Use of Containers to Carry Bulk and Break Bulk Commodities and Their Impact on Gulf Region Ports and International Trade.

摘要

The University of New Orleans Transportation Institute was tasked by the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) in mid-2012 to assess the use of containers to transport bulk and break bulk commodities and to determine what their impact would be on ports within Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast once the Panama Canal Expansion (PCE) is complete in 2015. LTRC's principal interest was on the impact of the growing container trade in the emerging maritime and international trade world as a result of the PCE and the resultant all-water routes to/from Asia via Gulf Coast and U.S. East Coast ports. They were primarily interested in the impacts of shipping services calling on Gulf ports, specific import and export commodities shipped by container, and the identification of specific commodities shipped by container which can grow and under what circumstances.