Los Angeles Port Head Says Chinese Cranes Pose Security Risk

The head of the busiest US maritime gateway said Chinese-made cranes pose a potential risk to national security, but a shortage of other countries that build the giant container-moving machines makes it challenging to address the vulnerability.

“They’re collecting data, they’re looking at information,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said in an interview Thursday on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance. “What they’re using that data for is the question.”

Biden administration officials are concerned that more than 200 ship-to-shore cranes at US ports are manufactured by China and can be serviced and programmed remotely, creating a security vulnerability. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. — known as ZPMC — is the dominant player in the global market for gantry cranes used to load and unload cargo ships.