BMI Research: US East Coast ports & Panama Canal expansion – no short-term benefits

Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide: "One of the major obstacles facing the port is the slow progress on a project to raise the Bayonne Bridge, which is not expected to be completed until late 2017. This project will allow the larger 14,000 TEU vessels which can pass through the expanded Panama Canal to enter the harbour. While investment in infrastructure needed to handle these larger ships has been underway at New York-New Jersey since 2010, numerous delays to the Bayonne Bridge project continue to limit the extent to which the port will be able to receive these vessels. Some major international shipping companies, including AP Moller-Maersk and Hapag Lloyd, have consequently elected not to change their routes, as the inability to access New York-New Jersey with larger ships means they are unable to achieve necessary economies of scale by plying East Coast rather than West Coast routes."