WASHINGTON: 2017 will be a pivotal year for the Port of Houston as new and expanded petrochemical plants in the area start churning out what soon could be an additional 500,000 20-foot-equivalent units of annual plastic resin exports. Houston hopes to garner most of that volume, but faces competition from intermodal rail shipments to Asia via the US West Coast. To improve its chances, the port is adding capacity, rebuilding terminals, and working to attract imports to balance export demand.
Competing ports and some shippers question whether Houston’s historically tight supply of empty boxes will handicap the port in competition with intermodal routings via transloading centers in Dallas-Fort Worth, an import hub with a surplus of empties. Roger Guenther, executive director of the Port of Houston Authority, said those concerns are unwarranted. “We’re very confident we will have enough empties,” he said, noting the port occasionally has vessel calls by ships to pick up empty boxes for repositioning. “That’s a good sign that the equipment is going to be here.”
Houston has been pursuing additional import cargo, and has seen success with development of retail distribution centers such as a large Wal-Mart DC in nearby Baytown that was instrumental in attracting Houston’s first all-water Asian container service a decade ago. The port’s traditionally export-heavy container volume now is closely balanced between imports and exports. Through September this year, Houston had 651,156 TEUs of full imports and 686,424 TEUs of full exports, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Markit.
Last year, Houston handled nearly 1.8 million TEUs of full containers, and total volume of more than 2.1 million TEUs of full and empty boxes. Guenther said the port is on track this year to surpass last year’s record volumes, which were boosted by diversions during West Coast labor disruptions. This year’s increase has been fueled by growth from existing customers, and from the launch last summer of an all-water Panama Canal service by 2M Alliance partners Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. The new 2M service, like Houston’s two other all-water Asian services, uses Panamax ships that make Houston their first US call. Houston will need additional all-water vessel capacity to handle a large share of the increase in resin exports. The port is prepared to handle larger ships, additional services, or both, Guenther said.
