$1.2bln port redevelopment project to create 14,000 jobs in Long Beach
Groundbreaking began Monday on a $1.2 billion project at the Port of Long Beach.The Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project will combine two outdated container terminals and create as many as 14,000 permanent jobs.
“Infrastructure has to be updated; we have to give good value to customers otherwise they’ll pick other gateways,” Port of Long Beach Executive Director Chris Lytle told CBS2.
Orient Overseas container line and the port have signed a $4.6 billion, 40-year lease for the new 305-acre Middle Harbor terminal, which will be able to house the world’s largest ships.
Eventually, the port will be able to accommodate vessels the length of three football fields, which is expected to double the amount of cargo. Officials say twice the amount of containers that pass through the port could double the amount of trucks, drivers and warehouse employees.
The project, which is expected to take 10 years to complete, is also designed to cut pollution in half.
Expand deep sea port
The Minister of Transport, Idris Umar, and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have been urged to encourage deep seaport development.
Stakeholders said, at an event organised by the Agenda for Good Governance in Ikeja, Lagos, that the country needed a seaport of draught not less than 40 metres with better facilities that can accommodate bigger marine vessels, adding that the call became necessary as a result of increased cargo traffic.
The Managing Director, Tempo Shipping, Mr Seyi Gbadamosi, said global trends in port development had showed that of over 100 seaports projects being executed worldwide, about 75 per cent are deep seaports or terminals. The others are mostly inland waterway ports and jetties.
Also, the Managing Director, Maritime Energy Base, Mr Charles Irabor, said maritime transportation is a key sector that needs to be developed by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
He urged Umar to see to the transformation of the sector so that it would impact positively on cargo handling capacity of the seaports and increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the end of his tenure.
He said the country, as the largest importer and exporter of cargo in West Africa, needs at least one deep seaport as a hub for West and Central Africa based on an increase in its maritime and general trade volumes.
The benefits of attaining a regional hub status, Irabor added, included the potential to create directly and indirectly, about four million jobs over a five-year period and a 70 per cent cut in vessel turn-around time as well as guaranteeing increased revenue from berthing to handling charges for the trans-shipment of cargoes.