The CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, Alberto Aleman Zubieta, is scheduled to deliver a speech Tuesday in Atlanta regarding how much more cargo Savannah Harbor can expect to handle once larger ships from Asia can reach the east coast through the canal, reports David Pendered of SaportaReport.com.
Zubieta has overseen the canal’s push to become what it calls the “cornerstone of the global transportation system.” A big question is how much Asian cargo will continue to use the nation’s two largest ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those ports, Pendered writes, are hurrying to respond to the direct challenge the canal presents to their import/export business, and to their labor markets and local economies.
According to a preview of Zubieta’s scheduled speech at MODEX, a conference for the materials handling and logistics industry: “The expansion of the Panama Canal is certain to change global freight movement and open up new opportunities, but precisely how is yet to be determined.
“By allowing much bigger container ships and other cargo vessels to easily reach the eastern United States, it will alter patterns of trade and is already providing incentives to east and gulf coast ports to deepen harbors and expand cargo-handling facilities.
“The end result should be faster and cheaper shipping of some goods between the United States and Asia.”
Pendered writes that Gov. Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and the state’s two senators are betting that Georgia’s state-owned port in Savannah will grab a significant share of the anticipated new trade.
Zubieta has overseen the canal’s push to become what it calls the “cornerstone of the global transportation system.” A big question is how much Asian cargo will continue to use the nation’s two largest ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those ports, Pendered writes, are hurrying to respond to the direct challenge the canal presents to their import/export business, and to their labor markets and local economies.
According to a preview of Zubieta’s scheduled speech at MODEX, a conference for the materials handling and logistics industry: “The expansion of the Panama Canal is certain to change global freight movement and open up new opportunities, but precisely how is yet to be determined.
“By allowing much bigger container ships and other cargo vessels to easily reach the eastern United States, it will alter patterns of trade and is already providing incentives to east and gulf coast ports to deepen harbors and expand cargo-handling facilities.
“The end result should be faster and cheaper shipping of some goods between the United States and Asia.”
Pendered writes that Gov. Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and the state’s two senators are betting that Georgia’s state-owned port in Savannah will grab a significant share of the anticipated new trade.