At the Bayport Container Terminal, construction began on a new 25-acre empty container yard, while the Barbours Cut Container Terminal is scheduled to receive three new super post-Panamax cranes later this year.
The U.S. Gulf Coast port saw container volumes for the first six months of 2017 rise 13 percent from the corresponding 2016 period.
Port Houston’s two container terminals – Bayport Container Terminal and Barbours Cut Container Terminal – are both moving forward with expansion plans as container volumes at the U.S. Gulf Coast port continue to grow.
At the Bayport Container Terminal, the busiest at the port in terms of container traffic, construction on a new container yard for empty containers broke ground on Tuesday, the port said in a statement Wednesday. The 25-acre container yard is being constructed by stevedoring and marine terminal services provider Terminal Link Texas (TLT) and is slated to open in July 2018.
Once TLT is able to begin using the new container yard after it is up and running, the company will return the 14 existing acres it currently operates at the terminal back to the port. The port will then use the 14 acres as a loaded container yard, Port Houston Chief Operations Officer Jeff Davis told American Shipper. Currently, TLT primarily handles empty containers on that land, but it also does container repair and chassis repair on the property as well.
The new empty container yard being built at the Bayport Container Terminal is part of the terminal’s master plan. The terminal opened in 2007, and Davis said that at full build-out, it will have 7,000 feet of dock and 378 acres of yard space. The terminal currently has 3,300 feet of dock, and 700 feet of dock under construction that is expected to be completed in mid-2018.
In addition, the terminal currently has 240 acres of yard, but in addition to the 25 acres under construction by TLT, 25 more acres are currently being constructed by Port Houston, Davis said.
Earlier this month, the port revealed that Bayport Container Terminal will be extending its gate hours, effective Oct. 2, due to continued volume growth. Hours of operation will then be from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., with the in-gate closing at 10:00 p.m. Currently, hours of operation at both the Bayport Container Terminal and the Barbours Cut Container Terminal are from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with the in-gate closing at 6:00 p.m.
In addition to advancements at the Bayport Container Terminal, further developments are taking place at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal, which has been in operation since 1977.
In late 2015, the port reconditioned the terminal’s first dock, which currently has four super post-Panamax 100-foot gage cranes with a span of 22 containers wide, Davis said.
Within the last 60 days, the port completed the construction of its second dock, which will be receiving three 100-foot gage cranes with a span of 22 containers wide by late September/early October, Davis said. The cranes for the new dock were built by Shanghai-based equipment manufacturer ZPMC.
Overall, Port Houston has experienced a 13 percent year-over-year boost in container volumes for the first half of 2017, according to recent data from the port.
The port is called by 44 liner services connecting it to regions outside of North America, according to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool, including 19 multi-purpose services, 17 fully cellular container services, five services deploying roll-on/roll-off or pure car/truck carriers, two open hatch services and one container-roll on/roll off service.
Industrial real estate services and investment management firm JLL noted that U.S. West Coast ports are losing share to East and Gulf Coast ports in its JLL Ports Airports and Global Infrastructure (PAGI) 2017 Seaport report. At Port Houston specifically, the report said that “an estimated 250,000 TEUs in new exports will be created by 2019 as newly delivered petrochemical projects ramp up production.”
Resins/plastics and chemicals/minerals account for 46.7 percent of the port’s exported TEUs, the report said.
Looking ahead, production plants are expanding along the Houston Ship Channel, and Katoen Natie is currently completing construction of a 1.4 million-square-foot plastics packaging and distribution facility, the report added.