Photo courtesy Port Houston
Power Port
Three new cranes arrive in Houston from China aboard as specially designed ship.
By Dan Shryock
Seven in 10 containers that transit the Gulf of Mexico are processed at Port Houston, an important gateway for green coffee and other commodities entering the United States.
An estimated 2.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalents) passed through the port’s two container terminals in 2016 and about 142,000 TEUs, or 6.5 %, were coffee imports, port officials said.
Early numbers for 2017 show more than 2 million TEUs already processed through October. The port expects to exceed 2.4 million TEUs by the end of the year, a 9% increase compared to 2016.
Those numbers will continue to climb. Larger container ships are arriving via the expanded Panama Canal with more on their way. New Panamax ships are more than 1,200 ft. long and carry 13,000 TEUs – more than double old Panamax capacity of 5,000.
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Port Houston is growing to meet the demand. The Barbours Cut and Bayport container terminals located east of Houston off Galveston Bay are expanding. Four supersized cranes already are in operation at the Barbours Cut and another three new cranes arrived in late October from China. Once in operation several months from now, the new units will tower 270 feet above the dock. More cranes already have been ordered for the Bayport Terminal, officials said.
The new cranes are part of a $700 million terminal modernization program designed to increase cargo handling efficiency and capacity.
“We remain confident of continued growth in the container sector, both on the import and export side, during the remainder of this year and into 2018,” Port Houston executive director Roger Guenther said.
The port’s role in coffee
Outside factors heavily influence future green coffee imports but local coffee industry leaders expect Port Houston to support them.
“Coffee is a commodity; therefore we cannot speculate about the growth (of coffee imports),” said María Patricia Echeverry, v.p. of operations for coffee warehouse Cadeco Industries, Inc., and a former president of the Greater Houston Coffee Association. “But Houston has shown excellent performance in the handling and storage of exchange coffee, and we expect that will let us continue growing. We also expect additional growth in the commercial coffee volumes stemming from the widening of the Panama Canal, since we will have direct and faster service from Asia.” While the port serves a variety of import and export segments, the “food and drink” category – including coffee – was the No. 1 commodity import during 2016 with more than 136,000 TEUs, or 15.3%, of all commodity imports, according to Port Houston statistics.
That supply line remains vital to Houston’s growing coffee industry.
“The port has been of invaluable help during all these years,” Echeverry said. “They were very instrumental in helping Houston get the certification from NYBOT for exchange coffee, and they continue to actively support the industry and ensure the port remains competitive and attractive to the importers.”
Without the certification, Echeverry said, the port could not receive or handle any exchange coffee. That would mean thousands of square feet of storage lost along with hundreds of coffee industry jobs throughout the greater Houston area.
In all, there are 139 terminals at the port. Only eight are run by Port Houston. Four are designated for general cargo, two are for containers, one is for bulk minerals and another is for bulk grain. The others are operated by major corporations.
Here are some additional numbers Port Houston reports for 2016:
• No. 1 ranked US port for foreign tonnage
• No. 3 ranked US port in terms of total foreign cargo value
• No. 6 ranked US container port by total TEUs
• Largest Gulf Coast container port, handling 68% of US Gulf Coast container traffic
• Largest Texas port with 46% of market share by tonnage and 95% market share in containers by total TEUs
Port Houston
The Bayport container terminal
The container terminals
Barbours Cut Container Terminal, owned and operated by the port, opened in 1977. Ships entering the bay from the Gulf of Mexico travel another 3.5 hours before arriving at the terminal. Once there, six berths provide 6,000 feet of quay.
The newer Bayport Terminal continues its development as an environmentally sensitive site. Once completed, the terminal will operate seven container berths capable of handling 2.3 million TEUs.
Containers laden with green coffee are off-loaded at the terminals and moved by truck to warehouses, roasteries, and other coffee facilities throughout Houston or shipped by truck or train to other destinations across the United States.
