East and Gulf Coast ports, predicting they will increase their share of the U.S.-Asia trade when the Panama Canal expansion is complete in three years, made a big pitch to industrial real estate developers meeting in Long Beach on Wednesday.
The Port of Los Angeles countered by defending its turf, with a port representative assuring warehouse and distribution center builders that infrastructure development at West Coast ports will keep any loss of market share after 2014 to a minimum.
Executives from the Virginia ports, Houston and Los Angeles agreed that encouraging development of distribution warehouses and transloading facilities goes hand-in-hand with expanding marine terminals and transportation infrastructure.