Teamsters, you rock. Oh, wait. No you don’t. Some carrier from the Orient has said they are DONE with portland, oregon due to slow downs and sometimes no activity at all when trying to offload or onload and will no longer be using portland for any of their business. So, how cost effective is it to do the Panama Canal transit and go to the Gulf Coast or even the east coast ports?
China will save us. A Mexican port to transfer containers via rail to the US is being discussed.
http://www.abqjournal.com/466666/news/rail-plan-could-link-nm-mexican-port.html
Also:
http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/in-mexico-rail-is-on-a-roll/
And:
http://www.kcsmartport.com/pdf/SmtPrtOneRoute.pdf
A larger Panama Canal transit to the Gulf and East Coasts ... will help.
Apparently, some smaller dry product is being - expensively - flow in and out.
“Some carrier from the Orient has said they are DONE with portland, oregon due to slow downs and sometimes no activity at all when trying to offload or onload and will no longer be using portland for any of their business.”
I have seen numerous mentions of avoiding West Coast ports in financial statements by companies saying they have found alternative routes for their supplies and merchandise. McDonald’s said it was using all alternatives to get fries to critical overseas markets. It has also been casually alluded to in other business articles. Business in the ports won’t dry up, but it will drop off for a long time.
a lot of container ships are too big for the Panama Canal aren’t they?
I think the plan is to land the stuff in Mexico and deliver it to the US on NAFTA trucks.