Ports & Infrastructure

Five Reasons to Keep an Eye on the East

By Peter Hull

Sure, the Port of Los Angeles had its own television show on the National Geographic channel.

But while container volume at fellow West Coast mega terminals dwarfs that of many East Coast hubs, a certain expansion project in Central America could prove to be a boon for Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports.

From about 2014, a widened Panama Canal is expected to bring more and larger ships to the Southeast, and port officials from Charleston to Houston have their eyes on the prize. Here are five reasons why the West should look East.

1 South Carolina

The S.C. State Ports Authority is bringing much needed capacity to the Port of Charleston. But its efforts to develop a dredge disposal site along the Savannah River could cause the biggest splash.

Last September, the SCSPA broke ground on a $600 million, three-berth terminal at the former Charleston Navy base. The expansion, scheduled to come online by 2013, will increase capacity at the port by 50 percent.

But the SCSPA is really making waves away from its traditional home port. The agency is teaming with its chief rival, the Georgia Ports Authority, to jointly build and operate the Jasper Ocean Terminal.

The site sits on more than 1,500 acres on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River on land owned by the State of Georgia. The land is 12 miles closer to the open sea than the Port of Savannah and is generally regarded as the last site on the eastern seaboard to build a port from scratch.

2 Georgia

In addition to being in cahoots with South Carolina, the Georgia Ports Authority has grand expansion plans of its own.

In order to achieve its throughput goal of more than 6 million TEUs by 2018, the GPA will invest $1.2 billion in expansion projects and equipment upgrades over the next decade.

Savannah will spend more than $300 million on equipment; $35 million on berth upgrades; $181 million on container storage facilities; $54 million on gate and other related projects; and $145 million on miscellaneous improvements.

3 Florida

As part of its plan to become a major East Coast hub, the Northern Florida Port of Jacksonville, commonly called Jaxport, has partnered with container terminal operator TraPac on a 158-acre facility.

The terminal, scheduled to open in about six months, will serve as Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ U.S. South Atlantic base. In addition to MOL, Jaxport also has entered into agreements with Hamburg Süd and Hanjin Shipping Co. to expand the carriers’ presence at the port.

The MOL and Hanjin deals alone will triple the port’s container throughput by 2011.

4 Louisiana

During the next 12 years, the Port of New Orleans will spend $1 billion on an ambitious expansion plan designed to position the Big Easy as the leading Gulf Coast gateway.
High on the port’s list is a proposed $500 million–plus expansion of the Napoleon Avenue terminal, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

The $100 million terminal opened in 2004. A second phase is expected to open by 2012 at a cost of about $240 million, and an eventual third phase — built by 2020 and costing another $240 million — will treble the port’s annual capacity.

5 Texas

In the Lone Star State, port expansion can be summed up in one word: Bayport.
The Port of Houston Authority was running out of space at its Barbours Cut Container Terminal and needed to add capacity.

The 89-acre Bayport Phase I project opened in February 2007 and includes 60 acres of container yard and 2,000 feet of berth. A second phase will add 50 acres, with 50 acres more and an additional berth coming in a third stage.
If officials in Houston ever wonder if they’re headed in the right direction, they need only look at development outside the terminal gates.

Thanks largely to the Bayport development, distribution companies have added more than 14 million square feet of warehouse space at sites near the port, all banking on the promise of yet more growth in the shipping business.