From 1993 until the start of the Great Recession in 2008, North America’s ports experienced a compound annual growth rate of 6.2 percent. Although there were ups and downs, every year other than 2001 produced growth. There was a sense of certainty regarding consumption and production supply chains.
Since 2009 there has been, and continues to be, less certainty. In North America, and especially in the U.S., there has been dislocation in manufacturing, financing and employment that affects American trading partners and neighbors.
Out of these dislocations comes the challenging requirement to build and support a more dynamic, migrating and security-conscious supply chain. The container industry, ports and intermodal providers move most of the global merchandise trade and a growing part of agricultural trade.
Providing transportation assets and port infrastructure to meet the needs of variable intermodal throughputs from origin to destination and vessel capacity is one challenge. Equally challenging is consistently meeting service, security, quality, EDI, environmental, multiple regulatory and traceability requirements.
With uncertainty in consumption and production, supply chain partners will face demands to deliver and ride through volatile times with their customers.