They’re coming! As I have blogged frequently over the past year, imports through ports other than Los Angeles-Long Beach are rising – and with them the risk of pest introductions.
Demonstrating this phenomenon is the fact that the largest container ship ever to call on the North American East Coast will arrive this week. The “Marco Polo” can carry 16,022-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent; a standardized measure of container capacity). It is scheduled to call at Nova Scotia today (May 17), then work its way down the coast to New York-New Jersey on May 20, Norfolk on May 23, Savannah on May 26, and Charleston on May 28. Most of these ports have a history of receiving tree-killing pests: beech bark disease, beech leaf weevil, and brown spruce longhorned beetle at Halifax, NS; Asian longhorned beetle at New York and possibly Charleston; redbay ambrosia beetle at Savannah.
The ship’s owner CMA CGM (a French company operating around the globe), also holds the previous record for the largest ship to visit the east Coast: the 15,072-TEU “Brazil” called at New York-New Jersey in September 2020. CMA CGM North America President Ed Aldridge credited the ports’ significant increases in capacity for allowing the increased volume.
CMA CGM is focused on imports from the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Ships headed to the North American East Coast are transitting the Suez Canal.
CMA CGM also operates the “Jules Verne” with a capacity of 16,022-TEU; and the “Ben Franklin” at 18,000-TEU. These ships serve trans-Pacific trade.
During the first 10 months of 2020, 15% of vessel calls were by ships with capacities of 10,000-TEU or higher, up from 11% in 2019.
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