Despite Savannah’s long-term growth and continued success, the largest volume container port on the eastern seaboard is the Port of New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) and there is a very simple strategy in force here.
This port benefits from many factors that Savannah cannot leverage. Immediately located close to the North Atlantic and with a port district covering around 25 miles, the port facilities can claim to serve a local population of almost 30 million people.
Indeed, according to Maritime Advisor, Infrata, 84 per cent of NY/NJ activity is local cargo, leaving just 16 per cent using intermodal rail access to the massive US Midwest consuming areas of Chicago and the Ohio Valley. The development of the Greenville Yard near-dock intermodal rail facility will, finally, bring more competitive rail access to the GCT Bayonne facility, so there may be some potential to help facilitate this cargo market better.
NY/NJ has always been, and will always be, a ‘must-call’ port on the East Coast of North America, primarily for its local demand. Unlike in Savannah, this port has always benefitted from the requirement of shipping lines and beneficial cargo owners need to use its facilities, to serve such a massive local market.
So, the strategy in NY/NJ is less dynamic than in Savannah, but this appears to be appropriate. For example, as Figure 2 shows, the port continues to operate at a high utilisation and the need for further expansion is always present. The Port Authority has concluded that the rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic has been stronger than expected and the port’s container volumes are several years ahead of planning scenarios. Consequently, the extra capacity planned at the GCT (now CMA CGM/Terminal Link) facilities of up to 2.3 million TEU in the next 10 years will certainly be required.
NY/NJ development strategy is fundamentally supported by the key driving factors that will simply not change moving forward. The massive local population and need for shipping lines and beneficial cargo owners to come to the port will remain and the pressure on the port authority and its terminal operators is to keep pace with this demand – the containers will come and it is a when, not an if.
