Competitive status of US ports in the mid-1980s

Competition among US ports has heightened significantly in the 1980s, in large part due to the rising importance of intermodal transportation systems. This paper measures the shares of national waterborne imports and exports for the eight largest US ports and their changes between 1985 and 1987. It examines the decline of East-Coast ports, especially New York, and the ascendancy of their West-Coast counterparts, notably Los Angeles and Seattle, on the basis of 42 commodity groups. Finally, it documents the minibridge and reverse minibridge systems as they pertain to the emerging pattern of winners and losers.