With the newly deepened 43-foot Columbia River channel, local ports and shippers are gearing up to take full advantage of the opportunity to enhance the Northwest’s important role as an international trade gateway.
Dave Hunt, executive director of the Columbia River Channel Coalition
At the Port of Longview, new tenant EGT Development LLC is currently constructing the first export grain terminal to be built in the United States in more than two decades. At the Port of Kalama, Kalama Export LLC is investing $36 million in a new grain cleaner building, a new loading belt and eight shipping silos. The Port of Vancouver recently purchased more than 200 acres of new terminal property and will be served by new, modern rail service.
On the Oregon side of the river, berths at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 5, which serve Columbia Grain’s export elevator and the Canpotex potash export facility, are being deepened to accommodate larger, deeper draft ships. At Terminal 6, Oregon’s only container port, the Port of Portland has recently secured a lease arrangement with an established international operator that is committed to growing the local container and breakbulk business.
“Urban and rural communities across the Northwest are tied together by the Columbia River,” said Dave Hunt, executive director of the Columbia River Channel Coalition. “With a deeper channel, those ties will be deeper and stronger. The ability to accommodate larger, more fully loaded ships lowers per unit costs, creates well-paying local jobs, and expedites the delivery of goods for upriver and local farmers, growers, producers and ranchers, as well as our urban importers and exporters.”
“This allows all of the region’s importers and exporters to compete more successfully in the international marketplace,” said Hunt.