Evaluating the Impacts of the Panama Canal Expansion on Texas Gulf Ports

This report covers a four-year period after contractors started work on the third set of locks, which in 2015 will effectively double the size of the ship using the Panama Canal. Many of the impacts linked to the new locks remain unknown (like lock fees, demand, and shipper response) but it has been successfully promoted as an economic stimulus to a number of the larger Gulf and East Coast Atlantic ports. This in turn has generated a number of studies that reported during 2012. This report concentrates on three issues raised in these reports that fit the resources and focus of the original study—statewide planning. Chapter 2 gives a Texas Gulf perspective on the potential impacts of the new locks. Chapter 3 examines a major, yet unresolved, issue facing shippers and steamship companies – offering “direct” versus “hub and spoke” services to ports that may not have the status of true load centers or sufficiently deep access channels. Finally, Chapter 4 provides planning observations and recommendations, which could strengthen Texas statewide multimodal plans over the next 20 years.