Ports of Florida and beyond must ready to handle ever-increasing waves of cargo

Bigger ships delivering larger waves of cargo pose significant challenges for ports and connective infrastructure, according to industry leaders gathered recently in Tampa, Fla. For ports of Florida and beyond, the keys will be enhanced productivity and better landside links, Steve Cernak, chief executive and port director of Broward County, Fla.’s Port Everglades, told participants in the eighth annual Shifting International Trade Routes Conference, held Jan. 29-30. “You’re going to have to be more productive as vessels get larger,” Cernak said at the event, hosted by Port Tampa Bay and co-sponsored by the American Association of Port Authorities and the Transportation Research Board in cooperation with the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Cernak observed that the United States has always had great technology and collaboration can make the most of it, commenting, “Shame on us if we don’t leverage that.” Better intermodal connections are critical, too, he said. “The last mile makes the difference,” Cernak said, noting that, at Port Everglades, the Sunshine State’s busiest containerport, rail and roadway links have recently been significantly enhanced. Speaking on the same panel, Doug Wray, leading U.S. terminal operator Ports America’s Tampa-based vice president for commercial national account management, said that, as the United States has the highest port labor costs in the world, it is imperative that port facilities maximize labor efficiency. “The global container shipping industry is on the verge of potentially unprecedented change, driven by larger containerships, evolving alliance structures and expansion of the Panama Canal,” Wray said.

“Investment in new ships, overcapacity and consolidation all put pressure on the shipping lines, which translates into pressure on the ports and terminal operators,” Wray continued. “At the same time, pressure to invest in equipment and technology is required to efficiently handle the larger vessels.” Also speaking in the same session, Bruce E. Cashon, senior vice president and chief commercial officer of terminal operator NYK Ports LLC, said improved marine terminal velocity and density depends upon technological and equipment enhancements, including automation tailored to meet individual needs, as well as encouragement of off-peak operations. “Megavessels are here to stay,” Cashon said. “The future is here and will continue to test facility capabilities.

“Uber-alliances will increasingly be the staple of major trade lanes,” Cashon added. “These alliances will financially and operationally challenge ports and terminal operators.” Brian Black, vice president of global ocean carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., expressed similar views in another session, commenting, “The trend toward megaships is driven by economies of scale and is here to stay. “The customer will benefit from megaships – once the infrastructure catches up!” Black exclaimed, cautioning that it hasn’t yet done so: “The whole supply chain is impacted by congestion all along the way.”

At a media briefing held in conjunction with the conference, Port Tampa Bay’s port director and chief executive officer, Paul Anderson, was among those calling for sufficient federal funding of transportation infrastructure. “The infrastructure our grandparents left us – and literally built – is failing,” Anderson said, adding that ports have been particularly neglected when it comes to funding: “For the most part, we have been the stepchild of transportation.” Kristin Decas, chief executive officer of Port of Hueneme, Calif., and chairwoman of the American Association of Port Authorities, told media that the U.S. economy could suffer $3 trillion in losses by 2020 if appropriate transportation infrastructure investments aren’t made, while AAPA’s president and chief executive officer, Kurt J. Nagle, said that infrastructure both in and connecting to ports suffers from insufficient investment. When Anderson, Decas and Nagle were asked by the American Journal of Transportation if they anticipate Congress passing long-term successor legislation to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, or MAP-21, before its extension expires May 31, each said the prospects are highly unlikely.

Other conference participants expressing similar skepticism to AJOT were Chris Smith, intermodal policy and program manager of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; Louisiana Secretary of Transportation and Development Sherri LeBas, who chairs AASHTO’s Water Transportation Committee; and Robert E. Martinez, Norfolk Southern Corp.’s vice president of business development, formerly Virginia’s transportation secretary and U.S. associate deputy secretary of transportation. Indeed, one could easily argue that U.S. transportation infrastructure is no better off now than it was seven years ago, when the first Shifting International Trade Routes Conference was held in Tampa, the brainchild of Richard Wainio, a former Panama Canal executive who at the time was port director and chief executive of the Tampa Port Authority. Marianela Dengo de Obaldia, manager of strategic relations for the Panama Canal Authority, told this year’s conferees that the canal expansion project is 85 percent complete and currently on target for opening in early 2016. But she said the ability of the new third set of locks to handle containerships with capacities of as many as 13,000 to 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units may already be inadequate to meet needs spurred by the huge vessels deployed by mega-alliances. “If we need to go to a fourth set of locks, it depends on the demand,” she said, adding that the path for an additional canal passageway is already laid out. John D. Pauling, vice president of transportation, ports, marine terminals, rail and intermodal for WorleyParsons Group Inc., said he believes the Panama Canal will soon have to be further expanded to allow passage of containerships such as those of the Maersk Triple E series, with capacity of 18,000 TEUs. He added that the Hong Kong-led effort to develop a competing canal across Nicaragua by 2020 bodes to be “a game-changer in global trade,” as it is being designed to allow transit of ships carrying as many as 25,000 TEUs. And Juan Carlos Croston, vice president of marketing for Manzanillo International Terminal SA, near the Panama Canal’s Atlantic opening, said “dry canals” across Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, as well as the established trans-Panama railway, also are anticipated to handle growing volumes of intercontinental waterborne trade. (See next page for photo coverage of the conference reception)