in fact, the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach has not always been the main container gateway port to the United States. This crown once belonged to the port of New York/New Jersey. In recent decades, containerization combined with increasing imports from Asia and transcontinental railways have shifted the market situation to the west coast of the United States, but now the situation is back to the east coast.
1805, the first American merchant ship docked in San Pedro Bay, California. In 1850, California became the 31st U.S. state, and port activity flourished. In the early 20th century, the population of Los Angeles exploded, further boosting commerce. In 1912, two years before the opening of the Panama Canal, the main channel was dredged.
the 1960 s and 1970 s, the East Coast remained dominant as the shipping industry shifted to container shipping. According to historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), in 1981 the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports still handled 66% of the country's container trade. The West Coast of the United States was in the lead until 1989, according to BTS.
The McCown report collates the respective East Coast/West Coast data, covering the top 10 ports in the United States. By 2000, the share of imports from West Coast ports had risen to 65%, according to McCown. The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach handled 4.9 million TEU containers that year, more than three times the Port of New York/New Jersey.
at the turn of the century, the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach had clearly taken the crown, but the rivalry was far from over.
East Coast Ports Take Back Market Share in
overseas imports from the United States have surged, the size of container ships has also been expanding. Between 2000 and 2015, the Port of Los Angeles's imports grew by 57%. During the same period, container imports rose 113 percent at the Port of New York/New Jersey; 288 percent at the Port of Savannah; 90 percent at the Port of Norfolk; and 148 percent at the Port of Houston.
2015, the West Coast's share of imports in the top 10 U.S. ports has fallen back to 57%. Subsequently, the expanded Panama Canal opened, allowing large ships to transit from Asia to the east coast, and the gap between the east and west coasts was further narrowed. As of last year, the East Coast's share of imports stood at 49%.
East Coast and Gulf Coast ports transitioned from 36.5 percent of total imports in 1995 to 43.3 percent in 2015 (the last year before the Panama Canal expansion), equating to an average shift of 34 basis points per year, according to McCown.
"subsequently increased from 43.3 per cent in 2015 to 48.8 per cent in 2021, equivalent to an average annual shift of 92 basis points, suggesting that the Panama Canal, which allows container ships more than three times the size to pass, is accelerating this shift and will continue."
Deutsche Bank transportation analyst Amit Mehrotra insisted in a 2020 interview with American Shipper that the pull on the east coast is a long-term trend. "Keep in mind that 60 percent of the population lives in eastern Mississippi," he said. "At the end of the day, if you go to the West Coast, you're going to have to get most of the goods east by rail to where the demand centers are."
"The expansion of the Panama Canal and the East Coast Ports project allow for larger ships, which, combined with the majority of the population in the east, will disproportionately benefit the East Coast ports."
The outbreak also brought more changes. In the first half of 2021, the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach is favored as shippers rush to bring in more cargo. Then there was a major congestion at the Southern California port. More cargo was diverted to the Panama Canal route. And concerns about the outcome of labor negotiations on the West Coast give the East Coast another advantage.
East Coast and Gulf Coast ports actually led slightly with a 50.2 percent share of imports in the three months to April. Even so, the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach is by far the largest gateway port in the United States, handling twice as many container imports as the Port of New York/New Jersey.
looking ahead, McCown believes choosing the East Coast makes more sense for many importers.
"When I started at McLean Industries in 1980, the transatlantic trade routes of American shipping lines were almost as big as the trans-Pacific trade routes." He told American Shipper.
"Another important factor helping the West Coast (in addition to the increase in Asian imports) is the growth of double-decker train service, which allows for faster access to eastern population centers than the all-waterway service (via the Panama Canal)."
"But from a simple cost, emissions and congestion point of view, there are now too many containers coming in from the West Coast." McCown believes that "if only these three factors are addressed and transit time is ignored, then only about 25% of import containers should enter the country through the West Coast."
source: search air network