days on the water. That makes the voyage longer and us less competitive,\u201d Hacegaba said. \u201cWith Pier B, that\u2019ll improve our on-dock capacity and improve our transactions downward. Speed to market is a key to our success and rail connectivity is a key to our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wider region seems to anticipate continued growth as well. According to JLL, industrial leasing in Southern California has increased for the past two years, and this year is on track to roughly match last year\u2019s 85 million square feet; about 23 million square feet were leased in the first quarter this year.<\/p>\n

However, regardless of how the balance of domestic versus overseas manufacturing or of imports from China versus elsewhere shakes out, Seroka echoed confidence in the years to come, speculating that the U.S. will remain \u201ctrade-dependent\u201d for at least the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have natural resources, agriculture products, and patented trademarked goods that no one in the world has but wants. We can absolutely step up our efforts on the international landscape with American goods,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll also continue to be very dependent on imports from other locations around the world, because they can make it better, faster and more cost-effective than anything else here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2015, about 65 out of every 100 container-equivalents loaded with imports arriving at the Port of Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,3359,1438],"class_list":["post-341110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-port-of-long-beach","tag-port-of-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}