Features

Strategizing for the Future

What West Coast ports are doing to prepare for a successful tomorrow

By Richard Knee

West Coast ports are facing a variety of issues, including environmental concerns, East Coast competition, and a tumbling dollar, among others.
See how these same ports are facing an uncertain future with clear strategies and a defined purpose.

…San Diego

Some customers have delayed plans to locate their operations at San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, pending the outcome of a November ballot initiative to double-deck the facility, with the possibility of siting hotels, restaurants and even a sports stadium on the upper tier, Ron Popham, the port authority’s senior director, maritime, says through a spokesman.
The proposal is widely seen as a “threat” to the terminal and to “thousands of jobs along the waterfront,” Popham says. He adds that despite the nation’s economic woes, particularly in the housing sector, the Port of San Diego hopes to attract additional shipments of sand and cement, as well as windmill components, and steel to serve a military shipyard and the military itself.

…San Francisco

San Francisco port officials are working to attract more carriers in the breakbulk, bulk, project cargo and rolling-stock sectors, as well as more cruise lines, yachts, water taxis, excursion boats and fishing boats, says spokesman Jim Maloney.

Maloney adds that the port faces a number of obstacles:

• lack of funding for infrastructure upkeep and development
• low rail tunnel clearances and schedule conflicts between passenger and freight   trains on tracks between the city and points south
• perceived highway congestion issues
• environmental concerns stemming from handling of coal, bauxite and perishables    requiring methyl bromide fumigation

The port authority is working with multiple maritime advisory and community groups to deal with the various issues, he says.

…Stockton

Stockton’s port, some 70 miles east of Oakland, is “starting to move into the energy sector” and has a chance to move some perishables, spokesman Bill Lewicki says.
A refrigerated warehouse is due to open there in November and could quickly land some customers from the surrounding San Joaquin Valley, with export containers at times difficult to locate. Stockton is also home to a Pacific Ethanol plant, in which Valero has a 50 percent stake. Yara Group is building a bulk fertilizer facility there, Lewicki says.

…Longview

The Port of Longview, Wash., “is focusing on cargo diversification in the areas of import and export steel commodities, heavy-life and construction components and various drybulk commodities in the carbon, mineral and agricultural sectors,” Marketing Director Valerie Harris says.

“Our objective is to build strong business relationships with our customers. We maintain regular contact with them and stay abreast of issues they face in their particular markets. The more we know about their business, the greater level of service we are able to provide at competitive rates.”

…Seattle

The container ports — Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach — all tout their logistical advantages and their efforts to reduce pollution, especially from truck, vessel, tug and on-dock equipment exhaust. They all face similar challenges. They must gear up for bigger ships and rising cargo volumes amid limited space and competing interests — specifically, residential and commercial developers wanting to milk the value of waterfront property.

“Our port hopes to attract new carriers and new shippers to use the container capacity we’ve developed over the past 10 to 12 years,” Seattle’s Mick Shultz says. “We have invested more than $1 billion over that time period to improve our maritime and landside infrastructure, as well as expand and upgrade our marine terminals. We have the capacity to double our current container volumes to about 4 million TEUs with minor additional investment.”

…Oakland

“The Port of Oakland has recognized for some time that in order to grow its market share of the intermodal portion of its business, it would need three key elements: deeper water, state-of-the-art container cranes and greater capacity,” spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur says.

“With its Vision 2000 maritime expansion program, the port nearly doubled the size of its maritime area and added 19 super post-Panamax cranes,” she says. “Older terminals are being modernized and in 2009, the Oakland Harbor Deepening Project will have been completed, providing 50 feet of water to accommodate 8,000-plus-TEU vessels. This infrastructure investment is improving efficiency, averting gridlock and protecting air quality.”

She adds, “One way the Port of Oakland is looking to increase its intermodal business is by attracting first-port-of-call services. Oakland is interested in seeing major retailers establish distribution centers in Northern California so that more cargo can flow through Oakland to local and national destinations.”

…Long Beach

The Port of Long Beach hopes to lure more of the growing business in trade with the Far East, spokesman Art Wong says. “There is a lot of competition for that trade among U.S. West Coast ports, Mexican and Canadian West Coast ports, and with expansion of the Panama Canal, competition from East Coast ports. We’re planning improvements to our port facilities to remain competitive.”

…Metro Vancouver

With oversight of three British Columbia ports — Vancouver, Fraser River and North Fraser — Port Metro Vancouver has a customer base comprising the container, bulk, breakbulk, rolling-stock and cruise sectors and jurisdiction of 370 miles of shoreline.
“Without getting into specifics, we can say that we want to grow all the business that makes sense,” spokesman Michael Smithbower says. “Container, cruise and bulk all have different strategies and opportunities to grow, along with, of course, challenges that are different in each sector. Service delivery is a focus to the port operating partners.”