Portland’s container volume was at its highest point last year since 2013, according to port figures, which count the equivalent of 171,000 twenty-foot containers passing in or out of Portland last year.
The return of container shipping in Portland is good news for dozens of longshore workers employed as crane operators, lashers, drivers and clerks. And it’s good news for importers and exporters throughout the region.
“Portland provides a great option versus trucking it a long way,” said Dan Pippenger, the port’s chief operations officer and former manager of marine operations.
Most of the container traffic arriving in Portland is destined for somewhere in the Northwest, but Pippenger said a quarter of the containers are shipped by rail to Chicago, Kansas City or Memphis. Empty containers come back, which Northwest businesses can fill with their own products destined for Asia