PORTLAND, Ore. – West Coast shipping costs could increase, and U.S. agricultural exports are likely to suffer as a result unless the Port of Portland finds a way to replace two departing steamship lines that carry cargo containers, officials said Thursday.
Portland is dwarfed by the ports in California. But any decrease in container traffic through the Pacific Northwest, and its rail connections to the Midwest and South, could increase costs for all Pacific freight and cargo, according to industry and state officials at a shipping summit.
The California ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, along with Tacoma, are already congested and struggling to keep up with container traffic, officials said.
Congestion is so bad in Los Angeles the port has a $40 surcharge per container that is refunded if the shipper loads or unloads after peak hours, according to industry experts at the conference.
“This is a big national problem,” said Peter Friedmann, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition.
The coalition organized the conference after Hyundai Merchant Marine and the “K” Line announced they would halt service to Portland by the end of the year, leaving only Hanjin Shipping to handle oceangoing container traffic along the Columbia River.
The big 20- to 40-foot containers can be packed with just about anything, from electronics to clothing to perishable fruit.
Farmers as far inland as the Midwest use containers to ship agricultural products such as fruits, peas and lentils, or specialty crops such as hazelnuts from Oregon, the world’s second-largest producer.
But Hyundai and “K” Line are moving to bigger vessels that need deeper water than the Columbia River, which already adds costs for the 104-mile transit down the river, compared with the ocean ports in California.
President Bush announced Aug. 13 on a campaign swing through Oregon that he would urge Congress to approve a $150 million dredging project to deepen the Columbia River channel by 3 feet to an average of 43 feet all the way from Portland to the Pacific.
Bush rejected funding in his initial federal budget proposal in February, and his decision to support the project was welcomed by regional business and political leaders.
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