Ocean cargo: Landmark deal gives Port of Tacoma room to expand terminal operations

Patrick Burnson, Executive Editor -- Logistics Management, 4/24/2008

TACOMA, Wash.—While many other major U.S. west coast seaports are facing community resistance to commercial growth these days, the Port of Tacoma has been given the blessing of local residents to expand and develop outlying regions.

What makes this especially remarkable, said port authorities, is the land in question has been with governed by the local population—the Puyallup Tribe—for generations. It has agreed to exchange land to improve the overall layout of the current footprint of future Tribe/SSA terminal and future port terminal developments. The port will transfer about 19 acres to the tribe, and the tribe will transfer about 12.5 acres to the port.

“The Port of Tacoma and Puyallup Tribe of Indians enjoy a long history of economic cooperation dating back to the historic 1988 Puyallup Indian Land Claims Settlement Agreement,” said port commission president Dick Marzano.

Signed earlier this week, the deal means good things for regional shippers too, said port spokesman, Mike Wasem.

“This gives SSA Marine the ability to develop the East Blair Waterway which will increase freight capacity in the Puget Sound and ensure that we remain a dominant load center,” he told LM.

SSA Containers is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrix Inc., which is the largest U.S.- owned, and the largest privately held container terminal operator and cargo handling company in the world. It handles approximately 22 million container TEU (twenty-univalent units) per year.

In an embargoed interview given just before the announcement, Wasem described the arrangement as “monumental.”

Indeed, shippers should benefit from the many of the contract’s finer points:

·        Intermodal Rail Cooperation: SSA Containers and the port agree to cooperate on maximizing the efficiency of the intermodal rail system in Tacoma and to increase overall capacity.

·        Road Infrastructure Cooperation: All parties agree to cooperate to leverage public/private funding for road infrastructure and to negotiate in good faith to reach agreement on individual contributions to road infrastructure improvements; and

·        Future Cooperation: The parties agree to explore as necessary additional opportunities for cooperation. For example, maximizing mutual berth development opportunities, if desired, or future lease and/or land value exchanges as appropriate.