Sponsored: Port NOLA's Vice President/CCO Bobby Landry discusses the return of Breakbulk Conference to New Orleans, acquisition of New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, tariff impacts, and expanding cargo handling capabilities.

As exports from the region waned, expansion of all-water services from Asia and a boom in import distribution facilities contributed to double-digit growth in imports to US Gulf ports last year.

If you sense that matching a US Gulf Coast port channel’s depth to the depth of the new, expanded Panama Canal would generate more business opportunities, you’re correct.

KCS will add a weekly container train between New Orleans and Dallas to feed empty containers to port and provide intermodal capacity to support imports. The Port of New Orleans is trying to leverage its newly acquired Public Belt short line to expand intermodal service.

The long-delayed boom in plastic resin exports is forecast to finally arrive this year, sector officials say, and a second wave is likely by 2022. That is expected to create opportunities for ports on all three US seacoasts, but it will also stress port, truck, and intermodal rail operations.

With the long-awaited boom in US production of synthetic resins expected to finally materialize this year, shippers are urging carriers to add more services from the Gulf to Asia. But will ocean carriers respond?

A downriver site on the Mississippi River would provide expansion capacity and no bridge restrictions.