Supply Chain

With the Port of Los Angeles set to receive 233 million dollars in state infrastructure grants, as well as being one of the recipients of 1.2 billion dollars of federal funding being put forth to develop California’s hydrogen hub, Mayor Bass and Gene Seroka, Executive Director of the Port of LA, each recently offered stakeholders a POLA progress report. In their annual addresses, Mayor Bass and Seroka highlighted their Port priorities for the coming year: job creation, increasing container volume, and pushing towards a zero emissions port.

As the Bipartisan Infrastructure Reduction Act continues to spur and invest in America’s infrastructure – most especially, its many renewable and cleantech projects – the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM), best known in its early days for its massive 456 million dollar loan to Tesla, has been revived and has been loaning billions of dollars into projects related to domestic vehicle manufacturing, including medium and heavy duty efforts. VX News shares an excerpt from a recent LACI & Milken sponsored event, featuring Senior Advisor for DOE Arnab Pal speaking with ATVM Loan Program Manager, Chelsea Sexton. The conversation covered the logistics of building and supporting the future of advanced vehicle production, as well as both the pursuit of domestic security in manufacturing, and the many supply chain challenges in need of addressing.

While the Port of Los Angeles’s Executive Director was in Asia and Australia this week to meet with various groups to promote trade in LA, Director Gene Seroka was interviewed by Bloomberg Asia’s Heslinda Amin and David Ingles to discuss where the Port stands at the midpoint of the year and just before its peak season. Based on the high inventory levels and the movement of some cargo to other ports around the country, Seroka anticipates a lower than usual peak season.

With the pandemic-induced container ship backlog at the Ports of LA and Long Beach officially cleared, VX News spoke with the Port of Los Angeles’s Executive Director, Gene Seroka, to elaborate on POLA’s efforts to ease supply chain congestion.

In April of this year, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach began implementing the Clean Truck Fund fee to generate $90 million annually to encourage adoption of clean trucks with a goal to achieve a zero-emission drayage truck fleet by 2035. VX News shares this panel excerpt from VX2022 moderated by S&C Electric’s Jim Kelly, in which Port of Long Beach Executive Director, 

VX News shares this exit interview with Janna Sidley, who since 2013 has served as POLA's General Counsel and is retiring after a 2.5-decade career in the LA City & US Attorneys' offices, in which she reflects on her accomplishments and tenure representing the nation's 2nd largest port.

In November, leaders in new mobility convened at CoMotion LA 2021 for a series of discussions and presentations rethinking how people and goods move in and between cities and places around globe. In a panel moderated by Sarah Busch of the Green Hydrogen Coalition, Shell Hydrogen Commercial Manager Abhishek Banerjee and Underground Storage Market Leader at WSP USA Scyller Borglum discussed how green hydrogen can revolutionize the global supply chain.

With COVID-19 reducing the output of Chinese manufacturers by half—sending shocks through the global supply chain and reducing the volume of goods moving worldwide—VX News reached out in late March to Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka to offer a platform for sharing Port priorities for safeguarding operations at the West Coast’s largest trading port.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala highlight their efforts to reduce waste at the Global Climate Action Summit.