Ports in the Pacific Northwest provide fast access between the U.S. and Asia.

The quickest overseas route between Asia and most of the United States includes the Pacific Northwest. It makes economic sense that manufacturers who are heavily dependent on trade with the Pacific Rim and other parts of the Asian continent use maritime ports in North America’s Pacific Northwest region.

Ports are also main cogs of activity in their local economies. The total number of jobs, both direct and indirect, is often in the tens of thousands, resulting in a substantial amount of income and economic activity.

“Our port in Thurston County (Washington) is an extremely important tool for both industry and commerce,” says Ed Galligan, executive director of Port of Olympia. “Expenditures generated by tenants at the port, as well as their employees, are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This creates tax income for the city, county, and state. It’s a major economic engine.”




 

Port of Olympia's workforce legacy

The Port of Olympia, which specializes in break bulk cargo, has traditionally been a heavy exporter of logs since its beginnings nearly a century ago, fueled in part by its proximity to logging forests of the region and its quick ocean route to Japan. The port also has a multi-generational legacy of skill and dedication in its longshore workforce. “This type of work is in their blood,” Galligan says.

However, a proud past is not keeping the Port of Olympia from developing a future.

The port is growing its windmill blade imports, thanks to rapid growth in the number of wind energy facilities in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. More projects are expected in the future, meaning more business for the port, says Galligan.

The port’s 60-acre terminal consists of three modern, deepwater berths, on-dock rail, a U.S. Customs bonded warehouse, and a complete container yard. There are a number of expansion projects in progress or on the way, including:

•    A major rail enhancement that has added multiple rail sidings and a loop track along the length of the dock, allowing for direct load and unloads.

•    The port is replacing the roof on its 76,000-square-foot dock-side warehouse to ensure its continued capabilities for decades.

•    Within the next several years, the port will begin dredging on the Federal Navigation Channel, the turning basin, the marine terminal berths, and the East Bay for Swantown Marina.

•    The new East Bay District Infrastructure extends from downtown Olympia to the East Bay of Budd Inlet, ensuring the continued development of Port of Olympia’s properties.




 

Strictly business

Ports in the state of Washington play an especially critical role in its economy. The Evergreen State is among the most trade-dependent in the country. The Port of Vancouver helps in maintaining the high priority that the state puts on international trade.

The port has two primary lines of business-marine terminal facilities and industrial development facilities.

“We provide a platform for private industry to conduct business,” says Curtis Shuck, director of Economic Development and Facilities for the Port of Vancouver.

Shuck describes the Port of Vancouver as a “niche port” in bulk and break bulk. Project cargo has also become a niche of the port.

“We do a lot of heavy lifts,” he notes. “We have invested a substantial amount of money in specialized handling equipment such as mobile harbor cranes. We’re the port in the Pacific Northwest to handle this type of cargo.”

Shuck says the project cargo niche has paid off nicely for the port in wind turbine imports. About 25,000 metric tons of wind energy was imported through Vancouver in 2010. While this is a decrease from 101,000 metric tons in 2009, Shuck says wind energy cargo is expected to dramatically increase in 2011 as the Port of Vancouver continues to work with many of the world’s largest importers of wind energy.

The port is also planning for the future. The Centennial Industrial Park development includes more than 100 acres of light industrial property.

The West Vancouver Freight Access Project (WVFA) will make the port’s rail facility among the finest anywhere, Shuck says. The port has received a $10 million award from the federal Department of Transportation’s TIGER II (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) for the project.

WVFA is an on-going, multi-year effort to improve the movement of freight through the port and reduce congestion by 40 percent on the regional rail system. The project is expected to be completed by 2017.




 

Port of Portland expands industrial development

Diversity is a key element for the Port of Portland. The port’s operations include one container facility, multiple automotive facilities, as well as bulk and break bulk facilities.

Despite the economy of the past several years, the port is not afraid to look at strategic land acquisitions, says Sam Ruda, director of Marine and Industrial Development for the Port of Portland. It is in the midst of redeveloping an 800-acre piece of property that was an aluminum smelter plant operated by Alcoa. The first development in the renamed Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park is FedEx Ground, which launched a regional distribution hub last year in a 447,000-square foot facility sitting on 77 acres. The facility replaces an existing operation in the Portland metro area.

At another industrial park-Rivergate Industrial District-Subaru of America broke ground earlier this year on a 413,000-square-foot complex that will include a new automobile parts distribution center, service training facility, and regional offices.

Subaru’s new complex will be the second project within a growing logistics center known as Rivergate Corporate Center III. The port expects the 114-acre property to accommodate more than 2.4 million square feet of industrial space. The site is near Terminal 6, the port’s marine container terminal, and it is suited for marine cargo, rail, and heavy distribution users.




 

The most direct Asia-to-Midwest corridor

Prince Rupert, British Columbia, lies nearly 400 miles north of Vancouver and about 60 miles from the southern tip of the Alaska panhandle. While that may seem to be an out-of-the-way location, it actually lies on the most direct land-sea route between Asia and the North American heartland.

“We have the shortest sailing time,” says Don Krusel, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority. “We’re three days shorter sailing time than Los Angeles or Long Beach to any point in Asia.”

The shorter sailing time translates into cost savings for companies. It’s why many U.S. manufacturers are beginning to use the Port of Prince Rupert for its cross-ocean cargo.

“Customers are finding that their goods are getting to their final destination seven days faster than they ever experienced,” Krusel says. “It’s quicker than [manufacturers] can get with an all-U.S. corridor.”

The Port of Prince Rupert includes the first container terminal built post-9/11, meaning it was constructed with all modern security measures. Every container coming off a vessel undergoes radiation screening.

Cargo enters the United States from Manitoba via the Canadian National Railway. Getting through Customs is an efficient process, Krusel says. At the border, rail cars go through an X-ray machine for an additional dose of security.

By comparison, less than 10 percent of cargo coming into U.S. ports goes through either a radiation or X-ray screening.

Once in the U.S., cargo has a direct route into Chicago. Seventy percent of container traffic using the Port of Prince Rupert is either destined to or originates from Chicago or Memphis, Tennessee.

“We have the fastest time and most secure entry into the United States,” Krusel stresses.

And because the Port of Prince Rupert is situated in a small community, away from a major metropolitan area, there is a substantial amount of land on which to expand operations. The container facility, for example, is surrounded by undeveloped land. The current container terminal has a capacity of 750,000 TEUs per year. The Port Authority is conducting an environmental review, with an eye toward expanding the capacity to more than 2 million TEUs per year. It hopes to break ground on the project in late 2012, with a projected operational date of 2014. wt



Contributing writer Ken Krizner is based in Cleveland, Ohio, where he writes often on economic development and technology issues.