In an era of increasing cargo specialization, cargo diversification in the Pacific Northwest has been key in lessening the impact of the economic downturn. - By Martin Rushmere, AJOTLogistics considerations are taking up more time at ports along the Oregon and Washington seaboard, which are also feeling the effects of the space squeeze from shipping lines, coupled with big rises in rates. Container repositioning problems are being reported at the big ports of Seattle, Tacoma and, to a lesser extent, Portland.
Not that the ports themselves can do much about it. “Our hands are tied,” says Seattle spokesman Mick Shultz. “Imports are down for a start, while most of them are destined for the metropolitan areas whereas exports are from rural areas, which means the logistics are more difficult. Also, northwest ports benefited from the low backhaul rate previously, but now volumes are up. The rates have risen. Most of the shippers understand the situation.” Although port officials don’t anticipate any major redeployment of service strings in the Pacific Northwest, there are signs that carriers are adding slots. According to port sources, Hanjin has indicated that they intend to reinstate the Seattle call of their PSX service…although it hasn’t happened yet. Some other strings have added vessels, partly due to slow steaming. For example, “K” Line will make modifications to its Japan/Asia - North America West Coast services starting in April. This includes adding container capacity to the Pacific Northwest by using six 5,200 TEU vessels in their K-PNW service that calls Tacoma. Although almost all ports in the two states were affected by the recession of the last 18 months, they did not suffer as much as the big California ports, largely because their business is diversified and does not rely on container traffic. Also, sound planning has allowed them to get around bottlenecks as well as avoid sudden crunches on handling and throughput. This is especially true of the Port of Portland, which will have to cope with a four-month closure of three Columbia River locks, which are being modified and upgraded by the Army Corp of Engineers. BNSF is increasing the number of trains to make up for the cancellation of many of the 5,000 barge loads during that time. Says port spokesman Josh Thomas: “A small amount of traffic will be lost because of the outages, but good cooperation from the railroad and truckers will mean only minor disruptions.”
 The loss of the “K” Line service – the direct link to Japan – last year has continued to hamper the port, with container traffic down. But break-bulk business has softened the blow, with grain up 20 percent and potash/soda ash doing very well. Vessel calls are down 18 percent on 2009, but tonnage is up 10 percent to just over 1 million tons.
 The port is pushing ahead with capital development, spending $50 million on maritime projects over the next two years, much of which will go on rail facilities. In contrast to Portland, Grays Harbor is doing excellently and has just come off a record year. Vessel calls were up 25 percent, imports/exports increased 16 percent, and revenue rose almost 20 percent to more than $11 million, and the port is hoping for another great performance in 2010. Marine terminal revenue grew from $5 million in 2008 to $7 million last year. Profit was $200,000 compared with a loss of $1 million in 2008.
“We have strong partners, a proactive labor force and have customers prepared to invest significant amounts of money,” says deputy executive director Leonard Barnes. Among these partners are the Pasha Group and Westaway Terminals, which have just finished a liquid bulk terminal.
Soybeans are the mainstay of the port, the biggest in the US for the commodity, with 680,000 metric tonnes going through last year, much of it destined for the Far East. Seattle and Tacoma are concentrating on infrastructure and intermodal development. “We have the capacity to double our container volume without a