Smaller ports gain from short sea shift
Environmental issues may well force ports into co-operation, despite resistance
Although in the main, ports tend to be reactive to supply chain and eco-initiatives like short sea shipping are traditionally based on demand. However, a group of small Californian ports have reversed this pattern.
Bill Lewicki of the Port of Stockton explains that loaded containers carrying lucrative cargo move at a snail’s pace along Interstate 580 – one of the US’ most congested roads – and pass hundreds of thousands of empty boxes on the return trip to Oakland. It wasn’t just the appalling burden on the air quality: a recent study showed that by 2020 the main north-south corridor between Sacramento and Stockton may be almost at a standstill with trucks making up a quarter of this traffic.
The solution is, says Mr Lewicki, coastal transportation combined with a satellite container terminal close to the intermodal facilities. Mr Lewicki estimates this could eliminate more than a million truck trips from California’s roads every year.
The scheme is clever because it responds to particular, local pressures. “Here we have weight restrictions on the roads of 80,000lbs. Once you have taken into consideration the chassis and so on this only leaves room for 50,000lbs of cargo – with the result that boxes travel half full,” says Mr Lewicki. “What this system allows is the stripping and re-packing of the boxes which on average reduces shipment volumes by a fifth – or gains shippers an extra 200 boxes of product per thousand.” Further, it works to keep boxes full both directions as the empties are used by agricultural facilities in the Central Californian Valley, giving producers a helping hand with their exports.
Mr Lewicki thinks it could help with the port’s profile. “Since the Port of Oakland sits in middle of the west coast, it is competing with the likes of LA and Long Beach. However, this service will give Oakland a viable reason to be a first-drop port.” And eventually, he sees other ports joining the service: “We are starting slowly, but we know a lot of people will be watching to see how we do; we have a number of smaller ports nearby so this kind of service could expand, taking in operations like San Francisco, Richmond and Sacramento – and maybe eventually adding deepwater operations.”
Adani Logistics is already moving Suzuki cars from a plant in Maruti to Kochi using a coastal shipping service, but there may be more use of short sea as India’s recent budget has given coastal ro-ro, and incidentally the intermediate and minor ports, a helping hand.
Trucks will now often find it cheaper to take the longer sections of a journey by ro-ro, finishing of the last leg by road. One benefit is that cargo will not be subject to the usual interstate tolls and hold ups, and taking out the driver’s stops this might actually make it faster.
It looks such a good option that some logistics operators are already in the process planning an entry into short sea. Further, it’s useful for India’s numerous smaller facilities, as the major ports put most goods through the same processes as international cargo and they don’t tend to have dedicated short sea berthing.
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