VOL. 126 | NO. 202 | Monday, October 17, 2011
SPECIAL EMPHASIS�Logistics
By Bill Dries
Updated 2:32PMFor months, those in the Memphis logistics trade have talked about the coming impact of the Panama Canal expansion, slated for completion in 2014.
The potential is the accommodation of larger ships carrying more containers to eastern seaboard ports as well as Texas? Port of Houston and those goods moving from the east and south through Memphis via truck and train.
The expansion was part of the motivation for Dunavant Enterprises Inc. acquiring Trans Gulf Transportation Inc., a Houston-based company specializing in intermodal drayage and trucking, at the start of the year ? shortly after Dunavant shifted its focus from cotton to logistics.
Peter Hurme, the publisher and senior editor of Cargo Business News, later in the year told those in the industry he is confident Memphis can handle more cargo from larger vessels arriving in those ports.
But Hurme has some concerns about whether the southeastern ports are ready.
?East Coast ports are going to start to feel what it?s like to be a West Coast port,? he said during a July visit to Memphis, speaking primarily of California?s Port of Long Beach, the nation?s busiest. ?It?s more a matter of, is everybody else going to be as up to speed as Memphis.?
The Panama Canal Authority, meanwhile, has another vantage point.
Rodolfo Sabonge, vice president of market research and analysis for the Panama Canal Authority, said the larger ships the canal is expanding to accommodate are already a reality and the carriers running those ships will ultimately decide the success of the canal expansion.
?The carriers already decided to build the larger ships. The larger ship is there and they need to make it profitable and they will put it to use,? Sabonge said during a recent Memphis visit. ?The expansion of the canal will allow the larger ships to move to all of these ports.?
Sabonge says Memphis remains an important connection no matter the decision.
?I don?t think that Memphis is going to change in terms of its importance for logistics and trade. I think that you are located perfectly,? he said. ?I think that Memphis is in the center of the battleground between the east and the west. If the east coast ports aren?t ready, they will continue to receive the cargo from the west.?
The larger ships will have more ports to choose from, but the question then becomes what kind of inland network begins and ends at those locations.
?The question is which of these ports are going to be ready,? Sabonge said. ?And if they are going to be ready, are they going to have the connectivity with the rail? And if they have the connectivity with the rail, will they have the distribution centers there already from the major retailers??
Sabonge told those in Memphis logistics the expanded canal is an option that can be a north-south link as well as the obvious east-west connection.
He also said despite the economic boom in Latin American economies, the countries are not well-connected by ground, thus relying on ships ? and the larger ships take longer to reach destinations without the expansion of the canal.
?We?re not really here to compete with any of the other alternative systems for transportation,? he said. ?We feel we are part of a network and we are providing a good way to have alternatives.?
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/oct/17/as-panama-canal-expands-city-located-perfectly/
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