The Port of Tacoma plans to build a $300 million, 168 acre container terminal on the industrial east side of Tacoma's Blair Waterway. The terminal will be leased to a container terminal operator, Yusen Terminal Tacoma Inc (YTTI), a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK Line.
NYK Line has approved the plan, and the lease is expected to be approved tonight at a Port of Tacoma Commission meeting.
The lease agreement will introduce YTTI to the Pacific Northwest. Another subsidiary of NYK Line, Yusen Terminals Inc (YTI), currently operates a terminal in the Port of Los Angeles.
Peter Keller, president of Tokyo-based NYK Line North America, said that YTTI’s move to Tacoma preserves and expands the positive economic impacts of NYK Line's business in the Puget Sound region.
“It was important for us to make a long-term decision about our growth,” said Keller, adding that the company had looked at the US West Coast, Canada and Mexico, but decided the greatest opportunity was in the Pacific Northwest, with the Port of Tacoma’s growth capacity, robust road and rail system and strong community support.
The YTTI terminal is expected to open in 2012. Designed for an annual throughput capacity of 1.4 – 1.8 million TEU, the terminal will include a 24 acre intermodal rail yard and a 2,400 ft berth on the 51 ft deep Blair Waterway.
The facility will feature up to eight super post-Panamax container cranes and initial design concepts favour RTG operations.
In addition to building the YTTI terminal, the Port will develop a redesigned terminal with expansion capabilities for Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE), a major domestic shipping line serving the Alaska market. TOTE has called at the Port of Tacoma since 1976.
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