Ocean trade is growing so fast across the Americas that seaports, railways, roads and other transport systems need to be expanded fast to handle the soaring cargo traffic.
Ocean trade is growing so fast across the Americas that seaports, railways, roads and other transport systems need to be expanded fast to handle the soaring cargo traffic.
That was among the conclusions Wednesday from SeaCargo Americas, a two-day trade show and conference in Miami expected to attract more than 1,500 people from more than a dozen nations before it winds up today.
Shipping executives pointed to growing congestion at seaports, shortages of truck drivers and backups at railways among a host of strains facing the United States, Brazil and other countries in the Americas because of double-digit growth in the volume of ocean cargo handled yearly.
Business with Brazil is so robust, for example, that global shipping line CP Ships has been adding extra sailings and also started serving smaller seaports to relieve the pressure on bigger, more congested ports, said Tony DeCiccio, CP Ships' vice president for Latin America.
The Port of Miami, meanwhile, is investing $250 million in expansion projects, including a new wharf area. Plus, it seeks approval for a $1 billion-plus tunnel project that would let trucks circumvent roads in downtown Miami and connect directly with interstate highways, said Port Director Charles A. Towsley.
Indeed, the future for ocean freight looks so strong -- some analysts forecast a doubling of world trade within a generation -- that shipping companies now have orders for new vessels that represent about half of their capacity. That's up from the usual order volume of up to 25 percent of capacity, said Peter M. Tirschwell, vice president of Commonwealth Business Media, publishers of The Journal of Commerce magazine.
SeaCargo Americas brought together execs from such links in the maritime chain as shipping lines, security equipment makers and government inspectors to discuss the challenges facing the industry in the Americas region -- from hyper-growth to technical training, new sources of funding to increased security.
Much of the talk -- and booths at the trade show -- centered on ways to meet growing mandates for security after Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"We want to make sure the standards are reasonable and can be paid for," said John Hourihan, senior vice president for Latin America Services at Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime Corp.
At the exhibit, L3 Communications Security and Detection Systems of Woburn, Mass., offered a range of devices from hand-held wands to room-size machines that can screen an 18-wheeler truck. The company attended the show to offer equipment to ports in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Nancy Norton, marketing events manager.
U.S. agricultural officials in contrast displayed a giant earthworm, jewelry-encrusted beetles and a sea turtle to raise awareness of live animals banned from U.S. entry.
Federal authorities confiscated the 3-foot-long earthworm from Colombia inside a bag of soil in a woman's suitcase. She was carrying it with plans to put it in a blender and use as a facemask to fight wrinkles, said Leo Castañeda, an officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Inspection Service.
The conference also highlighted the serious security risks of cargo theft.
The FBI has estimated losses from cargo theft in the United States at more than $18 billion a year, although other sources put the tally as high as $45 billion. At least 80 percent of those thefts are estimated to stem from inside information, said Jack Rosmarin, director of cargo for insurance company Seitlin Property & Casualty in Miami.
SeaCargo Americas, organized by the World Trade Center-Miami, concludes today with talks on such topics as trade with China and the quick-turn needs of retailers.
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
