California's Ocean Economy - California Resources Agency - State ...

NOEP
120,000,000
100,000,000
80,000,000
60,000,000
40,000,000
20,000,000
Composition of Waterborne Tonnages for Combined Long Beach -
Los Angeles Ports, 1997 - 2001
0
2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
Domestic Imports Exports
Figure 5-5: 1997-2001 Long Beach – Los Angeles Ports, Composition of Tonnage
Source: US Army Corps of Engineers
5.1.2 Composition of Cargo for all California Ports by Commodity
The highest-value cargo through California ports includes a large portion of the nation’s
imported consumer goods. By value, California is the nation’s largest freight destination. By
tonnage, it is the second highest in freight movements.
The following two graphs show the waterborne tonnage from and to major California ports
by types of commodity respectively. In 2000, approximately 59.7 million tons of shipments
originated from California ports. Petroleum exceeds all other commodities by tonnage.
Food products exports are the second largest commodity by weight. 29 California appears to
import more than double what it exports in petroleum. About 136.9 million tons of cargo
entered California through its ports in 2000. The major cargoes were petroleum,
manufactured goods, and petroleum products, which constituted about 70% of the total
cargo volume.
29 Of interest relative to the chapter on Offshore Minerals in this report,
59