East Coast Ports May Not Need to Dig Deeper

East Coast container ports have plenty of capacity to handle the bigger ships that will be coming through the Panama Canal after it completes a third set of locks in 2014 and may not have to deepen their harbors as much as they planned.

A panel of port executives and consultants told The Journal of Commerce's 5th Annual East Coast Maritime Conference in Jersey City on September 27 that East Coast ports are unlikely to gain market share from West Coast ports as they did during the period from 2002 through 2008.

If East Coast ports' market share of Asian imports remains at present levels, they will have to compete with each other rather than West Coast ports for whatever incremental all-water growth comes to the East Coast after the new locks are completed, said John Martin, a port consultant.

Because the volume of all-water Asian imports growth is growing slower than before the recession, East Coast ports won't have to build as much infrastructure as they had thought. Some ports are ready now. "New York will be ready and Norfolk will be ready," said Frank Harder, a principal with the Tioga Group.

Jim Brennan, a partner with Norbridge, said many East Coast ports may not have to deepen their harbors more than 48 feet because the big ships that come through the new Panama Canal locks will burn so much fuel reaching the East Coast that their draft won't be deeper than 47 or 48 feet, even if they are rated at 50 feet.

Most of the post-Panamax vessels that will be able to transit the new locks after 2014 will have capacities in a range from 6,000 to 8,000 20-foot equivalent units, "the workhorses of the all-water fleet," said Richard Wainio, CEO and executive director of the Tampa Port Authority.

Source: Journal of Commerce