Casual approach helping ports deal with record cargo.

With shipping traffic breaking records, it looks like Deluge 2 is heading its way to the region's ports this summer--just don't expect the twin gateways to get swamped this time.

April was the busiest month ever at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to data released by the Marine Exchange of Southern California--and all indications are the traffic will only increase as the summer progresses.

The ports saw 529 ships arrive during the month, second only to the 524 that arrived in May of 2004, fight before a summer that saw the two ports so deluged with cargo that freighters queued up outside the breakwaters.

However, since then thousands of so-called "casual" workers have been hired by the ports to handle additional cargo as needed. Moreover, the ports have come to expect earlier holiday season merchandise from manufacturers, which has moved the beginning of the peak shipping season into the spring.

"We're seeing more ships than we thought we would, but all indications show that things are flowing very smoothly," said Manny Aschemeyer, director of the Marine Exchange. "Labor is plentiful; all the ships that are anchored outside of the harbor are there by choice; and the truck and rail systems seem to be running smoothly as well."

Container ships accounted for half of all incoming traffic in April, with 264 arriving, the most since July of 2004 when 272 steamed to the ports. Aschemeyer also noted that freighters are much larger.

The latest port container traffic numbers showed April was a record month for the Long Beach port, with nearly 620,000 20-foot equivalent units, the primary measure of cargo tonnage, passing through the port. The Los Angeles port saw a jump in traffic of 11 percent for a total of 673,000 20-foot equivalents, second only to October 2005.

In particular, ships coming from overseas automakers had a record month with 26 arrivals, two more than in July 2004.

ALLEN P. ROBERTS JR.

Staff Reporter