00:00Trade did not break down last year. You just had a record year. How crazy was the last 12 months?
00:04Well, crazy doesn't even capture the experience. Remarkable is what I would say.
00:09When you look at where things were at the beginning of the year, there was a lot of doom and doom
00:12predictions. But as the year wore on, there were a lot of on again, off again tariff announcements
00:16and that led to a lot of front loading of cargo. In the end, we ended with our busiest year on
00:23record. In Long Beach, we were 9.9 million container units. You guys took a beating in the
00:28pandemic and took a lot of complaining as well. What did you change back then that's enabled you
00:32to process all of that traffic so seemingly, so seemingly easy, easily compared to back then?
00:38Definitely a lot of lessons learned from the supply chain crisis. We flexed our resilience muscle last
00:44year. We handled more containers than we did during the supply chain crisis without any congestion,
00:49any backlogs or delay. And that that's a testament to our supply chain. We learned to work better
00:53together. And at the Port of Long Beach, we're always about upping the game, raising the bar.
00:58This is the sort of preeminent globalization event that anyone has around the world. And it seems
01:04like there's a real feeling that global trade is changing. And that if anything, it is moving away
01:08from the United States and to other ports around the world. How much are you seeing that? In other
01:13words, the high flows really were about pre front loading, not necessarily this being the new normal.
01:20Well, it really reflects the resilience of the supply chain. When you look at where things were and how
01:26shippers reacted to the tariff announcements, we saw them look for other ways to bring the cargo to
01:31the United States. What about going forward, though, in terms of just how much volumes will stay at these
01:34high levels? Well, inventory levels started trending down at the end of last year, which means that all
01:38that inventory has to be replenished. We think 2026 is going to be another busy year, maybe not a record
01:43year, but another busy year nonetheless. Do you find yourself competing more, not just with ports in the
01:49United States, but ports in, say, Peru, like the new one that was just opened or ports in other places
01:54in the world? I mean, do you see some of the traffic getting diverted away from the United States?
01:59Absolutely. When you look at our top trading partners in 2019, China by itself accounted for
02:05about 70 percent of all our business today, that's down to 60 percent. Much of that has now shifted to
02:12Southeast Asia, Vietnam, for example. So we are noticing those shifts in the future. We think there will be
02:18more cargo coming from what we consider today new and emerging markets. And this is why we're
02:22constantly updating our business plans, looking for new opportunities to bring that cargo to the
02:27United States. But Noel, is it a real shift without distinction, given the fact that some of these
02:30products are probably from China to those countries, and they're just trans-shipped? Because if you look
02:34at the Chinese data, their record, again, surplus when it comes to exports, going to the U.S. is down,
02:40but going up to other markets is a lot higher. Yeah, that may be true. But it's important to keep in
02:46mind from a port perspective when manufacturing shifts from China to Southeast Asia. That adds
02:51about two or three days in transit time. That puts more pressure on us and ports in the U.S. to bring
02:57that transit time down on the land side. That's why we're investing $3.2 billion over the next 10 years,
03:03primarily to expand our rail capacity and increase our rail connectivity. That's the way to get time
03:09down. I bring this up because the administration is obviously looking at this data. I spoke to Jameson
03:13Greer, the USTR trade ambassador, about this. What happens if they start to really go after
03:18trend-shipped goods? Well, if that happens, this is why, again, we have to be resilient. We have to
03:24be agile. This is why we're constantly looking for new markets, whether it's Latin America,
03:29Southeast Asia, the sub-Indian continent. We're constantly evaluating and updating our playbook to
03:36make sure that we're capturing that cargo. You said that you have this incredible supply chain. I
03:40believe we met during the Biden administration when everything was frozen outside the port of
03:44Los Angeles. How have you seen AI shift in terms of the ports? Because I know there's also been
03:49tons of really concern with the labor unions that work at these ports.
03:54Well, look, technology is evolving so quickly, it's hard to put your arms around it. But I'll tell
03:59you this. Ports sit at the intersection of trade, geopolitics, climate, technology. Those are the top
04:05topics being discussed here in Davos. That's why I'm here, because we need to shape the future
04:10together and make sure that ports like ours, as we move forward, build the port of the future,
04:15we leverage innovation, but we don't leave the workforce behind. How do you do that? How do you
04:19build the port of the future with such a strong union presence, preventing you from doing that?
04:24They're an important part of our workforce. They're an important part of our ecosystem. We had a record year
04:30last year, 9.9 million containers. The dock workers moved that cargo with no delays, no backlogs, no
04:36congestion. We've got to find a way to leverage innovation, leverage technology, put the technology
04:43in the hands of our workforce to move cargo quicker. What are you seeing being done in Asia? Just how far
04:47ahead are those ports at the moment? You know, every port's different and they serve different purposes
04:52according to the region. What we're trying to do here in Long Beach is future-proof our port. We know
04:58how vital we are to the U.S. economy. 2.7 million jobs across the United States are attributed to the
05:04port of Long Beach alone, and that is exponentially higher when you look at all the ports across the
05:09country. We are massive economic engines, and this is the reason why we're here. We're going to build
05:14the port of the future by 2050, doubling our throughput. We're going to be the fastest, cleanest,
05:19most resilient port. You say we. Is it the United States that's building it, or is it in South Korea
05:24that's building the ships and China that's building a lot of the port materials? I mean,
05:28how far away are we from really being more self-sufficient on that type of infrastructure?
05:34Well, those discussions will continue to unfold and evolve, and as advanced manufacturing shifts
05:38back to the United States, I can tell you this. We will continue to bring product from overseas. Why?
05:43Because materials, parts, supplies are still going to be needed. So even as United States moves in a
05:49direction to manufacture more goods here, we're always going to need to import products, supplies,
05:56parts from other countries. Taking a step back, this has been all about deglobalization. That has
06:00been a very big theme here at Davos and just in general in the zeitgeist. And I'm just wondering
06:05whether that's the tenor of your conversations, too, because it's ironic to see that the total trade
06:10volumes have actually increased to new records every single year, even as we talk about deglobalization.
06:16How does that sort of color your conversations with business leaders here?
06:19Well, we're bullish on the future. You know, we understand that we're going through a short-term
06:24volatile period. At some point, all these tariff discussions will be settled. What we urge the
06:30policymakers is to make sure that they prioritize a predictable, transparent, cooperative framework
06:36so that the United States continues their leadership position in global trade.
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