“A lot of these [vessels] are probably going to just duck
in to a couple of key ports, and not duck in to every port
along the coast,” McKee said. “They will leave it up to
some small container vessels to go to some of these other
ports, or launch barge service, or truck or rail, to move
these commodities to these other service areas, instead of
bringing these very large ships into each and every port.”
MARAD views the Panama Canal expansion, which
will cost about $5.25 billion, as a means for potentially
reducing the cost of trans-ocean shipping. The expansion,
in particular, impacts those trade routes providing East-West services between the Far East and U.S. East and Gulf
Coast ports, and effects U.S. exports of containerized and
bulk cargos and agricultural commodities shipped to
Asia. Jaenichen said the MARAD study revealed the
effects of the canal expansion on commodities shipments,
and also a major shift with liquefied natural gas (LNG).
“Today, only about 6 percent of the world’s 380-plus
LNG vessels can actually get through the [Panama Canal]
locks,” he said. “When it is opened, 85 percent [of the
LNG] will be able to get through. So the market, essen-
tially, potentially changes for LNG and energy exports and
imports. It’s going both ways. The other thing that ends
up happening now is it becomes cheaper to send it from
the east coast of South America to the west coast of South
America rather than going all the way around the horn.”
The Port of Houston, one of the nation’s largest
parts, is well positioned to receive post-Panamax ves-
sels and, furthermore, benefits as a logical gateway to
the middle of the country. In Houston, port officials
have geared up for increased traffic and built new facil-
ities to accommodate cargo growth, Jaenichen said.
The Port of Houston Authority has tripled the design capacity of its container yards with the buildout of
the Bayport container facility, as well as improved
access to road and rail hubs in the region.
Still, as the canal project nears completion, maritime stakeholders across the country are taking into
consideration an array of possible scenarios, potential
market shifts and new shipping trends in anticipation
of the arrivals and departures of vastly larger containers ships through the expanded canal.
In a testimony before House Transportation and Infrastructure water resources and environment subcommittee
two years ago, as the expansion project was well under
way and the Army Corps was ensconced in a thorough
study of the project, Christopher Koch, president and
chief executive officer of the World Shipping Council,
said: “There is neither a single issue nor solution to how
to prepare for future maritime transportation infrastructure needs. … There is a plethora of studies, opinions and
prognostications about what the effects of the new
[Panama Canal] locks will be on trade flows, ship sizes,
volumes, trans-shipment port development, and which
U.S. ports will benefit by the new locks. … It will probably take some years before it is clear exactly what changes
to cargo flow, and its supporting transportation network,
will result from the new locks.” ;
33 WWW.SEAPOWERMAGAZINE.ORG SEAPOWER / MAY 2015
While West Coast ports generally are capable of handling deeper-draft post-Panamax vessels, the port of Long Beach,
Calif., is replacing the Gerald Desmond Bridge with a new bridge, shown in this rendering, that will allow access to the
port for the tallest container ships.
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