Free : World Trade Magazine - February 2008

World Trade Magazine
February 2008

America's Ports Take on the Challenge of Trade Growth
As an overview of the state of American ports in 2008, a report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is spot-on: “Maritime ports are getting busier, ships are getting larger, and the mix of cargo being transported is becoming more diverse. These increased demands for port infrastructure and services are also causing ports to run out of land, requiring them to dredge deeper harbors and waterways and to invest in expensive shipment-handling technology. As ships are being built larger and sailing greater distances and carriers are entering into more alliances, maritime arrivals at ports are increasingly bunched. Ports that are unable to adapt to these changing demands for port infrastructure and services will lose out to competitor ports for cargo throughput.”

What’s scary, is that this was written in 1998! And it’s just as accurate today.

Meanwhile two additional factors weigh heavily on planning at the nation’s ports. The first is the universal expectation that container trade between Asia and North America will continue to increase, with the bulk of the additional growth heading toward the east coast. The second is that once the widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014, a greater number of larger container vessels will be lured to America.

What follows is a survey of many of North America’s leading ports, looking at the steps each is taking to prepare for increased demands as trade volumes grow and public concern about the environmental quality of ports becomes more strident.

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by Mark Bernstein
February 2, 2008
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