US government lacks port focus

Speaking with Port Strategy, Mr Foltz said that if the US is to continue to drive the 24%-25% of world GDP that the US economy is responsible for anything less than world class port infrastructure is “unacceptable”.

“This nation needs to be more interested in improving and modernising our ports,” he said. “We have to get out of a mode of studying and finding reasons not to invest in our port infrastructure and transfer that into a mode of saying we want to be a leader in the world.”

There remains concern among port executives in the US that the government has not made port infrastructure investment a priority and that national ports are suffering as a result.

“If you want to compete in a global arena you can’t have all of your trading partners with the latest state-of-the-art technology when we’re still in the 80s.

“I don’t blame the industry, I blame the system in the US,” said Mr Foltz. “We need to find a way to make better investments in highways, rail, deeper rivers and higher bridges and give easier access to permits for port expansion.”