Cargo Business Newswire

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Top Story

Feds approve info sharing between Seattle and Tacoma ports

The Federal Maritime Commission has sanctioned a request from the ports of Tacoma and Seattle to begin information exchanges aimed at boosting container traffic in the Puget Sound region.

The two Washington state ports will be free to start discussions about terminal operations, container facility planning and management, and creating operational efficiencies, according to FMC Commissioner William Doyle.

The commission is charged with overseeing port and terminal business practices to make sure that collaborative activities don't lead to substantive hikes in prices or decreased competition.

Earlier this year, the two ports announced they would apply for commission approval to exchange information because they were worried about their region's weakened shipping sector in light of competition from ports in Canada and on the East Coast.

Although Tacoma's container traffic has increased the past two years after luring the the Grand Alliance shipping consortium away from Seattle, the Port of Seattle noted that the competition between the two ports hasn't increased the overall volume of goods handled through the Puget Sound.

Puget Sound ports face a disadvantage compared to Canadian ports that ship containers by rail to the Midwest because containers that arrive in Canadian ports don't pay the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax, which averages about $100 a container.

Seattle and Tacoma port officials and politicians want the U.S. to impose a similar tax on foreign containers brought into the U.S. by rail or by truck to even the competition.

For more of the News Tribune story: thenewstribune.com