Apart from predicting better times this year and further ahead, it is another date, 2014, that the East Coast US ports have their eye on. That is when the expanded Panama Canal is due to open, and major investments are planned or under way as ports hope to cash in on the potential it will bring.

Savannah handled a total 2.35m teu last year, with a balanced imports/exports ratio of 53.7% to 46.3%. … Baltimore’s Seagirt Terminal should have its new 1,300 ft quay with 50 ft depth and four cranes alongside in operation two years before the Panama Canal project is complete.

From Port Strategy, June 9, 2010