L.A. backlog hurting Hawai'i

By Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tugs position the container ship Direct Kea at a pier in Oakland, where backlogs are not as severe as in Los Angeles. Privately owned cars destined for Hawai'i have a better chance of making it from Oakland or Seattle. Bloomberg News Service

With more than 100 cargo-laden ships backed up outside the Port of Los Angeles waiting to be unloaded, Matson and CSX said it is taking up to nine days to get labor to unload their ships, up from five days a week ago.

The problem means that only six Matson ships will arrive in Honolulu over the next weeks instead of the normally scheduled seven.

"Clearly, our service is not back to normal. There continue to be delays on the West Coast for our ships waiting for labor allocations, and that the problem is particularly bad in Los Angeles," said Jeff Hull, a spokesman for Matson.

Hull said consumers still can ship their cars with Matson to Hawai'i from the West Coast, but they will have to get the cars to ports in Oakland or Seattle where backlogs are not as severe.

"The big picture is we are still having regular and steady arrivals in Hawai'i," Hull said. "But because delays in Los Angeles are particularly worse than the other ports, we are redirecting cargo from points further inland to Oakland for shipment."

CSX, with two ships waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles to be unloaded, said that it is experiencing similar delays and that its ships are sailing as fast as possible to Hawai'i to make their regularly scheduled twice-weekly arrivals.

"We have so many balls in the air right now it's kind of a dynamic situation," said Ku'uhaku Park, government affairs manager for CSX in Honolulu. "We've stopped accepting POVs (privately owned vehicles) for at least the next two weeks coming to Honolulu until we get this situation cleared up. But we still will ship vehicles from Honolulu to the West Coast."

Both companies said they still will ship cars for commercial shippers to Hawai'i.

Nearly 30 West Coast ports were closed Sept. 29 when union workers, who had worked without a contract since July 1, were locked out by the association of shipping companies.

President Bush intervened earlier this month and the ports were reopened Oct. 9. But the closure was estimated to have cost the U.S. economy up to $1 billion a day and now hundreds of ships are lined up at West Coast ports waiting to be unloaded.

Matson normally has four ship arrivals in the Islands per week. But with West Coast ports jammed with ships, some cargo is taking priority over others, Hull said.

Shipping companies are blaming dockworkers at least partly for the delays and backlog, saying they are intentionally slowing operations because of the labor dispute.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, yesterday filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department over the situation.

Matson is expecting four ship arrivals next week; two ships are scheduled to arrive the following week.

CSX's Park said: "We are still getting two arrivals a week. They are just not arriving the days they were scheduled."

Alexander & Baldwin Inc., the parent company of Matson, yesterday said the port shutdown's impact was small, but still cost the company about $1.1 million in lost income for the quarter that ended on Sept. 30. But Matson, the largest maritime transportation with service between Hawai'i and the West Coast, said prospects for the fourth quarter were not as good.

Matson's ocean transportation revenues increased 13 percent to $234.8 million during the third quarter from the same year-earlier period. The company reported an operating profit of $18.3 million, down 24 percent from $24.2 million in the third quarter of 2001. Hawai'i container volume was up 2 percent while automobile volume was 22 percent higher than a year ago.

"In this environment, extraordinary measures have been taken to assist Matson's customers in the movement of backlogged freight, including the activation of an additional vessel in the Hawaii trade," Allen Doane, A&B's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement yesterday.

Reach Frank Cho at 525-8088 or fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.