The big maritime news locally this week is the announcement by the Port of Portland that they will end container ship service to the Port’s Terminal 6 as of October 1. The decision will mean the Columbia River will no longer have container service, since Portland is the only port with the infrastructure and equipment to handle containers. Carships and bulk carriers will continue to call on the Port.
Portland has gained and lost container service over the past two decades. The most recent round of container service began during the pandemic, when the Port of Portland served as a overflow port for overcrowded ports on the West Coast. The service has continued with several container ships per week transiting the river.
According to this week’s news reports, that service will cease at the end of September. The hope is that this will only be temporary.
Photo: Port of Portland’s Terminal 6 container cranes. Credit: M.O. Stevens, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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