Getting a headstart

The Port of Miami, already a powerful economic engine in South Florida, is firing on all cylinders, in spite of a weak economy.

Continued growth is projected for the cruise business, where it’s already a leader. On the cargo front, Miami expects to benefit from shifting trade patterns as a widened Panama Canal comes on line in two and a half years’ time.

Preparations for meeting future demand are well underway; port director Bill Johnson describes a $2bn capital programme to fund projects slated for completion by late 2014.

The centerpiece of a three-pronged investment initiative, with funding cobbled together from local, State and Federal sources, is a tunnel that will link the port (on Dodge Island, in the middle of Biscayne Bay) with Route I-395, a branch of the US interstate highway system. The result will be a smooth flow of truck traffic, no longer forced to navigate Biscayne Boulevard. Tunnel boring began in late 2011.

Then, a dredging program, estimated to cost $150m, will deepen the channel into the port from the Atlantic, from its present 42 ft depth to 50 ft. The dredging, which will also include a widening, will enable calls by post-panamax vessels of sizes up to 8,500 teu.

The third leg of the triad is a $50m renewal of a rail link that would link the docks to the Florida East Coast Railway (which has a yard 12 miles west of the port, in Hialeah). This regional railway is a link to the big national “Class 1” railroads. “We intend to penetrate deep into the Southeast,” Mr Johnson said.

As the world’s busiest cruise port, Miami’s final passenger count for 2011 shows traffic in excess of 4m for the fourth year in a row; roughly half of these come from Carnival Cruise Lines, and Norwegian Cruise Lines accounts for one quarter. Two state-of-the art cruise terminals, able to handle the new breed of megaships, have been completed.

Mr Johnson, who previously ran the Miami International Airport, has borrowed ideas regarding terminal design, with the aim of importing security and baggage handling efficiencies from the airline world.

Recent victories include MSC, which will move its Caribbean sailings to Miami starting next year; Miami will also be attracting Disney Cruise – which will no longer be tethered exclusively to its Port Canaveral launchpad.

Projections call for 4.5m annual passengers in 2020, and, by 2035, for a 5.9m annual passenger count. Port planners are considering multiple alternatives for handling 5,500 passenger vessels with LOA’s of 1,200 ft.

On the cargo front, the port’s 2011 container flows registered in excess of 900,000 teu, ranking 11^th in the US ports’ league and first in Florida. The port’s nine gantry cranes (two of which are able to work post-panamax ships) are being converted to electric power, from diesel. Four additional cranes, also able to work the new generation of vessels, have been ordered from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, following approval in mid-January by the Miami-Dade County Commission.

The trade mix, which presently shows a surplus of exports (mainly to Latin America), is expected to shift in the coming decades, with imports playing a more important role. The Port’s “Master Plan 2035” looks for annual teu throughput to reach over 1.5m in 2020, assuming that Miami’s streamlined rail and road linkages enable it to push into the southeastern United States.

By 2035, the midpoint teu forecasts exceed 2.5m boxes, assuming additional penetration beyond the present hinterland, mainly in Florida. The game changer would be an increase in the import business as additional Asian goods are delivered to the US east coast by an all water route.

Consultant Martin Associates, in a report presented to Miami’s planners, said: “1.2m teu is the current identified potential Asian cargo moving into Florida from other ports.”

The Master Plan hedges slightly on whether such a dramatic growth spurt will be possible, noting that increases to levels above 3m teu/year would require a ramp-up in container handling capability from the current 10,350/acre up to 15,000/acre. The planners suggest that investment in productivity (and reduce dwell time), most likely with rail mounted gantries, might be required.

Also under consideration is a fundamental shift in strategy towards attracting distribution centres – a mainstay of the game-plan for other southeastern US ports – as more Asian cargo comes on.

Future funding may take an additional dimension in Miami (and elsewhere); the Martin Associates report notes the increasing role of the private sector in funding port infrastructure.