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00:00Give me the color what's happening or crunch time here. How the contracts look. Well first Alex good morning. The contract will not be signed by expiry on Friday and tradition history has shown us just that. But we've got experts on both sides of the table negotiating and each understands their importance to the U.S. economy. We're giving them as much room as they need to negotiate. And the rest of us are just moving all this cargo through the nation's largest gateway. Gene if the contract lapses and there's no extension all strikes possible are strikes allowed because that's what's making everybody nervous. Yeah anything's possible but it will not happen. Both sides put out a joint release after meeting directly with President Biden and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh two weeks ago. To my knowledge this was the first time a sitting president met with both sides during an active contract negotiation. And the administration has been watching this very closely ever since they came into office. So the dock workers who've been averaging six days a week since the pandemic began will be out on the job moving all this cargo. And the companies have an awful lot to deliver to their customers. So just learning will continue. Jeanne just paint the picture. How do you prep for any disruption. And that's my also my way of asking how are things going. When you talked to us earlier you said June and May has been the third busiest month on record. June could top records. What's your deliverable and then what are the hurdles. Well you're exactly right Alex. The June numbers will rival our best June ever set. Just last year and we're matching box for box our record setting 2021. We've got to continue to work around the clock on the rail cargo. About 40 percent of every ship coming in has intermodal boxes on it. We've got to double down our efforts with the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe to get that cargo out into the domestic economy. But again our workers are going to be out there. There's work for everyone who wants it. And we got to keep this American economy moving. The down line indications are that bookings will continue to be strong from Asia. And while some retailers are talking about high inventory levels the products that we're going to be seeing second half of this year look very different to their seasonal back to school fall fashion and the all important retail holiday season goods. There is some fear Gene that some of the stuff that's on the water is going to end up going in for inventory and stay there and will end up having to be discounted. You're confident that's not going to happen but it's always a possibility. And some of those retailers as I mentioned have been talking about that with the inventory that's on shore right now. But realistically like every part of the supply chain there's something that impacts us every day. Many folks who are importing are trying to fight for factory floor space in Asia. And 25 percent of all of our imports coming through Los Angeles are parts and components for American factories including the automotive sector tiered suppliers and others. So we're going to continue to hustle this cargo to market. But again the supply chain remains very choppy and segmenting this cargo through our data analytics is going to be key to yet another successful quarter this year. Let's talk about the other part which is getting the stuff on trucks some truck drivers. I said that the gates aren't open long enough and then they don't line up loading up their truck because they're scared of getting cut off and then they can't finish their load. Can you adjust different times to help increase productivity. Yeah those truckers are our first and last mile ambassadors Alex. How we do gets right back to the customer from them. We gotta make sure their turn times are shortened. They can load up and get as many runs during the day as possible on average during the week. We're working 19 hours a day day and night side shifts. Many of our marine terminals have introduced flex hours opening a little earlier making sure lunch time has work happening and closing a little bit later. But again we're keeping our pulse to the market to make sure that we're catering to this all important trucker segment. Jean final quick question. A lot of economists are expecting a recession. Do you think they're right. Do you think they're wrong. What kind of timeline are you looking at. By definition that's two consecutive quarters of economic decline. We're halfway there. I kind of see it as a bumpy landing. Second quarter numbers economically should look pretty good at just this morning guy. The Commerce Department in Washington released the export numbers and stated that we had the smallest trade gap yet this year. I'm encouraged but there still is a lot of work to do staring down the face of eight point six percent inflation.

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LA Port Chief Seroka Says Strike Will Not Happen

"Anything’s possible but it will not happen,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka says during an interview on "Bloomberg Markets: European Close." (Source: Bloomberg)

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