Report: North American ports to handle 50 millions TEUs by 2010
North American ports will handle a total of between 50 million TEUs and 54 million TEUs a year by 2010, as growth in volumes continues on all American coasts, according to a report by Ocean Shipping Consultants.
Depending on economic developments, the report forecasts a volume growth of between 42 percent and 53 percent for Pacific ports over the period 2002-2010, and growth of 41-52 percent for ports of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
The report, “Containerization in the Americas to 2015,” predicts a further increase in total box volumes in North America to 60-69 million TEUs by 2015. This would be driven by growth of 22-29 percent over 2010-2015 for North American Pacific ports and an increase of 21-28 percent for Atlantic and Gulf coast ports. The figures include traffic at Mexican and Canadian ports.
The report suggests that North American ports will have enough capacity to deal with the increased volumes overall, but with some pressure points.
“Based on published investment plans, containerport capacity in North America is set to rise by 33 percent to 62.3 million TEUs a year by 2010,” Ocean Shipping Consultants said. However, it warned that capacity is “likely to be most constrained at ports in South America — on both seaboards, but especially the Pacific — and on North America’s Northeast and Mexican Gulf ranges,” it added.
Over the period 1995-2002, “containerport throughput in North America increased by 57 percent to 35.32 million TEUs,” Ocean Shipping Consultants said. “In the wider Caribbean/Central American market, containerport demand climbed by 88 percent to 10.13 million TEUs. South American containerport throughput increased by 87 percent to 7.69 million TEUs,” it added.
The consultants noted that container port volumes in North America continued to expand during the recent economic slowdown.
The report cited major issues that affect the container shipping market in the Americas such as:
* The development of intermodalism and regional North American hinterlands;
* The growth in all-water shipment (via Panama and Suez) between the Far East and the North American East Coast;
* The dynamism of Caribbean transsshipment and the roles of hub-and-spoke, cross-feedering, and deep-sea relay traffic;
* The “stalling privatization” and resulting investment pressures at ports in South America;
* Productivity trends;
* And the increasing use of grounded systems of yard management to boost land utilization in terminals.
According to the report, North American ports accounted for 16.57 million TEUs (or 78 percent) out of the Americas’ total port volumes of 21.36 million TEUs in 1990. For 2002, the corresponding figures were 35.32 million TEUs (or 66 percent) for North America and 53.13 million TEUs for all regions of the Americas.
