Tag: USA

The huge wave of trade with China and other countries that has washed over ports in Southern California has been a boon to companies that once saw themselves simply as small warehouse and distribution businesses.

Processing and distributing millions of freight-laden containers through the region and to the rest of the United States has become the largest source of jobs on the West Coast. But the overall growth in the industry is raising new challenges, as California regulators demand reductions in air pollution in the port areas and larger companies raise the pressure on smaller businesses.

Small to medium companies exemplify the logistics industry, a fast-growing business of warehousing, trucking and freight forwarding on the cutting edge of technological and social trends, from Internet commerce to evolving Latino markets. Their businesses have grown along with the ports in Southern California, which now handle 44 percent of the merchandise imported to the United States, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Formerly a business of thousands of trucking and storage outfits, logistics has become a giant industry in the past decade as international trade has grown. U.S. Commerce Department statistics show that the value of imports and exports reached almost USD 3 trillion in 2006, up 67 percent since 1999. At USD 900 billion in annual revenue, logistics now accounts for some four million jobs across the United States. It is the largest single source of employment in Southern California, at more than 650,000 jobs, according to the economist John Husing, of Redlands, California, an authority on regional industry.