A victory in a critical beauty contest now under way among shipping terminal operators at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma could again make Tacoma the busiest container port in the Puget Sound.
If a Port of Tacoma terminal operator wins, as many as 400,000 container units now handled annually at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 18 could be shifted to the Port of Tacoma.
Those 400,000 units would be a dramatic boost for Tacoma’s diminished container business, putting the port back in the same league as it was before one of its biggest clients, Maersk Line, consolidated its operations with French container line CMA-CGM in Seattle in 2009.
The Port of Tacoma now projects it will handle some 1.5 million container units this year. The Port of Seattle will handle about 2.1 million.
At stake is the business handled by three shipping lines in the Grand Alliance consortium, NYK Lines, OOCL and Hapag Lloyd. All three now call at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 18. The three lines share capacity throughout the world to cut duplication of routes and to provide more frequent service for shippers.
John Wolfe, the Port of Tacoma’s chief executive, said the alliance issued a request in September for proposals to handle the three lines’ cargo in Puget Sound.
The alliance members didn’t disclose whether all would call at the same terminal or split their business among different terminals in different cities.
The shipping lines and the terminal operators aren’t saying much about the contest.
NYK Lines, for instance, emailed a vague reply to a reporter’s question.
“At this time we are exploring all options including Tacoma. Once our position is finalized, we will release a statement detailing our decision,” a company spokesman wrote.
In Tacoma, APM Terminals on the port’s Sitcum Waterway and Washington United Terminal on the Blair Waterway are reportedly making pitches to the alliance. In Seattle, SSA, the operator at Terminal 18, and Eagle Marine Services, operator of Seattle’s Global Gateway North terminal are seeking the alliance’s business.
Much of the sales effort aimed at the three shipping lines is in the hands of the terminal operators. Those terminal operators lease their terminals from the ports. The ports themselves, other than providing moral support, aren’t directly engaged in the sales effort.
NYK was the shipping line for whom the Port of Tacoma was building a huge new terminal on Blair-Hylebos Peninsula when the economy nose-dived. The shipping line and the port mutually agreed to halt that development after the port had acquired 193 acres of land and a score of businesses. At the time, NYK said it intended to move its operation to the partially vacant APM terminal. Maersk Line had called at APM until it moved to Seattle.
Washington United Terminal on the Blair Waterway recently saw its pier extended and improved. It is one of several Port of Tacoma terminals that have excess capacity. Filling those terminals with new clients would give the Port of Tacoma new business without the huge cost of building a new terminal from scratch. The original NYK terminal cost might have exceeded $1 billion had it been completed.
The decision about whether to stay in Seattle or move to Tacoma is likely before year’s end. The move could be accomplished as soon as midsummer next year.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
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