Abundance of cheap natural gas and surging petrochemical exports boost Gulf Coast ports

Led by the ports of Houston and New Orleans, the Gulf Coast in USA has become the most attractive hub for movement of petrochemicals. Petrochemical activity is thriving due to growth in refining activity amid an abundance of cheap natural gas. The Port of New Orleans has declared itself ready for surges in petrochemical-related cargo and is aggressively working to secure more ocean carriers and services to meet the increase, explains Matt Gresham, the port’s Director of External Affairs: “Chemical exports are playing a major role in growth for us here at the Port of New Orleans. It’s a key part of our business, and the low price of natural gas is helping drive this.” Activity will multiply at port of Corpus Christi with M&G Chemicals' capacity expansion by 100,000 tpa of integrated PET, as well as its annual PTA capacity. Major rail infrastructure improvements are taking place to support the M&G facility in addition to direct service by three Class I railroads. The facility is currently under construction along the Corpus Christi ship channel with opening scheduled for the second half of this year. The port of Brownsville is seeing growth in petrochemicals - last year was a record-breaker in total cargo movements, handling more than 10.1 mln tons, up from the 2014 record of 8.4 mlon. As a mainly bulk and breakbulk port, Brownsville has developed a versatile marine terminal operation for both liquid and dry bulk cargoes while petroleum products and gasoline have further catalyzed growth. The port of South Louisiana has welcomed ground-breaking for a major new petrochemical project for Yuhuang Chemical Inc, a US$1.85 billion methanol complex. The first phase is scheduled to begin operations by 2018. Chemical makers are forecast to double and even triple shipping volume in the Port of New Orleans, in the future. This will be on account of 88 refineries located within a hundred-mile radius of New Orleans and more than US$6.4 bln in improvements planned over the next two years. The ongoing boom led SEACOR AMH to introduce an innovative container-on-barge shuttle service from Baton Rouge to export such products through the port of New Orleans. “When we learned of the increasing volume coming out of Baton Rouge from the chemical sector we decided a shuttle service would be complementary to our ongoing services on the Mississippi River,” states Vice President Richard Teubner. “We developed the terminal operations and contractual agreements with port operators in New Orleans and Baton Rouge to get customers interested.” (Source Courtsey: Tim Sheahan in www.maritime-executive.com)