THE recent handling of the two largest container ships ever to call at a US West Coast port has demonstrated the extraordinary effort involving container lines, APM Terminals, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the railroads, chassis providers and three federal government agencies.

This is the view of the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, Gene Seroka, who stressed that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach must repeat this process week after week to convince trans-Pacific carriers that the largest US port complex is up to the task of handling mega-ships on regularly-scheduled services, the IHS Media reported.

"This was a good statement that we are headed down the right path," Mr Seroka said.

The 15,000-TEU Maersk Edmonton arrived at APM's Pier 400 on December 22, the first time a vessel of that size called at a North American port. The Maersk vessel was still being worked at the APM terminal when the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin arrived at Pier 400.

Mr Seroka said that despite the combined cargo surge from these vessels, the yard, gate and rail operations proceeded smoothly, but it required advanced planning by all of the parties involved.

The effort began with the proper vessel stowage in Asia and positioning of export containers at Pier 400 so discharging of the import containers could be sequenced with the loading of the export containers to maintain vessel productivity.

Normally during the Christmas holidays, veteran longshoremen like to take some time off, but the port and employers consulted with the ILWU locals to ensure there would be an adequate labour force to work as many as 10 cranes simultaneously, each with a crew of 20 longshoremen, said deputy executive director marketing and customer service, Mike DiBernardo.

The port also stood ready with near-dock container storage capacity in the event that Pier 400 was overwhelmed with container volume, but the 400-acre facility was able to accommodate the cargo surge, he added.

Mr Seroka said planning for the mega-ships actually began 30 years ago when Thomas Bradley was mayor of Los Angeles and he led a massive effort to dredge the port's access channel to 53 feet, widen the turning basins and begin the construction of some of the largest container terminals in North America.

The capital projects continue to this day, with Los Angeles and neighbouring Long Beach combined investing about US$7 billion in marine terminal expansion, additional on-dock rail capacity, roadway connectors and a new, higher bridge in Long Beach.

Mr DiBernardo noted that the terminal operators are increasing the height of existing ship-to-shore cranes, and purchasing new super post-Panamax cranes, to unload mega-ships with containers stacked up to 10 rows high on deck.

The Obama administration is closely watching the performance of West Coast ports to determine how Congress and the administration can cooperate with the ports on their transportation infrastructure needs, Mr Seroka said. Port executives have met a number of times this past year with the departments of Labour, Commerce and Transportation, he said.