Shipowners won’t invest in new-fuel vessels until ports can supply them, and ports won’t invest until the ships exist, World Bank’s Dominik Englert said, urging operators to start small rather than wait for IMO certainty.
From the World Bank to a Chilean container line, six speakers at TOC Americas in Cartagena set out where the energy transition already pays off and where it still needs patience and investment.
At TOC Americas in Cartagena, panellists from Port Everglades, JAXPORT, APM Terminals Mobile, TRANSFERPORT and BOXBAY set out how ports, roads, rail and storage technology connect cargo to inland markets.
White, who leads intermodal for North America at APM Terminals in Mobile, Alabama, said Gulf terminals are positioned to capture growing Asia-to-Latin America trade and US energy exports.
Denson White, Intermodal North America lead for APM Terminals, told TOC Americas that Mobile, Alabama’s rail reach and a shift towards inland distribution are reshaping how Gulf cargo moves across the Americas.
COMPAS’s Víctor Carrasco and Peru’s port authority chief Jorge Chávez told delegates at TOC Americas that connectivity and efficiency, not extra concrete, decide whether a terminal becomes a true trade node.
From Hanseatic Global Terminals to Peru’s port authority, four panellists at TOC Americas agreed that a terminal’s value is decided by the roads, rail and systems beyond its gates.
Paulo Ruy of Hanseatic Global Terminals says shifting governments have stalled Brazil’s Santos expansion and clouded Mexican port options, even as Latin American terminals run out of capacity.
Tom van Eynde of terminal operator TiL Group told TOC Americas in Cartagena that sudden tariff announcements, not tariff levels themselves, trigger costly cargo surges terminals cannot absorb.
Tom van Eynde of TiL Group told TOC Americas the operator is investing more aggressively than ever, leaning on top customer MSC to offset political risk, and building ahead of regulation in Baltimore.