Port director optimistic despite TPP, loss of container business
SALEM — Port of Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt told participants at the 76th annual meeting of the Oregon Seed Growers League in Salem on Dec. 12 that he is disappointed by the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but is optimistic the new administration will be trade-friendly.
“I am disappointed about the TPP, but I don’t think that is going to be the last chapter in that story,” Wyatt said.
The TPP, a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries, has been all but abandoned in recent months after failing to generate congressional support. It also is opposed by President-elect Donald Trump.
Still, Wyatt said: “If you look at some of the folks who are going to be involved (in the Trump administration), these are thoughtful global players. I do have some optimism on that front.”
Wyatt’s presentation was a highlight of the first day of the two-day meeting that drew upwards of 500 participants.
In addition to talking about the potential effects of the Trump administration on trade and transportation, Wyatt touched on issues affecting the Port of Portland’s abilities to attract a new container shipping company, and spoke on conditions that led to the demise of the South Korean shipping line Hanjin.
Hanjin, once the third biggest trans-Pacific shipper, and one of the last container shipping lines to call on Portland, filed for bankruptcy protection Aug. 31 and is now in liquidation.
Wyatt said much of Hanjin’s demise can be traced to an oversupply of container shippers competing for limited demand, adding that at least some of the oversupply is a result of a reliance on ship building in countries such as China, Japan and South Korea.
When ship orders expire, these countries tend to offer shipping companies huge discounts on new ships in an attempt to preserve jobs and income, Wyatt said, and many companies accept.
“We have had way too many ocean carriers, and they have done what happens in a world with unlimited supply and limited demand,” Wyatt said. “They have pretty much killed themselves.”
Wyatt also noted that ship builders are constructing container ships to handle huge volumes, and that the average container capacity today is 7,500 twenty-foot equivalent units, or 1,000 TEUs greater than the Port of Portland is equipped to handle, both because of crane size and the channel depth of the Columbia River.
That limitation, he noted, is part of the challenge of attracting a new shipping line to call on Portland’s Terminal Six.
“Having said all of that,” he said, “we have pretty good business in Portland. We have reasonable cargo available at a reasonable price.
“I feel good, actually, about the quality of business that is available here,” he said.
Wyatt noted that Port of Portland officials are working daily on attracting new container service to Portland.
On another positive note, Wyatt said the new administration “seems focused on transportation infrastructure,” which could benefit efforts in Oregon to improve the state’s transportation infrastructure.
“Let’s take advantage of the energy that I think we are going to be seeing in the nation’s capital to leverage that in the state of Oregon,” Wyatt said.
He noted that Washington, California and Idaho are spending considerable sums on transportation infrastructure, leaving Oregon alone among West Coast states not doing so.
“It has been a long time since we spent new money on transportation infrastructure here in this state,” Wyatt said, “and all of our neighbors are doing it, including Idaho.
“Idaho will spend more new dollars on transportation infrastructure next year than we will, and this is a state about 20 percent our size,” he said.