Wider, deeper Panama Canal likely to change trade patterns
Ships can bypass West Coast ports
LOS ANGELES – A major expansion of the Panama Canal is raising alarms on the West Coast, where business, labor and public officials are warning that the project threatens to dent the region’s role in international trade.
The $5.25 billion project will make the canal wider and deeper, allowing huge freighters from Asia to bypass West Coast ports and head straight to terminals on the Gulf Coast and East Coast.
The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together handle about 40 percent of the nation’s imported Asian goods, could lose as much as a quarter of their cargo business by some estimates after the Panama expansion is completed in 2014.
The ports, neighboring towns and railroads have launched improvement projects aimed at keeping them competitive. One proposed project, for instance, would speed the loading of cargo onto trains; others eliminate bottlenecks or increase capacity so that the ports remain alluring to importers.
But a coalition of business, labor and government contends that these efforts are jeopardized by opposition from some residents, environmental groups and others.
The coalition, which calls itself the Jobs 1st Alliance, says rail and other projects are crucial if Southern California hopes to keep its place as a center for international trade. Directly and indirectly, economists say, cargo movement employs more than 500,000 people in the region.
The coalition has launched a campaign called Beat the Canal and plans to act as an advocate for specific projects, pushing for faster action and fighting against environmental and other reviews that become excessive, Baker said.
Few places host a system as complex as the Southern California seaports and the vast regional network of truck routes, rail lines, bridges, freeways and warehouses that serve it. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the biggest U.S. port complex and the world’s sixth-busiest harbor.
The Jobs 1st Alliance fears that the ports could lose as many as 100,000 jobs when the Panama Canal overhaul allows much larger ships to bypass California.
The biggest ships that can squeeze through the Panama Canal now carry 4,400 to 5,000 containers. But modern cargo vessels routinely hold three times as many of the big metal boxes, so importers often use West Coast ports to land their products from Asia. Then the containers crammed with apparel, toys and other goods move from ships to trucks or trains and on to warehouses and retailer shelves throughout the U.S.
A wider Panama Canal would accommodate some of the biggest ships afloat – 12,600-container vessels – which will present a vastly improved “all water” cargo movement option for Asian goods bound for the southern and eastern United States.