California’s exporters racked up another impressive performance just before last year’s holiday season, even while failing to keep pace with growth in the overall U.S. export trade.
BY PATRICK BURNSON
Published: February, 2011
The $12.49 billion in goods California businesses shipped abroad in November exceeded the $10.95 billion sent to foreign markets in November 2009 by a healthy 14.1 percent, according to an analysis by Beacon Economics of foreign trade data released by the U.S. Commerce Department.
“On the bright side, this was our best November ever in inflation-adjusted terms, and it did mark the thirteenth consecutive month of year-over-year increases in California’s export trade,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics’ international trade adviser.
“The not-so-good news is that California was decisively outpaced by the nation as a whole in overall merchandise export growth in November, 19.4 percent to 14.1 percent,” he added.
California’s export trade includes a relatively high percentage of re-exports, items that were previously imported into the United States and which have had no significant value added prior to being shipped abroad. In the Bay Area, exported air freight tonnage through San Francisco International was up by 12.4 percent from last November, while outbound loaded container traffic across the Bay at the Port of Oakland rose by just 2.8 percent.
“Most Californians don’t appreciate that, in terms of dollar value, almost half of this state’s export trade moves by air,” O’Connell said.
The outlook for exports going into 2011 is a balance of promise and worry, he cautioned.
“Outside of Europe, most of our primary trading partners continue to be major customers for California exporters, while a number of emerging economies in Latin America and Southeast Asia are significantly increasing their imports from California.”
The most serious non-economic concern involves the tensions brewing between North and South Korea. “Coupled with the aggressive posturing we have lately been seeing from the Chinese military, the fall-out from a disruptive succession crisis in Pyongyang this year is by far is the most serious ‘Black Swan’ threatening to disrupt world trade,” O’Connell said.
Port of Oakland Works to Grow Chinese Market
Meanwhile at the Port of Oakland, relationships with China could not be better. For the port, the focus has been on enhancing warehousing and logistics facilities and creating seamless cold chain services for U.S. companies exporting their perishable products to that dynamic nation.
“China is a significant and rapidly growing market for U.S. food and agriculture products, but the lack of cold chain services is inhibiting the export potential,” said Omar Benjamin, the port’s executive director. “Our initiatives will help make it easier, safer and faster to export U.S. commodities from California and distribute them throughout China.”
Late last year, Oakland and China Merchants Holdings International Company Limited (CMHI) entered into an agreement to strategically market and develop supply chain solutions for U.S. exports, particularly agricultural commodities and perishable products. CMHI is a leading public port operator in China with a strategic network of ports in China’s coastal regions.
“The form and scale of this partnership is a first for the U.S. port industry,” said Benjamin.
New Book Chronicles Development of S.F. Waterfront
As my colleague Paul Duclos points out in this issue’s book review of Port City (see page 14), the Port of San Francisco once had every advantage of a major ocean cargo gateway. An open channel, deep water and a ready workforce truly defined this growing metropolis as the West Coast destination for goods and services shipped and sourced worldwide.
But in contrast to the ports of New York, Vancouver, and Seattle, San Francisco failed to seize the moment. Today, it’s almost entirely reliant on tourism, while the port across the Bay in Oakland remains a vibrant commercial entry point.
Why that came to be is not explained in any great detail in this book, nor is there much mention of the storied commercial vessel operators—United States Line, American President Line, Matson and scores of others—who went broke in San Francisco or fled in the recent past before their fortunes were reversed.
What the author does exceedingly well, however, is chronicle the historic transformation of our waterfront from 1848 to present day.
