Port of Los Angeles Locks Yusen Into a 30-Year Lease and a $200 Million Clean-Equipment Bill

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners approved a 30-year lease extension with Yusen Terminals on Aug. 27, running through 2056 and covering the operator's existing 232-acre footprint at Berths 212–224, north of the Vincent Thomas Bridge on the East Basin Channel. Yusen — a subsidiary of Ocean Network Express and the operator at that site since 1991 — commits to $200 million in zero-emission cargo-handling equipment as part of the deal, according to the port's own press release.

Port Executive Director Gene Seroka credited the relationship's longevity and Yusen's cooperation on "clean air initiatives"; Yusen President and CEO Alan McCorkle said the extension gives the operator "long-term certainty to continue investing in our terminal, our people and new technology." Independent trade coverage — SupplyChainBrain, WorldCargo News, DC Velocity and local outlet MyNewsLA all filed on the commission's Aug. 27 vote — confirms the same terms: 30 years, $200 million, 232 acres, no reported dissent on the commission.

Where Yusen sits in the port's terminal map

Yusen's berths rank fifth of the six container terminals at the Port of Los Angeles by throughput, moving roughly 1.5 million TEUs a year. That places it well behind APM Terminals and the port's largest operators, but the lease's real significance isn't Yusen's rank — it's what a three-decade commitment from a single carrier-affiliated terminal operator signals about how the port is managing renewal risk across its whole portfolio. Long-dated terminal leases are how a landlord port locks in cargo volume and capital investment simultaneously; the operator gets certainty to spend on equipment, the port gets a multi-decade floor under one terminal's throughput.

The equipment commitment is where the deal has teeth. $200 million in zero-emission equipment — electric top handlers, forklifts, yard tractors and hydrogen fuel-cell equipment are what the terminal already runs, per the port's release — is a large enough number relative to a single mid-size terminal's footprint that it effectively locks Yusen into a specific equipment replacement cycle for years, not a vague sustainability pledge. San Pedro Bay's clean-air targets have moved from voluntary commitments to lease-embedded capital obligations over the past several renewal cycles at both LA and Long Beach, and this lease continues that pattern rather than breaking new ground on it.

What this means for the forwarder and BCO desk

A few things a cargo owner routing through San Pedro Bay should take from this beyond the topline numbers:

Berth continuity through 2056 removes one terminal-transition risk from the planning horizon. A carrier or BCO with volume moving through Yusen's berths doesn't need to model a operator change, a service disruption from a re-tender, or a renegotiated allocation at this terminal for the next three decades — that's a longer runway than almost any other operational variable in a supply chain plan.

The $200 million equipment build-out will show up as scheduled capital works, not a surprise. Zero-emission yard equipment transitions typically come with phased-in operational changes — charging infrastructure buildout, equipment swaps that can temporarily constrain yard capacity during installation. A forwarder with recurring volume at Yusen's berths should ask the terminal for its equipment transition timeline rather than treat a future slowdown as an unexplained service issue.

Watch whether this becomes the template other San Pedro Bay renewals follow. Multiple container terminal leases across both Los Angeles and Long Beach come up for renewal or renegotiation over the next several years. If $200 million in zero-emission equipment tied to a 30-year term becomes the going rate for lease extensions at either port, that's a capital cost terminal operators will eventually pass through in per-container handling charges — worth tracking as other leases come due, not something this single deal proves on its own.