NEW HAVEN: The noise and bustle of nearby neighborhoods fade away at New Haven’s sprawling port. An oil and chemical tanker floats placidly at a dock. A tug pushes a barge out in Long Island Sound. Only occasionally do trucks rumble up to a scrap metal business or deliver materials for road work.
What was a key port for lumber and other goods dating to Colonial times is, like other New England ports, facing a reckoning after a lengthy decline.
In the region that nurtured the beginnings of New World commerce with whaling, fishing and shipbuilding, state and local governments are taking stock of aging infrastructure at deep-water ports. As they move to stake out their share of global trade, the challenge is how to stay relevant in an age of ever-larger ships.
“There are so few people who know about our deep-water ports,” said Judith Scheiffele, executive director of the New Haven Port Authority. “I think it’s kind of taken for granted.”
New England’s ports saw their national rankings in terms of total trade plummet since the 1970s, a trend that only accelerated with the Great Recession. New Haven, which ranked 33rd in the nation in 1972 with 13.1 million tons, ranked 57th in 2013 with only 8.4 million tons, according to the American Association of Port Authorities.
Shipping activity at Port Qasim on February 11
KARACHI: Three ships namely, Glen Canyon, Al-Salam- II and TSM Pollux carrying Containers, Gas oil and Palm oil were arranged...