The deal was approved by NYK Line at its Board of Directors meeting yesterday in Tokyo. The Port of Tacoma Commission will hold a special meeting in Tacoma tonight to approve the final lease.
The lease agreement, with Yusen Terminal Tacoma Inc., marks NYK's expansion into the Puget Sound region. Another NYK subsidiary with a similar name operates a terminal in the Port of Los Angeles.
NYK's North America president Peter Keller says NYK has "long sought" to operate its own facility in the Pacific Northwest to provide long-term capacity. Tacoma's new terminal was selected in part because it will have on-dock intermodal rail, which fits NYK's operational preferences and eliminates the need for most truck traffic.
"As we looked up and down the US West Coast, Canada and Mexico and considered our options for the future, it became clear that our greatest opportunity was here in the Pacific Northwest," Keller says. "The Port of Tacoma offers growth capacity, a robust road and rail system and strong community support."
Designed for an annual throughput capacity of 1.4 million to 1.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot container unit equivalents), the new terminal will include a 24-acre intermodal rail yard and a 2,400-foot berth on the 51-foot deep Blair Waterway. The facility will feature up to eight super post-Panamax container cranes and initial design concepts favor rubber tire gantry (RTG) operations.
A major gateway to Asia and Alaska, the Port of Tacoma is the seventh-largest container port in North America, handling an estimated $35.6 billion in annual trade and 2.1 million TEUs. The Port is also a major center for bulk, breakbulk and project/heavy-lift cargoes, as well as automobiles and trucks.
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha is one of the world's largest transportation companies. The NYK Group operates approximately 740 major ocean vessels, as well as fleets of planes, trains, and trucks and employs 48,000 worldwide. NYK's revenue in fiscal 2006 was $18 billion.
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