This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
6/17/2022
The Port of Houston has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to ease port congestion and restore disrupted shipping services for agricultural commodities.
The port will increase capacity for exporting chilled and frozen agricultural commodities, as well as lease additional chassis, to enable the port to expandrefrigerated shipping, USDA officials said in a press release.
The port handles more than two-thirds of container cargoes in the Gulf of Mexico and is the nation's sixth-busiest container gateway.
The port is served by the Port Terminal Railroad Association, which performs rail switching for BNSF Railway Co., Union Pacific Railroad and Kansas City Southern along the port's 185 miles of track. The association is comprised of the three Class Is, plus the Port of Houston Authority and Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Co.
Meanwhile, the USDA is also expanding its partnership with the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) to upgrade access to a 16-acre "pop-up" container site to accept both dry and refrigerated agricultural containers for temporary storage in Tacoma, Washington. The expansion helps reduce operational hurdles and costs so that containers can be loaded more quickly onto ships, officials said.
NWSA includes the marine cargo operations of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. The alliance reported a nearly 30% decline in agricultural exports in the last six months of 2021, and the ratio of loaded versus empty containers has shifted to empty containers since May 2021.