First phase of environment-conscious development completed Monday

China Shipping Container Line on Monday completed the first phase of an expansion project at its Los Angeles terminal, demonstrating to elected officials and the neighboring community that a marine terminal in Southern California can grow green.

"This is a story of promises made, promises kept," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The mayor said the city and Port of Los Angeles committed to expanding the terminal if China Shipping promised to incorporate the latest in environment-friendly technology, and both parties kept their promises.

The current expansion project added a 925-foot section of wharf to allow a second vessel to berth at the facility. The expansion included 18 acres and four super post-Panamax cranes.

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Containerized Ocean Trade - Southern California Ports

Within three years, a second expansion project will add 375 feet of wharf and will increase the footprint to 142 acres, almost doubling the size of the terminal. At full build out it will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units. The terminal will have 10 super post-Panamax cranes.

Li Shaode, chairman of China Shipping Group, noted that the line in 2001 signed a 25-year lease with the port, and this expansion project will allow China Shipping to increase its container volume in Los Angeles. China Shipping last year moved about 800,000 TEUs through the port, he said.

The China Shipping terminal was one of the first in Los Angeles-Long Beach to experience environmental challenges that eventually resulted in adoption of the ports' Clean Air Action Plan. That plan provides a template of environmental measures that terminals must include in their expansion programs.

The China Shipping terminal, for example, has the capacity to operate vessels from shore-side electrical power while at berth. It includes the use of electric rubber-tired gantry cranes, alternate-fuel yard tractors and diesel particulate filters on low-emission switcher locomotives.

China Shipping vessels also have a 100 percent compliance rate with the port's program to operate at slower speeds within 40 miles of the coast, and to burn low-sulfur fuel during the transit.

First phase of environment-conscious development completed Monday

The current expansion project includes an access bridge connecting the China Shipping terminal with the facility occupied by its neighbor and joint venture partner Yang Ming Container Line. The bridge will expedite truck movements between the terminals.