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WOOING “BIG SHIPS”
Like Oakland, the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA)—
which operates oceanside and inland ports in Charleston,
Dillon, and Greer—experienced an uptick in activity last
year. As of November 2019, SCPA had seen a 7% year-over-year increase in volume, moving 855,959 containers through its Wando Welch and North
Charleston container terminals since July.
It saw a 36% increase in automobiles processed through the port, with 79,238 vehicles moved thus far in its fiscal year 2020.
SCPA also is benefiting from shifting trade
flows as more ships transit the expanded
Panama Canal and call on Gulf and East
Coast ports, which is a driving force behind
its ongoing expansion and upgrade efforts. Those include
retrofitting and upgrading the Wando Welch terminal,
building out the first phase of the new Leatherman terminal, opening a second inland port in Dillon, and launching
its harbor-deepening project.
“The name of the game in the port industry is to prepare
for the big containerships,” says Jim Newsome, SCPA’s
executive director. “We’re locked and loaded as far as our
[capital expenditure] plan is going.” By the end of 2021,
SCPA will be able to handle four 14,000-TEU container-
ships at one time, Newsome says.
He adds, “We can’t worry about trade wars; that’s beyond
our control. We have to focus on infrastructure and having
it ready on time, so the ship lines see us as reliable.”
A few hundred miles up the coast from Newsome’s South
Carolina port complex, the Port of Virginia has accelerated
its efforts to become the deepest port on the
U.S. East Coast. It has started the first phase
of a commercial-channel dredging project
to deepen the channel to 55 feet.
Launched in October, the project “tells
the ocean carriers we are ready for your
big ships,” said John F. Reinhart, CEO
and executive director of the Virginia Port
Authority, in a release. When complete in
2024, the $350 million project will enable the port to simul-
taneously accommodate two ultra-large container vessels,
which “is a significant competitive advantage for Virginia,”
the port said in the release.
LONG BEACH’S LONG GAME
Business is also relatively robust for the Port of Long Beach,
which projects that 2019 will be the second-best year in its
history despite a lukewarm global economy and the U.S.-China tariff battles, according to Executive Director Mario
Cordero.
For Cordero and Long Beach, it’s full speed ahead on a
series of multibillion-dollar infrastructure improvement
and expansion projects. Among those is the $1.5 billion
replacement of the original 50-year-old Gerald Desmond
Bridge with a new, larger span, which will open to traffic
this spring. “Fifteen percent of the nation’s container cargo
goes over that bridge,” Cordero says.
The port also is proceeding with the third and final phase
of the Middle Harbor project. Some 211 acres of this $1.4
billion investment in a state-of-the-art automated marine
terminal are in operation. When fully completed in early
2021, it will have the capacity to move from 3. 3 million to
3. 5 million containers, which, Cordero says, would rank it
as the sixth-largest marine terminal in the U.S.
Infrastructure aside, Cordero says the long game for the
Port of Long Beach is an unwavering focus on operational
excellence. “The American shipper has choices,” he says.
“We have a geographical advantage [as] the gateway closest
to Asia, the most important trade partner for the U.S. But
[the differentiator] is the way we move cargo in an efficient,
predictable manner [with] the type of operation that, again,
[ensures] the customer is well-served.”
Cordero adds that the IMO 2020 mandate may have a silver lining for West Coast ports. Noting that fuel surcharges
will be lower on shorter routes from Asia to West Coast
ports versus longer routes to Gulf and East Coast ports via
the Panama Canal, he says he’s curious to see “whether or
not the [higher] cost of fuel leads some shippers to now see
the West Coast in a more favorable light.” ;
