Sources say - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The East Coast ports are going to continue to do If the regional expectation was the current answer is twoyears later. What’s pushing it back isn’t just the economy, but that there is a lot of capacity in the West Coasft now due tothe —John Giles, RailAmerica Inc. CEO and president The port has severaol interesting dynamics at play that will determine if and when the port will meet itsanticipatedr projections. The supply chain has become a very complexx model and in many casezs can provide a competitive advantag e formanufacturing companies.
The company that can source the best productsx for thelowest cost, with the shortest lead time and carries the least amountg of inventory while still meetinb demand usually has the best price point. The effectss of the economy have forced many manufacturers to reassess their supply chains to maintaimnthat advantage. The containers that flow throug the port need to have local drayage to locacross docks, warehouses and rail yarda to continue their flow through the supplyy chain.
will benefit with the increased volumes acrossw all of our service We have several customers who consolidatse material in Jacksonville by way of rail or truc k and then transload that material into shippinhg containers for exportthrough Jaxport. In we have a number of warehouse customers who bringb their material through our warehouses wherr we performnumerous value-added activities beford eventually shipping to the final destination. —Shawn PenserSC, CEO Once the economy importsshould rebound. The next thing the port needsd is dredging to 50 feet of watetr to allow the port to accommodate the largestg and most efficientcontainer vessels.
Lastly, the wideninhg of the Panama Canal will make it a lot more efficientt for the carriers to ship directly to the East The growth of the port in Jacksonville will not do much to grow the size ofthe U.S. to Puertok Rico market — it’s driven on consumptionb — but it will allow the Puerto Rico carrierzs to becomemore efficient. The growth of imports into Jacksonvilled will continue to shift the sourcingb of goods to Puerto Rico from the Northeast to the Southeastf as more distribution centere are built to accommodate the growthin —Frank Peake, President Once the new Hanjin [Shippinbg Company Ltd.
] terminal is completed and steamshipp companies have time under theie belt using the TraPac [Inc.] facility, Jaxport will be meeting its potential. Jaxport will hit its potential for onemain reason: timing. Timing has givem Jacksonville the ability for plannedd infrastructure development aroundthe port. The immediatw growth will stem from our trucking and drayage divisions servicingfthe port. As new steamship companies call on the we will be handling more localize d incoming andoutgoing We’ll also be able to use our vast truckm network that transports more round trip internationap containers by moving import freight to the finakl customer and using these same containers to handls our customers’ export freight.
—Al Steele, , CEO and president