New L.A. cargo terminal to add $1 billion in trade.

After three years of construction and a price tag of some $270 million, the long-awaited cargo terminal for American Presidents Lines Ltd. is finally set to open at the Port of Los Angeles' new Pier 300 development.

Port, industry and city officials will gather May 12 to celebrate the completion of the 235-acre terminal, which is being heralded as the largest such facility in North America (in acreage) and the most technologically advanced in the world.

The facility's first customer, a containership bound from Hong Kong, is scheduled to arrive in mid-June, said Sean A. Kelly, APL's vice president of terminal operations.

The Port of L.A. financed the new terminal's construction through operating revenues and bonds, and will collect about $30 million a year in rent from APL, which signed a 30-year lease on the property.

The company's expanded cargo handling capabilities, meanwhile, are expected to generate 10,500 jobs with $335 million in wages and annual industry sales of $1 billion, according to port officials.

"It will stand as a model for some time to come," said Larry Keller, interim executive director of the Port of L.A. "When the steamship companies look into their crystal balls, they will see that this (facility) makes L.A. a good place to do business for the next 30 or 40 years."

The new facility will allow APL to move almost one million container units a year in and out of Southern California - more than double the capacity of its current 130-acre location, where the company has been for the past 15 years.

APL may need the space. Last month, the Oakland-based shipping line announced that it is being acquired by the Singaporean carrier Neptune Orient Lines, for $825 million.

Under the terms of the proposed merger, which is expected to be completed by October, APL will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Neptune Orient.

The combined entity would be the largest career in the trans-Pacific trades, with $4.1 billion in revenue and a fleet of 76 containerships with a total capacity of some 200,000 20-foot containers.

The new terminal project was in the works long before any merger discussions. But James L. Winchester, an analyst with Lazard Freres & Co. in New York, said the L.A. facility - which could enhance APL's position in the fast-growing trans-Pacific trades - makes APL a potent asset for the Singaporean shipping company, which is stronger in the Europe-Asia routes.

Added APL's Kelly: "NOL is well aware of APL's assets and capabilities and I'm sure this facility was very attractive to them."

The new terminal puts both APL and the port on the cutting edge of intermodal shipping - in which goods are moved in containers via more than one transportation "mode," generally ships, trucks and trains.

Specifically, the facility includes the world's most advanced on-dock rail facilities, according to Kelly, which will allow cargo containers to be unloaded from ships directly onto trains and sped off to destinations throughout the country.

At most cargo terminals, including APL's current facility, containers first must be loaded from ships onto trucks and then transported to railyards several miles away - a process that can slow down the movement of cargo by hours and cost importers and exporters hundreds of dollars in delays.

"In one facility, we will be able to control all of the intermodal links," said Kelly. "It keeps us extremely competitive, with respect to both economics and service."

The terminal also is large enough to handle the next generation of containerships, which will be able to transport as many as 6,000 container units on a single voyage.

In addition to its own vessels, APL will serve as landlord to a number of other shipping lines that will use the terminal - which the company predicts will result in annual sales of $1 billion.

As for APL's current facility, Port of L.A. officials are close to inking a lease agreement with Yangming Marine Line, a Taiwanese shipping line located just north of APL, which would expand into the facility, Keller said.