"K" Line announced two weeks ago that it's halting container service to Portland. In July, Hyundai Merchant Marine announced that it was withdrawing from Portland. "K" Line's withdrawal will leave our port with only one shipper, Hanjin, providing container service.
Portland's competitive disadvantage in the shipping business, compared to Seattle and Tacoma, is that it's not a deepwater port and it's 100 miles upstream from the ocean, meaning that ships can have deeper drafts (and carry more cargo) going to Seattle and Tacoma than to Portland, and can get in and out of port faster.
The Knower of All Things reminded me that the Port of Portland has its eye on the Alcoa aluminum plant in Troutdale, where it wants to put a railyard and intermodal container transfer station. Troutdale wants to see the site redeveloped but wants something -- an industrial and office park, maybe -- that will produce more jobs and more property taxes than the Port's proposal would.
The container lines aren't leaving because our ship-to-train facilities are inadequate. They're leaving because we don't generate enough business.
The Grand Army of the Republic was the association of Union Civil War veterans. Forty years after the Civil War ended, one of the G.A.R. groups in New York said that it wanted to build a new, larger clubhouse. Observers pointed out that the G.A.R. didn't need a larger clubhouse, because its membership was steadily declining as veterans died. If we can't generate more container business, then we shouldn't be spending money on a larger clubhouse for the one remaining container line. Let's invest our money instead in attracting replacement shippers.