Los Angeles Union dock workers are finding there isn't enough work to go around. Big cargo ships are joining the ranks of the unemployed. And yet, the people who run the two largest US container ports are convinced that now is the time to build for the future.

And they're bracing for objections.

Los Angeles and Long Beach port officials see the signs of retrenchment in the shipping industry. The global economic downturn has cut the rates that some ships charge to carry cargo to less than $600 (Dh2,203) per 40-foot container from as much as $3,400 in 2007. Outside some of the world's busiest harbours - Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, dozens of cargo vessels are idle with no goods to carry.

At the Port of Los Angeles, 7.3 million containers moved across the docks from January through November, down more than five per cent. The drop was bigger in neighbouring Long Beach, with six million containers moving through the port, down about 10 per cent.

Greener technologies

Still, after stalling for several years, some projects are reaching critical stages, and the ports' directors say it's time to push them through.

The more than $2 billion in projects on their capital improvement plans, officials say, would amount to an important economic stimulus package that would employ thousands of regional workers. The projects, they contend, would reduce the pollution endured by neighbours by using newer green technologies.

The developments would also help prepare the harbour for when the global economy improves.

Port officials note that the harbour was unprepared for the boom that started in 2004, and that made the pollution even worse as ships idled offshore for as long as a week, waiting to be unloaded.

"After years of robust growth, we have a chance to take a breath and concentrate on some infrastructure projects," said Richard Steinke, executive director for the Port of Long Beach. "We can stimulate economic growth, put people back to work and position ourselves for the turnaround."

With a slate of important projects, including the replacement of a cruise ship terminal that dates back to the Kennedy administration, inching toward approval, Steinke's Los Angeles counterpart said she realises that this is a difficult time to move ahead.

"We are trying to implement the most far-reaching improvements ever, and we are trying to do that in a down year, with 2009 looking even worse. That makes it really tough," said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the LA port.

Knatz said building a new cruise terminal in the port's outer harbour will "allow us to minimise risk in handling the largest cruise ships" while creating more than 7,300 direct jobs and 17,700 indirect construction-related during the five- to seven-year building period. Another 438 permanent jobs would be created at the facility while reducing pollution emissions.

One of Long Beach's biggest undertakings is a 10-year, $750 million project that would combine two terminals that are too old, inefficient and dirty to meet the port's goals for pollution reduction and greater productivity.

Opportunity

"It's an opportunity for us to provide for green growth by taking trucks off the road and reducing emissions even as we put people back to work," Steinke said.

The projects at both ports are being fought by environmentalists and neighbours concerned about premature deaths and heightened incidents of asthma.