Tacoma and Seattle propose joint agreement

In a joint statement, the ports filed: “While the ports of Tacoma and Seattle have many advantages, such as naturally deep water and strong highway and rail connections to the second-largest concentration of warehouses and distribution centres on the West Coast, we must leverage our strengths in the face of continued soft demand and increasing competition”.

It is understood that the seven-page report covered areas such as container facility planning, utilisation and operational costs at such facilities; federal, state, local government cooperation, along with rates of return on port-owned terminals, such as rates, tariffs and leases.

Both ports said that they face fierce competition from ports throughout North America and must adjust to shifts in the global maritime industry.  They cited that global shipping lines continue to lose money and are investing in larger vessels with more capacity, sharing those vessels and consolidating terminals and reducing the number of ports at which they call.