The Port of Oakland moved earlier this year to avoid the landside congestion that has snared cargo traffic at major gateways along the West Coast. In April, it introduced two smart phone applications that give truckers and their clients as well as the port itself better visibility of trucker turn times. The apps, which use Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS technology, tell drivers how long they will wait to enter marine terminals and how long their transactions will take.

The port said it commissioned these apps to get a better handle on pick-up and delivery times. A wireless network was set up throughout the port to connect the drayage truck community with terminal operators, cargo owners and other stakeholders.

Besides reflecting the port authority’s desire to boost efficiency and create smoother flows, the introduction of the apps indicates its optimism about volume growth. Throughput in the first four months of this year shows upward momentum, especially on the export side. A 7% hike in containerized exports in April marked the fourth consecutive month of rebounding volume after an 11.5% slump in 2015. For the January-April period Oakland has reported a 16.3% rise in export, while overall volume went up 11.3%.

Oakland is unusual inasmuch as most US ports are dominated by import flows rather than exports. Its upward momentum in traffic is in line with the trend at other West Coast gateways, though.

According to the Pacific Maritime Association, container traffic on the Pacific Coast rose 7.3% in the first quarter of this year, driven by a 6.4% increase in imports.

Buoyed by eight consecutive months of rising throughput, the Port of Long Beach is projecting 5% growth in cargo this year. February produced record volumes at the second-largest port in the US, with imports up 45%. While this jump reflects the near paralysis of February 2015, it came on the heels of 5.4% growth in container traffic for the full year 2015. A slowdown in imports from China has been made up for by double-digit growth in traffic from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, according to the port authority.

The Port of Los Angeles reported a 42% surge in container volume for February. Pundits and port authorities alike have emphasized that these increases more than compensate for the decline in traffic seen a year earlier, when labour issues choked throughput at the West Coast ports. They take this as evidence that the ports on the Pacific Coast have not lost market share to other regions. During the slowdown in the first quarter of 2015, East Coast ports clocked up double-digit increases in throughput, as their western rivals saw cargo decline in two-digit numbers.

With labour peace restored and more megaships on the horizon, port executives on the West Coast have expressed confidence that their volumes will grow again this year. Besides the apparent recovery in momentum, they have pointed to the emergence of megaships capable of carrying north of 10,000 TEUs, which are prone to focus on the high-volume trunk routes serving the major gateways. Last December saw the arrival of the first 18,000 TEU ship on the West Coast, courtesy of CMA CGM. Maersk Line has run 15,000 TEU vessels to Southern California, and other carriers regularly call on the ports with ships that can carry 10,000-14,000 TEUs.

However, there are indicators that point to an ongoing migration of cargo from West Coast gateways to ports on the Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast. According to one source, both East Coast and Gulf Coast ports have increased their share of imports from Asia.

Ports like Savannah have reported rising volume of imports from Asia. Savannah, which benefited a year earlier from the problems on the West Coast, has continued to grow, showing an 8% rise in container throughput in February.

Forwarders and pundits have predicted that the opening of the expanded Panama Canal this June will accelerate the creeping shift of trans-Pacific flows to ports on the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast, citing high labour costs in the west, especially at the port complex of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which handles north of 70% of all West Coast container volume.

As for those megaships that seem to favour the large ports on the Pacific Coast, CMA CGM announced in early May that it was pulling its 18,000 TEU vessel Benjamin Franklin from the trans-Pacific market to deploy it in the trade lane between Asia and Northern Europe instead. The vessel was the first 18,000 TEU ship to call at West Coast ports, starting last December. After trials at Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle, the French shipping line declared that it would field six such megaships across the Pacific, but those plans have since been revised.

By Ian Putzger

Correspondent | Toronto