The negotiations come as the Port of Oakland is starting to see efforts to expand transportation and cargo facilities pay off. While the recession has hurt the port’s cargo volume – it declined about 8 percent in 2009 compared with 2008 – it is ranked fifth in the United States and is growing.
The company has said it wants to double the cargo coming into the port and would be aided by proximity to rail. That strategy could exploit Oakland’s link to markets in the Midwest through the Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada.