HOUSTON — More than 800 attendees at the third annual Houston International Maritime Conference (HIMC24) on Thursday drilled down on everything from President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs to exports and emerging markets.
The three-day event, which began Wednesday, is hosted by Port Houston. It brought together professionals from across the international transportation and logistics industry for a series of panels addressing key challenges and opportunities impacting the maritime industry.
Port Houston is currently the No. 1 port for U.S. tonnage from ships and is ranked second for container exports.
“We’ve been growing at 30% every year since we started the Houston International Maritime Conference three years ago, and it’s just really a testament to the interest level and the importance of this gateway to our nation,” John Moseley, the port’s chief commercial officer, said to kick off the event.
Here are four takeaways from Thursday’s panels and discussions.
Trump’s tariff plan looms over the freight industry
On the campaign trail, Trump said he would impose a 10% to 20% tariff on imports entering the U.S., with tariffs as high as 60% to 100% on all goods from China.
The aim of the tariffs is to pressure U.S. companies that manufacture overseas to move production to the U.S., Trump said.
The effect of the tariffs on shippers, logistics providers and transporters came up during several panel discussions throughout the day.
“With import tariffs, does the increase result in an increase of return-shoring and nearshoring to Mexico?” asked moderator David Hudson, president of Industrial at The Hanover Co., during a discussion titled “Gateway to Growth: Leveraging Port Houston’s Cargo Base for Success.” “Do you foresee a point when exports become the headhaul for ocean carriers because of increasing rates? If that happens, what impact would that have on U.S. production and exports?”
Alex Buck, group president of supply chain solutions at Houston-based Quantix, said the impact of the tariffs on a company’s bottom line could largely depend on the demand for shipping capacity across the supply chain.
Quantix is a supply chain services provider to the chemical industry, including dry bulk and liquid chemical transport. The company has facilities across the country, including the Gulf Coast region serving Port Houston. The port is the nation’s No. 1 gateway for resin exports, handling about 60% of all resins exported from the United States in 2023.
“We saw a huge increase in ocean carrier rates post-COVID, and if demand for resin is there overseas, as we saw post-COVID, exports will continue,” Buck said. “If we’re seeing the current demand and the rates increase, it’s going to have a really significant impact on exports. It just will not make it cost-effective, and it will outweigh the arbitrage that we have here from a price-to-earnings perspective.”
Carl Bentzel, a commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission, said Trump’s tariffs could further alter global manufacturing patterns.
Bentzel was nominated to the commission by then-President Trump in November 2019. His term on the FMC ends in December.
“I am wondering whether companies will change their manufacturing patterns, go to other places, like Vietnam, Mexico,” Bentzel said. “We’re seeing nearshoring as a result of the pandemic already. When CEOs came in and started to talk to their logistics managers for the first time … they said, ‘Well, I want to sell 20% more this year, and I’m not getting what I need. So get it done.’ So logistics managers are looking at nearshoring. Mexico is a venue. There’s a lot of problems with the ports there. I don’t know what the answer is, but I think you will see alternatives.”
Attracting and retaining workers a challenge across supply chains
Across industries that serve the global freight industry, finding qualified workers is becoming more and more of a challenge, trade stakeholders and facilitators said.
Buck said finding and retaining talent has been tough in the current marketplace.
“This is a huge issue for us,” he said. “We have a lot of high-churn jobs, and I think Houston, actually for us, is much better than the East Coast. There is a lot of knowledge on resin packaging and exporting here, so we have a much bigger pool of people to choose from, but you’ve got to understand the quirks of each region. For example, East Coast workers hate working overtime. They want to work 40 hours. You have to set up your whole shift schedule to manage that. Houston, if you do not offer overtime, you will not get somebody to work at your facility. We’ve had to learn that as we got into the export business over the last five years. Then once we do that, how do you keep the employees? That’s the biggest issue, because we’re losing money every time we train somebody and they leave. We can’t keep raising wages. Otherwise we will go out of business.”
Keys to successful supply chains: Digital connectivity, consistency
Shenna Bennett, global logistics director at Dow Chemical, said one thing she wishes were better across the supply chain is digitally connected infrastructure.
“The key to success for all of us, long term, particularly as we compete with other ports, other gateways, and as the U.S. competes with other global ports and international shipping, is digitally connected infrastructure,” Bennett said during a panel discussion titled “Port Houston – The Natural Export Gateway.” “Digitally connected infrastructure has to come into play here, where we’re all connected and can manage the flow of material and products accordingly.”
The panel discussed factors making Port Houston a natural export gateway, including its location and infrastructure.
Terry Glass, vice president of polymers at Argus Media, said consistency is another important factor in the success of ports.
“Consistency is really the key thing, from a resin producer standpoint, that they need to be able to predict,” Glass said. “Transparency is important to be able to plan. What the industry really can’t tolerate are these shifts or swings and spikes, particularly outside of the U.S. When we’re looking at global trade, I see a lot of this in Latin America where we can see prices jump in one month from $3,000 to $5,000 for a container. Those are just some of the key things that we need to have more consistency.”
Port Houston’s $1B Project 11 slated to finish in January 2026
The Houston Ship Channel Expansion – known as Project 11 – recently saw the completion of its fifth contract on budget and six weeks ahead of schedule, officials said.
The $1 billion effort began in June 2022 and is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
Weeks Marine is scheduled to finish hydraulic dredging in the Redfish to Bayport segment by the end of the month, providing a completely widened ship channel through Galveston Bay to the Bayport Ship Channel.
Underscoring the immediate benefits of the updated channels and Project 11, Port Houston handled the largest container vessel to date in its history when the 11,356 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit CMA CGM Cassiopeia arrived at the Bayport Container Terminal on Sept. 24.
“The Houston Ship Channel isn’t just a waterway, it is the lifeline of our region, our state and nation,” Charlie Jenkins, CEO of Port Houston, said. “The ship channel drives our economy. It is critical for driving U.S. exports and ensures goods from around the world reach your doorstep with more than 200 public and private facilities alongside it.”