Related links ~ Obama Says U.S.-Panama Trade Pact Will Benefit Both Nations (one of three trade deals to be submitted to Congress) and .. Qatar and Panama Sign Agreement ... and .. The Widening of the Panama Canal Opens New Doors for the Region
Gulf States Prepare for 2014
Many upgrades underway to accommodate Panama Canal expansion.
From a business perspective, the states along the Gulf Coast are in an advantageous position because ports in the region will be among those that will benefit when the Panama Canal expansion project is complete in 2014.
The expansion will create an all-water route from Asia to the East and Gulf Coasts via the Canal. The Canal’s capacity will double by the transiting of more and larger vessels.
GulfCoastport officials believe the Canal expansion, and the less expensive, all-water route, fits together nicely into the view that manufacturers are looking for ways to minimize inland transportation costs.
“The Canal [expansion] is changing the dynamics for cargo between Asia and the United States,” says Alec G. Dreyer, CEO of the Port of Houston Authority. “It will become more economical to move product through the Canal for product targeted toward the central U.S.”
Wade Elliott, senior director of marketing for the Tampa (Florida) Port Authority, notes that with the expectation of higher fuel costs and new distribution strategies, “companies will want to be closer to their customers.”
Collaboration pays dividends
Port Manatee, Florida and the Panama Canal Authority have renewed
and extended a marketing and information sharing agreement for an additional five years, which will push the agreement past the Canal completion date. Port Manatee, which is the closest U.S. deepwater port to the Panama Canal, becomes the second U.S. port to have a five-year strategic alliance with the Canal Authority.
“We have gained a unique appreciation for Panama’s role in Port Manatee’s future,” says David L. McDonald, executive director of Port Manatee.
A new 1,584-foot-long container berth is nearing completion at Port Manatee and nearly 5,000 acres of largely undeveloped land adjacent to the port has been incentivized to attract international shippers.
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The berth will be dredged to a depth of 41 feet at mean low water. The project, on target for completion by the end of 2011, is the final piece of Port Manatee’s 11-year, $200 million expansion endeavor. The new berth can accommodate Panamax-sized vessels and sits adjacent to a planned 52-acre container terminal, aimed at attracting new cargo expected once the Panama Canal expansion is complete.
“This opens the door to advance Port Manatee’s future in containerized shipping,” McDonald points out. “To attract Class A carriers, we have to offer a Class A facility.”
Ports prepare for business increase
Gulfport, Mississippi, which is home to the largest fruit importation operation on the Gulf of Mexico with two tenants, Dole and Chiquita, operating weekly inbound and outbound shipments, is in the midst of a strategic master plan for expansion that will add 84 acres of new capacity, allowing it to handle an increase in containerized traffic and accommodate new tenants.
Gulfport received $570 million in federal funding to help make the improvements, which will stabilize the port in case of future storm events and prepare it for an expected surge in imports and exports within the next three to five years, says Don Allee, executive director and CEO of the Mississippi State Port Authority. (Gulfport had previously replaced about 400,000 square feet of shed space and all but one of the seven docks destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.)
The state of Mississippi signed a memorandum of understanding with the Panama Canal Authority to increase trade at Gulfport. The canal expansion will provide the state with considerable opportunities for increased trade and worldwide shipping, Allee points out.
The Port of Tampa, preparing for an expected growth in container business, last year completed the most recent phase in an ongoing expansion of its container terminal from 25 to 40 acres, Elliott says. The terminal now includes 2,100 feet of berth space, three rail-mounted container gantry cranes, a 100-ton mobile harbor crane, 104 reefer plugs, and 43-foot water depth.
It is also busy improving intermodal access. Construction is underway on a $500 million project that will give trucks entering and leaving the port direct access to Interstate 10. On the rail side, the port is partnering with CSX to construct a new facility to allow 100-car-long unit trains of ethanol direct entry into the port, where it will be blended with inbound gasoline.
Maritime gateway to the heartland
The Port of Houston lies in the southeast corner of what is considered the Texas Triangle, with Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the Austin/San Antonio region. It is a market of more than 25 million consumers. Within 1,000 miles of Houston is a population of 100 million people.
From a cargo and freight moving perspective, the Port of Houston is a centralized location for shipments to and from an area that encompasses east of the Rockies, west of the Ohio Valley and south from Canada. “We characterize ourselves as the maritime gateway from Texas to the Heartland of America,” the Port of Houston Authority CEO Alec Dryer explains.
To meet future business, the port is upgrading its two container facilities, Barbours Cut and Bayport. Barbours Cut, the older of the two, is at full build-out and can comfortably handle 1.7 million TEUs per year. Dreyer says plans are on the board to refurbish Barbours Cut.
Bayport is being built in phases, as dictated by business. The port authority is adding 1,330 feet of berthing space to the current 2,000 feet and adding 50 acres of container yard to the current 110 acres.
In anticipation of increased volume because of the Panama Canal expansion, the port is further expanding the facility. At build-out, Bayport will have a design capacity of 2.3 million TEUs. The channel depth has already been widened to 530 feet and deepened to 45 feet, which will allow the port to handle larger vessels. Target date for completion of Bayport is 2018.
The Port of Houston expects to invest about $1.5 billion in the two container facilities.
Houstonis the largest break bulk port in the country. Dreyer emphasizes investment needs to continue in this category to accommodate the trend of heavier, more concentrated cargo.
“We [also] know we have to continue to upgrade the infrastructure for road and rail,” Dreyer says. “The landside infrastructure has to receive a corresponding investment as the building of the waterside infrastructure.”
Nearby, Port Freeport, Texas, is expanding its operations with the construction of the first phase of its Velasco Terminal, which will add cargo handling capabilities. The terminal will have a new 800-foot-long dock and 20 acres of backlands. Eventually, the port will offer 2,400 feet of berthing space and more than 90 acres of supporting land.
Land has long been one of Port Freeport’s greatest advantages, with about 7,500 acres, strategically located to the open Gulf waters, and available for future development, says A. J. Reixach Jr., executive director and CEO of Port Freeport.
On the rail side, Union Pacific is putting a new bridge in place over the Old Brazos River, eliminating present weight restrictions. Roadway developments are led by the launch of a design and engineering project to elevate a major intersection involving Texas Highway 36.
Specialized cargo handling
The Port of Mobile, Alabama has undergone tens of millions of dollars in upgrades in recent years, which has helped drive major economic development projects to the state of Alabama.
The port designed and built a specialized steel handling facility that helped convince Germany-based ThyssenKrupp to site two operations—a carbon steel mill and stainless steel mill—in Alabama, rather than neighboring Louisiana.
“There is nothing like this facility anywhere in the world,” says James K. Lyons, director and CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority, which operates the Port of Mobile.
The freestanding marine terminal has barge handling capability located behind the ship berth, and it is equipped with three wide-span gantry cranes, each having 125 feet of outreach and 150 feet of back reach. The terminal, which has a draft of 45 feet, is capable of discharging 25,000 metric tons of semi-finished slabs from vessels and loading 10 barges per day, whether or not a vessel is in berth. The facility has the capacity to accommodate 150,000 metric tons of slabs.
Other facility upgrades are underway to make it more cost effective for companies to ship out of the Port of Mobile rather than New Orleans or Savannah, Georgia. The biggest example of these upgrades, Lyons says, is the Mobile Container Terminal. “The terminal has a broad impact, because it helps smaller companies that only ship a few containers a month, and it helps companies that ship large quantities,” he points out.
http://www.worldtradewt100.com/articles/print/87434
