Mixed Maritime Signals from the State of Oregon

Even as Oregon’s political leaders pursue a truly aspirational multi-billion-dollar quest to construct a major container port at Coos Bay on the state’s central coast, the Beaver State’s existing container port continues its struggle to attract business. Through the first seven months of this year, the 20,334 inbound TEUs discharged at the Columbia River port were down 24.8% from the volume handled in the same period in 2024. Back then, port officials were preparing to throw in the towel on chronically unprofitable container operations at the Columbia River port’s Terminal 6. Faced with a shutdown of the state’s only intermodal maritime access to the global economy, state and local officials came to the rescue with subsidies that reportedly may cost Oregon taxpayers as much as $40 million. 

As this year began, news reports heralded a new era for the port after Harbor Services, a Southern California company that had been managing container operations at Terminal 6, signed a long-term lease to continue handling the port’s box trade. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the deal would “be a significant economic boon to Oregon and beyond”.

Similarly, gCaptain, a widely read maritime industry publication proclaimed that: “Oregon’s only international container gateway is officially back in business after years of uncertainty that once threatened to shutter the facility altogether.” The January 9 article went on to effuse that the deal “caps a multi-year effort by state leaders, port officials, labor, and private operators to preserve container service for shippers across Oregon, southwest Washington, and Idaho”.

Sustained by an ambiguously optimistic consultant’s outlook, that effort involved a subsidy of between $20 million and $40 million in Oregon taxpayer funds. 

Unfortunately, eight months into the new lease, the port’s TEU numbers are worse than ever. Inbound traffic YTD totaled 22,796 TEUs, 25.6% below the volume in the same months in 2024, when port leaders were about to pull the plug on Terminal 6. The situation on the outbound container trade was even worse, with traffic down 30.2% from the same period in 2024. Two years ago, when an infusion of public funds kept the port’s container terminal from being closed, local shippers were heard to promise they would make greater use of the Rose City’s port to reach overseas markets. That promise has clearly not been fulfilled.