Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Panama Canal overhaul may shift opportunity to gulf

Project delays and complexities promise to direct more shipping our way.

By STEVE HUETTEL, Times Staff Writer
Published January 24, 2008

TAMPA - A massive project that will expand the Panama Canal to handle twice the traffic and much larger ships presents a golden opportunity for ports on the Gulf of Mexico and East Coast.

But it's unlikely many will be ready for bigger vessels and more containers stuffed with electronics, clothing and other consumer goods from China when the wider, deeper canal opens in 2015, maritime officials said at a conference Wednesday.

Why? Too little money for channel-deepening projects and a permitting process that takes a decade or longer; roads and bridges too crowded for trucks carrying containers; and not enough rail connections to move cargo out of ports.

"How are we going to take advantage of these fantastic opportunities?" asked Sean Connaughton, boss of the federal Maritime Administration, which promotes sea borne commerce.

China is by far the largest exporter to the United States, and about 60 percent of its products headed for gulf states and the East Coast arrive in containers that enter the country through West Coast ports. The steel boxes go on trains to the Midwest, then trucks carry them to their final destination.

That rankles port directors like Tampa's Richard Wainio, who says the routing runs up costs for manufacturers and, ultimately, consumers. But the "all-water" route is slower and huge vessels that cross the Pacific are too big to pass through the Panama Canal's gates.

Experts at the two-day conference in Tampa, which drew nearly 200 attendees, predicted the $5.2-billion expansion will shift more ship traffic to gulf and East Coast ports through the canal.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.

[Last modified January 23, 2008, 23:10:26]