L.A., Long Beach ports validated as national economic engines

L.A., Long Beach ports validated as national economic engines Everyone guessed it, but a new study has confirmed it.
   The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are national economic engines, according to the Trade Impact Study released today by the ports and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority.
   The study, which looked at the economic impacts of the trade generated by the two ports, found that 3.3 million jobs throughout the nation are dependent on that trade, up more than 200 percent since 1994.
   More than 2 million exported TEUs and just over 7 million imported TEUs moved through the two ports in 2005, the study said. These numbers represent 24 percent of all U.S. export container traffic and 41 percent of import container traffic in 2005. Averaged out, the study said, this means that more than one-third of all loaded containers that enter the U.S. each year cross over the docks of the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports.
   In terms of value, the two ports recorded $256 billion in 2005, up 246 percent from $74 billion in 1994. State and local tax revenues generated throughout the nation by the ports were up 368 percent over the same 11-year period, to just above $28 billion. These volumes supported 3.3 million U.S. jobs across the nation, up 200 percent from the 1.1 million such jobs in 1994.
   Los Angeles ranks as the busiest container port in the nation with neighboring Long Beach holding the number two slot. Together, they make up the busiest port complex in the Western Hemisphere.
   The timing of the report was fortuitous for a small army of nearly 200 government and business representatives who travel to Washington next week seeking federal funds to help develop port security, rebuild local infrastructure and treat trade-related medicine.