US west coast regains transact market share, intermodal booms

THE US trend of east coast ports winning transpacific traffic over west coast ports had a reverse with the west coast taking a 70.3 per cent share in first quarter 2009 and 72.9 per cent in third quarter 2010.

According to latest data from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) the increase was mostly attributed to intermodal traffic up 28 per cent year on year in first three months to September.


West coast traffic will be closely watched as the Panama Canal expansion nears completion in 2014 which gave east coast its attraction following growth of all-water services, reported London`s Containerisation International. But with US east coast ports requiring extensive dredging for mega ships, the easterly trending may not be immediate.