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U.S. supply chain professionals expect East Coast ports to gain container traffic market share at the expense of West Coast ports, according to a new research report issued by the ProLogis Research Group.

Titled, “Capital Improvements Bolster the East Coast’s Intermodal Rail Network,” the report states that capital improvements and other market conditions at East Coast ports account for the anticipated gain in market share.

As a result, Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation will try to position themselves to increase their share of the nation’s double-stack freight traffic, according to Leonard Sahling, first vice president of Denver-based ProLogis.

“Additionally, however big the shifts in market shares of East Coast ports and their railroad allies do turn out to be, they are likely to have only a modest impact on the derived demand for nearby distribution facilities,” he said in a prepared statement.

The vast majority of inbound containers arriving at U.S. ports are destined for inland population centers, a portion of transpacific container traffic that is “vulnerable to being rerouted from West Coast to East Coast ports,” said Sahling.