EVERETT: Lower oil prices, a weaker Chinese economy and trade sanctions with Russia are contributing to less cargo passing through the Port of Everett this year. While a decline had been expected, it was greater than what port officials had forecast because of a dramatic drop in cargo for oil projects in Alaska and Canada. “We took a big beating on that one,” said Carl Wollebek, the port’s chief operating officer.
Last year, Royal Dutch Shell used the port to stage equipment for exploring drilling sites off Alaska’s coast. The port also moved a substantial amount of cargo headed for Canada’s shale oil industry. This year, Shell suspended its Alaska exploration, and shipments for shale oilfields has dried up, Wollebek said.
The increase in energy industry cargo in 2015 masked a downturn in timber exports bound for China’s construction industry. The Port of Everett exported 187,861 tons of logs in 2014 and 144,991 last year, a 23 percent decline. Log exports through October slightly are behind where they were 12 months ago. Wollebek said they likely will close that gap by the end of the year. Timber exports are expected to be about the same in 2017, he said.
Economic sanctions between Russia and the United States have taken a toll on Everett’s waterfront. The sanctions came out of Russia’s takeover of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. As a result, the Russia-based Far Eastern Shipping Co. (FESCO) no longer sends a cargo ship to Everett, which used to receive a FESCO ship at least once a month. Another line, Sakhalin Shipping Co. still moves freight between Everett and Russia. At the same time, shipments to the South Pacific and Southeast Asia have increased, Wollebek said.
Fifty-five containers full of soybeans from South Dakota are waiting at the port for a ship headed to Papua New Guinea, he said. The number of ships stopping at Everett is down from last year, but each ship is hauling more cargo. That shift is expected to continue as shipping companies move to bigger cargo ships. One shipping company, Westwood Shipping Lines’ ships are already too big for Everett’s berths.
The Port of Everett is in the early stages of strengthening and expanding its berths — work that port officials estimate will take at least another six years and cost more than $300 million to complete. President-elect Donald Trump railed against U.S. trade relations as unfair and promised to renegotiate or pull out of some international agreements. It is not clear what Trump’s actual trade policy will be, but it could significantly affect Everett’s docks, Wollebek said.
