New Ports, New Routes for Stacks

Port expansion in response to the anticipated doubling of container volume by 2020 has resulted in new terminals, one in Canada, at Prince Rupert, B.C., at the end of a Canadian National main line, and one in Mexico, an expansion of a container terminal at Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, on the Kansas City Southern de Mexico line. The Canadian expansion was developed in the expectation that there will be a serious shortage of port capacity in the Pacific Northwest by 2020, as a result of rapidly rising imports from Asia. It is also a shorter sail from Asia than other West Coast ports. The new facilities in Mexico will increase capacity there from 275,000 20-foot equivalents (TEUs) to 1.7 million TEUs annually. The prime target is Houston, because it is 462 miles closer than the most direct routing from Southern California ports via BNSF. Additional expansion of upgraded tunnels and rail lines should improve access between Atlantic ports in Virginia with destinations in the Midwest.