Can North America East Coast Shipping Ports Be Ready in Time?

Ports all around the world are doing their best to be ready for 2015 when the expansion of the Panama Canal is completed. Those regions who are successful in upgrading their port systems in time, stand to benefit greatly from increased trade opportunities that will be forthcoming, while others who are unable to may end up watching their economic future sail right on by. If ports are not modernized and able to accommodate the new fleets of giant container ships that are beginning to transport goods across the world’s oceans, then these huge ships will simply dock at the international shipping ports that can. That is it.

One particular region in North America that stands to benefit greatly is the east coast of the United States and Canada. Many ports in this region are already in the process of undergoing various infrastructure improvements designed to enable them to effectively and efficiently handle the massive new cargo vessels. Part of the problem on the East coast of the United States is a lack of funding from the Federal government. The shipping ports in Miami, Florida and Charleston, South Carolina as well as the port of Savannah in Georgia, have infrastructure projects already on the go but are worried that they won’t be ready in time and have been busy lobbying the U.S. Government for a long time now to give them a big boost forward. Recently, the President recognized the importance of port infrastructure investments to the nation’s economy in his state-of-the-union address and pledged to do more. Whether it will be enough and soon enough remains to be seen.

In the mean time, ports in the eastern region of North America continue to do what they can with what they have got, in an effort to be ready to compete in the near  future. They have so much to gain by having their ports ready for 2015 and also they have just as much to lose if they are not. The pressure is on. It has been on for while now since the construction of the Panama Canal expansion first began in 2007 and will continue to be, until all the necessary upgrades are completed for North America's East coast ports.