A recent report by The Bond Buyer indicated that officials at the Port of Los Angeles are concerned that ports along the East and Gulf coasts will become bigger competitors for cargo as the Panama Canal expansion nears completion.
The May 18 report by the daily finance newspaper, titled Panama Expansion May Help Competing Ports Topple L.A. From its No. 1 Position, quickly found its way via email into Gov. Rick Scotts office.
Port industry experts have been saying for several years that the Panama Canal expansion is a game-changer, because when it is complete, ships hailing from booming Indian and Chinese ports might keep going past Southern California to other ports of call, Bond Buyer states.
Scott has used the canal expansion to give a focal point in drawing attention to the need to upgrade the seaports for trade that has already increased from Latin and South America.
For Los Angeles, the threat is seen by East Coast ports undercutting costs that shipping companies pay to West Coast ports.
Those on the West Coast may be a little ahead of themselves in terms of Florida and other East Coast ports cutting deeply into the massive Port of Los Angeles' status as the top facility in terms of the volume of container traffic.
Taken together, the 10 ports in Florida with container operations would place Florida fourth in terms of cargo, behind California, New York/New Jersey and Washington.
The competition right now for the larger of Floridas seaports is made up of the ports in Mobile, Savannah, Charleston and Fairfax, Va., and New Jersey/New York.
The Florida Ports Council doesnt see the Sunshine State as the port of entry for cargo heading to the western parts of the nation.
Florida ports are working to capture expanding north-south trade routes in this hemisphere, Jennifer Krell Davis, vice president of public affairs for the Florida Ports Council, responded in an email.
We do not service the West Coast markets typically, but we can service Florida, the Southeast, and we have a two-day reach to all of the major metropolitan areas in the eastern U.S.
The selling point is reduced time, and thus costs, in moving freight from South America and Central American cargo from ship to truck or rail traffic.
Eventually, business leaders in Florida see more traffic from Asia, not for Florida as the jump on and off location for cargo into the heartland, but the expansion of trade with goods in the Sunshine State.
Gov. Scott directed Enterprise Florida last month to become more active with eastern Asian nations, including making the preliminary steps to conduct Floridas first trade mission to Japan or South Korea since 1997.
As for the canal, while no one seriously expected the$15 billion to $25 billion expansion project to be completed on time, the deadline has officially been moved.
Last month, the Journal of Commerce reported that Grupo Unidos por el Canal officially announced they wouldnt be able to meet the October 2014 deadline to complete work on the locks, pushing the project to April 2015.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
