No water for showers. Government in chaos and broke. Schools being shut down. Roads and bridges falling apart and in disrepair. All that is missing in California is an occupying force.
The bleak political news out of Sacramento is only surpassed by the continued worsening of the global economy and massive decreases in cargo volumes through California’s ports. The Port of Long Beach suffered an incredible 25% drop in volume for the month of December – and the numbers look like they will be worse in 2009. One shipowner recently took delivery of six new containerships – and immediately parked them off the coast of China. Layoffs continue. Longshoremen are without work. Over 200 vessels are idle around the world and at anchor due to the recession and the lack of cargo. For more information about the dire condition at California’s ports, take a look at CalTrade for a complete picture.
Unfortunately the gloomy outlook for California’s public ports is a continuation of an ominous trend that pre-dates our current economic condition. For some time cargo owners have been seeking alternatives to California. Proposed fees/taxes (at all levels of government), newly imposed (and conflicting) conditions placed on trucking companies, port governance that seems more focused on headlines than the bottom line, and the inability of both the ports and State of California to build any type of trade related infrastructure within a fifteen year time horizon, is forcing cargo owners to move their goods through other states.
California’s ports create hundreds of thousands of trade related jobs throughout the state – and with that billions of dollars in tax revenue. The arrogant and mistaken assumption has always been that such business activity will always come here and generate highly paid jobs for the state to count on. Some port officials now privately admit that they have been spending like “drunken sailors” on parade floats, fountains and the like rather than focusing on relationships with customers or caring about the long term viability of the port. But now California’s ports are better known for becoming the worlds largest new car lots, as tens of thousands of unwanted imported cars sit on hundreds of acres of port property with no where to go – while longshoremen sit at home hoping for work.