Seaboard Marine restructures its Gulf Coast services to improve efficiency and transit times amid flat trade with Central America.
Seaboard Marine is restructuring its US Gulf Coast network to consolidate port calls on short-sea services, according to a report by New York's Journal of Commerce. This strategic move comes as US trade with Central America has remained flat since 2022 and is facing new policy changes.
The revamped Gulf service will connect Houston and New Orleans with Honduras, Guatemala, Kingston, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Seaboard aims to enhance reliability and improve transit times with this new service.
Previously, Seaboard operated separate services from Houston to northern and southern Central America, as well as one between Houston and Kingston and another from New Orleans. The carrier has not commented on whether these existing services will be affected by the changes.
The new service primarily covers countries under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which reduced tariffs on US exports starting in 2006 and was updated in 2009 to include the Dominican Republic.
US exports to CAFTA-DR nations peaked at $4.6 billion in June 2022 and were recorded at $4.4 billion in March 2025, while imports reached $3.8 billion, according to Census Bureau data.
This year, the US imposed a 10 percent reciprocal tariff on CAFTA members, with exemptions for goods covered under the agreement. Most countries negotiated deals to avoid these tariffs; however, Nicaragua faces the potential loss of exemptions over the next two years due to US concerns regarding human rights and labor policies.
