CASH ROLLS LIKE WAVES TO CARGO PORT.

Byline: Keith Higginbotham Staff Writer

LONG BEACH - The Port of Los Angeles, part of the third busiest port complex in the world, has a new budget - and it's a doozy.

Flush with capital from two years of record cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles-Port of Long Beach complex, busiest in the country, the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has adopted a $615.5 million budget for the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

``The budget is reflective of the fact that the port is commercially healthy,'' said the board president, John Wentworth. ``Without the port's financial health, there is nothing else. It is the well that all other things spring from. It is a lovely situation to be in.''

The record-setting budget for the Harbor Department represents an increase of 17 percent over the previous fiscal year. Included is $564.5 million for capital improvements at the port, an increase of 106 percent over the previous year.

``That level of capital spending reflects the port's ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of its customers, including the Pier 400 project,'' said port Executive Director Larry Kellar.

The Pier 400 container complex is the largest development planned at the port. It will be built on the 484 acres of the 590-acre site resulting from six years of dredging and landfilling that was completed last year at a cost of $328 million. The first phase of the container terminal is expected to be completed in July 2002 and the entire facility is scheduled to open by spring 2004.

Parallel with the budget approval, the port's bond rating has been updated by three major credit rating agencies: Fitch, Standard & Poor's, and Moody's. The upgrade came in anticipation of a $162 million bond refinancing by the port, expected to take place this summer.

The port's rating was reaffirmed at AA by Fitch and Standard & Poor's and at AA3 by Moody's. No other port in the nation has a higher rating, although cross-harbor rival Long Beach is equally rated.