One of the busiest container ports in the U.S., Los Angeles is selling about $340 million of debt, the most since 2009 so as to refinance debt and revamp port facilities, writes Bloomberg citing bond documents.
The announcement comes after a deadlock on contract talks between longshore workers and shippers.
The revamp will be targeted at automation of cargo handling along with cutting emission from ships calling at the port, according to Karl Pan, chief financial officer of the harbor department, quoted by Bloomberg.
The overall volumes at the Port of Los Angeles for containerized cargo increased 0.25 percent in July 2014 compared to July last year, the port’s monthly results show.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the US Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) said Tuesday that they had reached a tentative agreement on terms for health benefits, subject to agreement on the other issues in the negotiations.
The contract being negotiated covers nearly 20,000 longshore workers at 29 the US West Coast ports.
Longshore workers who load grain in the U.S. Pacific Northwest export terminals voted to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with several multinational grain companies. The contract will be in effect until May 31, 2018.
The previous agreement expired at 5 p.m. on July 1, 2014.
Talks began on May 12 and are continuing.
The Port’s total cargo for July was 717,407 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).
Container imports dropped 1.98 percent, while exports rose 3.62 percent comparing July figures for 2013 and 2014.
For the first seven months of calendar year 2014, overall volumes have increased 7.75 percent compared to the same period in 2013.