Rails, Ports Go to China to Market West Coast

Executives of the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads will join representatives of the six major West Coast container ports to promote the ports as an efficient and environmentally-friendly gateway for Asia's trade with the United States.

The ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach and the two western railroads will attend the World Shipping Summit in Qingdao, China, on Nov. 11-13. They will highlight advantages such as deep water, extensive intermodal services, a large concentration of distribution facilities and a skilled labor force.

The joint marketing effort of the ports and railroads is significant because West Coast ports are attempting to stem the loss of cargo to ocean carriers serving the eastern region of the United States with all-water services to the East Coast. The West Coast still handles more than 70 percent the U.S. containerized trade with Asia, but the market share has declined the past three years.

Competition will increase further when the Panama Canal is widened in 2014 to allow 8,000 to 10,000 TEU vessels to transit the canal and serve East Coast ports directly. The mega-ships call regularly at West Coast ports today, but they are too wide to transit the Panama Canal on all-water services to the East Coast.

Intermodal rail service is a key factor in the ability of West Coast ports to dominate the inbound trade from Asia to markets in the Midwest and Ohio Valley. The western railroads offer frequent service from the West Coast. They are double-tracking their main corridors to the Midwest and are establishing intermodal rail hubs in the Midwest and in Texas.

However, the Norfolk Southern is developing its Heartland Corridor and CSX its National Gateway project to connect the Mid-Atlantic ports with the Midwest and Ohio Valley. The corridors will be completed by the time the Panama Canal is enlarged, and they will offer double-track intermodal service to the large distribution hubs in those regions.

The West Coast port and rail executives are expected to emphasize the frequency and cost-competitive intermodal service that is available today. The West Coast intermodal routes will be improved further over the next few years as the railroads expand their track and lift capacity.

Also, a recent study by Herbert Engineering found that moving containers from Asia through West Coast ports and on to destinations in the interior United States via intermodal rail results in reduced fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions than by serving those regions by all-water services to the East Coast.