The lifeblood of the world’s economy is trade. Any downturn or slowdown in the global economy will naturally affect ports and their ancillary business partners. At this time, however, we do not see any downturn or slowdown in trade to our port.
What we are seeing that is different from the past are increases (and we expect them to continue) in alternative fuel generation cargo such as wind generators. This is a growing part of our trade equation. We also expect the petrochemical industry to continue to grow as demand for its products increase.
As I wrote in last year’s Review & Outlook, most of the Asia trade to the U.S. is containerized cargo entering the West Coast ports. Congestion at these ports continues to be a challenge that the expansion of the Panama Canal should help alleviate. It is imperative that ports prepare for this canal expansion by investing in their infrastructure rail, highway and channel improvements, for example and do so as quickly as possible.
Port security will continue to play a crucial role in the port industry for the foreseeable future. This is an area of definite focus as a new administration prepares to take office in Washington. We need to remain vigilant and flexible to respond to any security challenge. This is not the time to become complacent.
In the future, we also could see trade increase between the U.S. and countries in Central and South America, including Cuba. The social and economic ties between the two regions of our hemisphere are growing every day.