USWC to 'lose 5pc of market to USEC' with wider Panama, local dredging

ASKED by Bloomberg, US east coast ports said they expect to grow only one per cent a year at the expense of their west coast rivals as the widened Panama Canal and their own harbour dredging gives them greater access to bigger ships carrying more cargo.

But not that much and not that fast, most agree.

East coast ports expect these two elements will allow them to capitalise on increasing tonnage, said a lengthy report from Bloomberg BNA (Bureau of National Affairs), the news agency's Washington-based service for "legal, tax and compliance professionals".

The port of Baltimore says the expansion has allowed it to attract new business from Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and Evergreen. 

"You're going to see the same amount of cargo on fewer ships," said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official Steve Coleman.

"We are expecting that the opening of the expanded Panama Canal will result in the diversion by 2020 of no more than five per cent of the containerised imports currently routed through US west coast ports," said Jock O'Connell, international trade adviser for the LA consulting firm Beacon Economics.

The Australian infrastructure and environmental services company Cardno Ltd also projected a five per cent shift in market share from west coast ports to the east and Gulf coasts.

Carno project director Bob West said growth at east coast ports will stem both from taking some market share from the West and "growth in trade itself". 

Dredging at the Port of Savannah is scheduled to be completed in 2019 and the port of Charleston, SC, is expected to begin handling 14,000 TEU vessels later this year. 

Also, a project to raise the Bayonne Bridge's roadway to 215 feet above water from 151 feet to give larger ships access to other large terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey will not be completed until late 2017.