MAJOR US ports are stretching capacity limits and need to expand to handle growth of inbound shipping, according to the founder of Blue Alpha Capital and former CEO of Trailer Bridge John McCown, reports Bloomberg.
Even before the Baltimore bridge disaster that shut one of the east coast's most important delivery points, space was so constrained at the nation's 10 largest ports that containers unloaded from ocean-going vessels were being stacked six high in some places, said Mr McCown.
With the bridge collapse, London's Drewry Maritime Research analysts took stock of America's east coast cargo handling capacity, reports Ohio's Supply Chain Digest.
As expected the northern and mid-half of the US east coast is New York/New Jersey, with 59 per cent of total volume.
Hampton Roads terminals (primarily Norfolk International Terminal and Virginia International Gateway) handle 25 per cent , with Baltimore at nine per cent, Philadelphia at six per cent and the remainder in Boston, Wilmington (Delaware) and other smaller terminals.
Baltimore has a much larger share of the trade in automobiles, coming in at No 1, handling a record 850,000 vehicles last year.
The stacks can't go any higher without threatening to crack pavements below, he noted.
'Capacity limits are closer than most people think,' he said at the Port of the Future conference at the University of Houston. 'Our container system is approaching its physical limits.'
Over the next 20 years, the US will need to expand inbound shipping capacity by the equivalent of four Ports of Los Angeles, said Mr McCown, a senior nonresident fellow at the Centre for Maritime Strategy.
SeaNews Turkey
Even before the Baltimore bridge disaster that shut one of the east coast's most important delivery points, space was so constrained at the nation's 10 largest ports that containers unloaded from ocean-going vessels were being stacked six high in some places, said Mr McCown.
With the bridge collapse, London's Drewry Maritime Research analysts took stock of America's east coast cargo handling capacity, reports Ohio's Supply Chain Digest.
As expected the northern and mid-half of the US east coast is New York/New Jersey, with 59 per cent of total volume.
Hampton Roads terminals (primarily Norfolk International Terminal and Virginia International Gateway) handle 25 per cent , with Baltimore at nine per cent, Philadelphia at six per cent and the remainder in Boston, Wilmington (Delaware) and other smaller terminals.
Baltimore has a much larger share of the trade in automobiles, coming in at No 1, handling a record 850,000 vehicles last year.
The stacks can't go any higher without threatening to crack pavements below, he noted.
'Capacity limits are closer than most people think,' he said at the Port of the Future conference at the University of Houston. 'Our container system is approaching its physical limits.'
Over the next 20 years, the US will need to expand inbound shipping capacity by the equivalent of four Ports of Los Angeles, said Mr McCown, a senior nonresident fellow at the Centre for Maritime Strategy.
SeaNews Turkey
