India is instituting major improvements in their ports and maritime system. This is crucial, since India is rapidly becoming an important technology and manufacturing center for the world.
Drewry recently put on a webinar about India’s plans.
India is taking steps to improve shipbuilding. The figure below shows regions affected.
India is also driving to increase India-flagged ships, and control more ships to carry their production goods. They want to increase the capacity of trade from India, as well as trade to India.
One aspect is improving waterways, including inland waterways. The figure below shows their goals for 2047.
Funding is important. India does not want to make the mistake many countries have made, seeking external capital, for instance from China. That would not be geopolitically smart, since it creates a dependency on a large foreign state and gives that state some control. But India now is generating excess capital looking for investments, because of the fast development in the country. India can do a lot of it themselves, even including private Indian financing. So India is creating financial incentives.
It’s a demanding agenda.
Drewry claims that India should focus on an ecosystem approach rather than individual projects.
With geopolitics favoring India right now as a manufacturing destination, the projects should all work together to create the overall maritime service system the nation needs.
Coos Bay, OR, USA is pushing for a new West Coast US container port. It will have rail to the port, so that transloading can take place directly to it.
The port planners see a need for another West Coast port of entry for Asian containers that will reach inland via intermodal rail as far as Chicago. The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay has obtained a $25 million grant for pre-planning and pre-construction. The grant will be matched by $25 million from NorthPoint Development, and will be used for environmental review and preliminary engineering activities.
The map below shows why environmental concerns might be considerable. Coos Bay is a small town that’s long been a Mecca for beachgoers and people who love the coastside style of living. A friend moved there from Santa Rosa, in the Bay Area, for that reason.
Google Map of Coos Bay, OR. Red square shows the approximate location of the new container port.
You can see on the map that ingress is through a small strait, with a narrow bay running northward to the Coos River. The port will be on the barrier island, just below another industrial site, a sawmill, according to the planning material. Its projected capacity will be 2 million TEU, or one million forty-foot containers per year.
It’s not a bad idea, geopolitically, to have another West Coast port for containers. It’s a relief valve for the big California ports, which are subject to periodic longshore union strikes and other potential disruptions. Those ports are also major sources of pollution.
The all-rail connection should also make air pollution less of a problem. Perhaps the port can prevent local drayage from causing mammoth traffic and air problems in this pristine area.
Notice Charleston Marine Life Center at the entrance to the strait, a branch of the University of Oregon. Below is a photo of a Dungeness Crab, a local resident; delicious and protected from overfishing. Dredging, which the plan says is necessary, may threaten marine species nearby.
Boxes will move via a short line, Coos Bay Rail Line, owned by the port. It runs north from the peninsula about 137 mi, terminating near Eugene OR at the Union Pacific line. That provides access by rail to all of the central US. And if the UP/NS merger comes to pass, it will provide a single transfer access even to the Northeast US and even Europe. That provides access by rail to all of the central US. And if the UP/NS merger comes to pass, it will provide a single transfer access even to the Northeast US and even Europe.
It’s not clear that more capacity is needed on the West Coast of the US, particularly if interntional maritime trade is resetting and the Asia-US container movements are declining.
Evidently East Coast container traffic is also in decline.
We see a report today of Charleston, on the US East coast, shutting down a 700,000 TEU capacity terminal, Leatherman, because of low demand. It only processed 75,455 containers so far this year. The final capacity of Leathrman Terminal when built out is planned to be 2.4 million TEU. A second berth construction project is being continued. The planned rail yard adjacent to Leatherman, a $690 million project, is being suspended.
Green corridors are a meaningful approach to emissions reduction for shipping. They coordinate the various factors required to make emissions reductions possible. Designating a green corridor will ensure that emissions-reducing fuels will be available in sufficient quantity for the ships calling, and the infrastructure for production and delivery is there. On-shore power will also be available for ships, so they do not need to operate engines just to provide power for the ship support. And in the port, cargo handling equipment can also be designed with cleaner emissions. Properly done, drayage functions will also operate with cleaner power.
It’s great to see a new green corridor connecting China and France. The ports involved are both important stops. And we can anticipate more trade between the EU and China because of the American tariff hoopla.
Supply Chain and Logistics 