For the Week 8 Logistics Management Essay, you will write a five -page paper on
ID: 419758 • Letter: F
Question
For the Week 8 Logistics Management Essay, you will write a five-page paper on the impact of the expansion of the Panama canal on U.S. Eastern and Gulf coast ports. Research the expansion project, explore why and how this expansion is significant to global trade, and determine its impact on U.S. Eastern and Gulf coast ports. Select one port and focus on how this expansion will impact logistics planning for that region as well as the economic impact within the region. Consider logistics resources, employment, infrastructure, costs, intermodal requirements, etc. in your research. Apply your knowledge of topics presented throughout this course. You may use tables or figures as appropriate in your paper, but the data must be referenced within the paper and relevant to the content presented in your essay. Use proper APA formatting and citation for any tables or figures you create within your paper.
Much of the information you gather will come from websites on the topic and websites about economic development in the specific region you select, but there are white paper articles on the topic as well.
Explanation / Answer
Whilst writing a 5 page essay is a difficult, given the time constraints, here are a few points that you may include in the write up.
Currently west coast ports in the US receive two thirds of the container traffic from east Asia. This is then moved across the country. With the expansion, cargo flow can be directed towards the east coast as well.
Of course with such movements, the east coast ports will require more warehousing and distribution centers. Along with that deeper harbors and higher bridges to accommodate big Panamax vessels are also required.
The challenge is with higher rentals and lack of desirable warehouse spaces, companies might be compelled to go for secondary markets adjacent to ports (possibly within a radius of 200 miles)
Since the expansion has taken place, demand has increased across 14 key ports, few names of which include Houston, Oakland and Miami. The warehouse distribution activity has more than doubled compared to what it was in 2015.
Challenges
US ports are required to do more to make way for larger ships since shipping liners are expected to reduce the number of port calls now that they can send in the bigger ships.
Handling large sized vessels is only part of the problem. There will be a requirement to move commodities effectively from port to inland effectively. This means greater rail development, updated trucking technology such as blockchain, etc. Here technologies such as Uber’s sensor powered truck (driverless vehicles) can prove to be a game changer.
There is quite a bit of literature on the net for you to use as reference. Please do so using proper citations.
https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/PRC-17-78.pdf
https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/5201/MP-Brandon%20Morrison-FINAL.pdf?sequence=1