American ports eye Asian trade
As the rising tide of container traffic from Asia swamps California's twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, rival terminals from Alaska to Mexico - and even some as far afield as the United States east coast - have begun expanding to grab a piece of the action.
The ports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state are boosting their combined capacity in separate expansion programmes - from 3.8 million containers last year to 5.5 million by next year.
Down south, Mexican officials have hired Hutchison Port Holdings to conduct a feasibility study on transforming the small port of Ensenada into a deep-water facility.
In Alaska, managers at Anchorage's port are spending US$350 million to more than double its berthing space.
Meanwhile, Panama is building a US$1 billion mega-port on a man-made peninsula at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.
The port expansions could give much-needed relief to shippers and exporters caught in the logjam at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the main US entry points for cargo containers from across the Pacific.
Peter Powell, chairman of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, says 43 per cent of all 20-foot containers from East Asia enter the US through these two ports.
In the fourth quarter of last year, cargo volume at west coast ports rose 10 to 13 per cent from the previous year, when congestion was already a headache, Mr Powell said.
Since October, there have been numerous media reports about stranded merchandise as cargo ships are forced to wait up to 14 days to be unloaded.
The Vancouver Port Authority, itself beleaguered by the ever-growing flood of cargo from Asia, recently announced a US$1.4 billion expansion to triple its capacity by 2020.
'We now have an opportunity to serve as a transportation hub for all of North America,' said its chief executive Gordon Houston.
Vancouver's port handled 56 per cent of the total volume of Canada's trade with China last year, Mr Houston said. 'The shock waves from China's economic expansion have definitely reached our shores,' he said.
Neighbouring Seattle also aims to cash in on the explosion of trade with China. The port's general manager for containers, Kent Christopher, said the facility had seen a 'tremendous amount of direct importers' shifting from Los Angeles and Long Beach. Officials at the nearby Port of Portland are also eager to tap the rising trade.
Portland launched a marketing blitz and hired a shipping executive to manage liner development with a focus on Asia. As a result of these efforts and the congestion in California, South Korean shipping company Hanjin introduced a new rotation that included its first call at Portland on November 19. 'We've had more interest from carriers in the last six months than we've had in the past two years,' said Eileen Murche, the port's import marketing manager.
Places inland are also vying for a share of the flow of containers from Asia. Missouri is lobbying Mexico for a major trade route from the Mexican coast to the US heartland. The state plans to transform Kansas City and St Louis into inland ports that connect North America to Asia through Mexican sea ports and rail.
'This corridor is a viable alternative to Los Angeles,' said David Eaton, the head of Missouri's office for commerce and agriculture in Mexico.
Even Houston's port, which handles about 65 per cent of all containers entering the Gulf of Mexico, wants to grab more Asian trade. Over the past two years, Houston has increased trade with Asia by 28 per cent.
One of the main drivers behind Houston's ambitions is the world's biggest retailer. Wal-Mart Stores will open a massive distribution centre near the port this year.
The retailer, regarded by many in the industry as a pace-setter in distribution, picked Hampton Roads in Virginia as its east coast port of entry, after logjams started to cause delays on the Pacific coast in 1998.
