Louisiana ports vie for shipments now coming through West Coast

From a recent article in the Times-Picayune:

Port officials want to build a container terminal on the Mississippi River to take advantage of anticipated traffic from the increased capacity of the Panama Canal in 2014, that will allow larger ships to traverse the canal than is currently the case.

Port officials envision moving container cargo upriver, then putting it on trains to Midwest markets, which are about half the distance by rail as west coast ports are. Cargo ships from the Far East would have to travel farther to get into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the consultant’s report.