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Other cities that are served by the port
include, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and
San Antonio, all of which can be reached
within half a day from the time the container
is discharged from the ship at the port.
"So we have a really good, large
population base, consumers and exporters,
who are all within half a day from the port.
And then you've got the interstate system
that goes east-west, and then you've got
the interstate 45 that goes north and ties
with the interstate 35, which takes you
all the way to the Canadian border,"
Mr Kunz said.
Looking at the port's performance last
year, Mr Kunz said the port had underestimated
the level of growth for 2011. The better-than-expected
result came not just from the better economic
situation in the state of Texas, but also
on the back of strong trade volumes from
India, the Middle East and South America.
Asia is currently the port's fastest
growth market overall, but in recent years
Houston has also benefited greatly from
growing volumes from Brazil.
In fact, the Port of Houston has, since
2009 consistently beaten out the Port of
New York and New Jersey to become the leading
gateway port for US-bound container volumes
from the South American country¡Xan accomplishment
and status it is determined to hold on to
going forward.
Looking ahead to this year, Mr Kunz said
the Port Authority is forecasting growth
in container traffic of five per cent year
on year, after posting growth of three per
cent last year.
With expectations of ongoing growth in
the years to come, the port is busy preparing
for such increases through expansion projects
at both its Barbours Cut and Bayport container
terminals.
The Barbours Cut terminal, which was
originally built almost four decades ago
to handle the containerships of the day,
is currently undergoing a facelift that
will ensure it matches the standards required
to process the larger vessels operating
in the market today.
The Bayport facility, which was officially
opened in 2007 and already boasts the latest
in terminal handling equipment, is being
expanded to meet the growing demand of the
future.
Mr Kunz said that work on the two terminals
will be completed by 2020, at which time
the port's container handling capacity will
have doubled from 2.5 million TEU today
to approximately five million TEU.
"We are building to meet market
demand," he said. But this is not to
say that the benefits for customers are
something to be realised in the future.
The benefits exist today, and are only going
to improve going forward, he said, particularly
with the expansion of the Panama Canal.
"Today, we have excellent facilities
to handle our customers' freight and there
is a good possibility that they can also
save money with us. And lastly, we have
a large segment of the United States' population
at our back door," he said.
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