REMARKS
FOR
JULIE
NELSON
DEPUTY
ADMINISTRATOR
MARITIME
ADMINISTRATION
U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PORTS AND HARBORS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
MAY 4, 2007
9 AM
Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Tom for the kind introduction and for the
invitation to join you today.
It's always great to
be in Houston. Houston has
so much and does so much and the Port
of Houston is the largest U.S.
port of call for ocean-going vessels. It is the largest tanker port and
the eighth largest container port.
Of course it seems
everything in Texas
is big and getting bigger. The Port of Houston already has the capacity to
service post-panamax containerships and has just
recently added four new post-panamax cranes at
its Bayport terminal.
Of course capacity expansion at the Port of Houston
is no accident. It comes at a time when U.S.
international trade is facing unprecedented growth.
Since 1995 container
growth worldwide has increased by at least 10 percent every year and this
growth is expected to continue.
A Bureau of
Transportation Statistics report issued last week shows that one in every nine
maritime containers in the world is either bound for or coming from the United States.
That same report
shows that world container trade has more than tripled. And as all of you know China leads the world in container
trade.
By 2020every major U.S.
container port is expected to double the volume of cargo it must process with
East Coast ports tripling in volume and some West Coast ports quadrupling in
volume.
The United States expects to import 30
million containers in 2010 and 40 million in 2020.
Tonnage carried on
all U.S.
domestic freight systems will increase by 67% while
international trade is expected to at least double. The tonnage through the Port of Houston
has grown by over 25 percent from 2000 to 2006.
This massive growth
means that America must
expand its overall port volume capacity by 10 percent yearly just to meet the
expected demand – an annual capacity growth greater than the overall size of
the ports of Seattle and Tacoma combined.
Contributing to this
growth is the post-Panamax revolution which is changing the way waterborne
shipping systems operate worldwide.
These very large
container ships are key components of the end-to-end service that has
revolutionized global transportation.
Through the economies of scale achieved by deploying these ships on
major trade routes between Asia Europe and North America
many more containers are moving through ports worldwide.
The proposed widening
of the Panama Canal would bring more post-Panamax ships to the Gulf of Mexico
and could likely change trade and commercial patterns throughout the Gulf the
Caribbean our East Coast and around the
world.
This is a staggering
amount of trade just in container cargo.
A staggering amount of trade is not a problem but a symbol of
prosperity.
But -- we must make
sure that container cargo traffic continues to be the blessing it is and does
not become a mixed blessing.
This of course presents
challenges for the economies of nations and challenges for ocean-going
commerce.
The challenges
include increasing congestion in our ports and straining landside
transportation systems.
We all know
congestion is costly. In the United States
alone it costs
us $200 billion a year in lost time lost revenue and wasted fuel. It is a major threat to economic prosperity
is choking our highways railroads airports and seaports.
There is another cost
to congestion: it costs us our
freedom of movement. Americans believe
that transportation and freedom have gone hand-in-hand since this Nation was
founded. The sense of freedom to quickly
go whenever and wherever one chooses is an historic American value.
Unchecked congestion
at America's seaports --
whether marine- or landside-related -- can slow international trade and create
negative global economic consequences for America's trading partners the
international business community foreign economies and their citizenry. We also know that congestion in the U.S.
transportation network affects business and operations for many of you.
That is part of the
reason why the Bush Administration has a comprehensive Congestion Relief
Strategy.
The Department of
Transportation’s National Strategy to Reduce Congestion includes reducing
border congestion reducing Southern California
freight congestion public-private partnership urban partnership agreements and
increasing aviation capacity.
The Maritime
Administration’s national port strategy and marine highway initiative directly
support the DOT’s strategy.
For example, the
Maritime Administration has been making preparations for the anticipated
doubling and tripling of international cargo transportation by applying the use
of ‘agile port systems.’
The Agile Port
concept emphasizes the interconnectivity between the physical design, the
business process, and the operational characteristics that will increase the
velocity of cargo moving through ports and terminals as compared to current
rates and practices.
The Maritime
Administration believes that the Agile
Port concept has the
potential to double productivity over existing methods.
Additionally, DOT’s congestion
reduction strategy includes a Gateway Initiative, which is a powerful planning
tool—one that enables all levels of public and private partnership participants
to better see the connections between traffic flows of all kinds and our
economy, community, and environmental concerns.
Gateway Offices will
be opened across the country in order to serve and communicate with the
maritime industry, as well as state and local governments.
It is a priority of
the Department of Transportation to find solutions to reduce congestion on America’s
transportation network. We know that we
need to better use our marine highways, our waterways and coastal waters, to
relieve that congestion. Our marine
highways can carry exponentially more traffic, but the intermodal interface at
the port needs to be made more efficient for us to use them. It is in this area that the United States can use some of the
lessons learned in some of the great European ports.
Major ports around
the world have faster turnaround time and greater access to feeder and
connecting carrier services. This
efficiency leads to less port congestion and better service to shippers and
freight forwarders.
For example, the Port of Rotterdam, which has pioneered many developments in
intermodal connections, has reached an
agreement to construct a new terminal that will handle inland and feeder
vessels in a more flexible way. This
rail to dock service will greatly alleviate port and landside congestion and
help prevent the type of gridlock we see on our surface transportation systems.
Just last week, the Port
of Singapore was once again – for the 19th year in a row —
voted the “Best Seaport in Asia.” Their leadership was recognized in the area
of port infrastructure investment to meet future demands and their vision to
enhance logistics and freight forwarding.
Singapore has also
shown leadership in congestion pricing on motor vehicle traffic, something that
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently proposed for New York City. His plan is the kind of bold thinking leaders
across the United States
need to embrace if we hope to win the battle against traffic congestion.
Opening markets for U.S.
transportation concerns can keep these large and growing volumes of goods and
travelers moving efficiently across our common borders. To maintain the prosperity that comes with
increased trade we must also manage the congestion that challenges our ports,
land border crossings, intermodal connectors, and freight mobility, but
ultimately our economy. For these
reasons the Department has made congestion relief a top priority.
The Administration is committed to
strengthening our global competitiveness and transportation is key to keeping
trade thriving. Mexico and Canada are not only our closest
neighbors; they are also our top trading partners.
Just last week
Secretary Peters attended the U.S./Canada & Mexico
Tri-lateral Transportation Summit in Tucson,
Arizona to explore ways to improve the movement of people and goods
across our common borders. This was a
tremendous opportunity to expand our progress in removing the artificial
barriers that separate our markets.
North
America’s
transportation network carries a staggering 1.7 million dollars in trade every
minute among our three nations. Our
three-way partnership is working well, developing better ways to move goods and
passengers through our enormous three-country network.
Next week Secretary
Peters and Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton will be going to Panama
to confer with officials on their plans to enlarge and expand the Canal and
operations there. They are investing in
the future and as container traffic continues to explode globally other ports
around the world must do the same.
The possibility of
widening the Panama Canal is an exciting one, especially for the Port of Houston.
The post-Panamax ships that cannot now come to Houston
through the Canal would then be able to come to Houston and other Gulf ports. That means some of the burgeoning Pacific
trade will now be able to come to the Gulf, and to Houston—so that our Gulf ports become, in a
way, Pacific ports.
In that same sense, Chicago and Kansas City,
cities in the interior of the United
States, can be considered Pacific
ports. Many of the containers that come into
our west coast ports go straight through to the interior, where they are opened
for the first time since leaving Asia. The explosive growth in container traffic
affects our entire transportation system.
We are making some
real progress in addressing transportation challenges. You, however, are the people who are on the
front lines, who make the improvements in port effectiveness and
efficiency. You have shown visionary leadership
in the past, in the public and private sectors.
The United States Department of Transportation stands with you in your
work to ensure a safe, environmentally sound, economically viable world
transportation network, one that serves all people, and gives us all the
freedom of movement we need and deserve.
I am honored to be
doing this work with you. I am confident
of our success.
We have much to be
proud of but much left to do.
I want you to know
that the United States
is diligently working to help find solutions for a myriad of transportation
issues, and remains focused on meeting
the current and future challenges of international trade in an ever-expanding
global economy.
Thank you
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