The state of Texas accounted for about $ 650 billion in external trade wind in 2015. Of Texas ‘ sum external trade, $ 204 billion or 32.3 percentage traveled through the state ‘s seaports, with the Port of Houston report for 67 percentage of the seaport trade, or about $ 137 billion. 1
Based on the Comptroller ‘s analysis, the web benefit of trade associated with the Houston seaport port of entry includes an calculate 509,000 net jobs to Texas and a minimum of $ 73 billion in gross domestic product ( GDP ) to the Texas economy. 1 ( The Comptroller acknowledges there may be other economic activities directly and indirectly associated with the use of this adeptness that may not be reflected here. )
The Port of Houston “Sea Port”
The Port of Houston is one of 10 sea ports along Texas ‘ 367 mile-long coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. Each seaport facilitates the motion of goods between Texas and nations throughout the world. Each Texas seaport is unique, offering different capabilities and a assortment transportation options, including majority, roll-on/roll-off, container and liquid/gas embark.
The “ Houston plan ” to deepen the Houston Ship Channel for deep-water access began in 1912. The embark channel formally opened in November 1914. today, the 52 mile-long Houston Ship Channel is the busiest waterway in the U.S., involving annual vessel calls of more than 8,300 large ships and 231,000 smaller commercial craft, including barges, carrying more than 230 million tons of cargo. 3 The Houston Ship Channel includes the Port of Houston, an intricate, 25-mile-long industrial complex comprising more than 150 public and private terminals that support many industries, including the state ‘s largest petrochemical complex. 4
The Port of Houston includes :
- 150-plus private industrial companies;
- a 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities including the nation’s largest petrochemical complex (second largest in the world);
- a shipping channel 45 feet deep and 530 feet wide;
- the largest facility in the U.S. for raw plastic resin export;
- access to three class-1 railroads (BNSF, Union Pacific, TexMex/Kansas City Southern);5
- the nation’s sixth-largest container terminal complex (and the largest on the Gulf Coast); and
- association to a General-Purpose Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) #84.
The Port of Houston Authority is an autonomous governmental entity authorized by the Texas Legislature in 1927 to oversee and manage the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel. The Port Authority besides owns and maintains the public terminals within the Port of Houston, including the nation ‘s largest break-bulk terminal ( for big, individually loaded cargo items ) a well as container terminals at Bayport and Barbours Cut, which combined represent the largest container terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The size and capabilities of the Port Authority ‘s trade operation illustrate how large the Port of Houston actually is ; cargo going directly through the Authority ‘s big operations represents lone 22 percentage of all tonnage traversing the port .
Economic Data
In sum, ship activity at the Port of Houston accounted for $ 137 billion in trade in 2015, an increase of 174 percentage from 2003 ( $ 50 billion ). 6 thirty-eight percentage of all ships received enter the port after passing through the Panama Canal. 7 The Port of Houston is the state ‘s largest importer and exporter of petroleum and petroleum products. In 2014, the port ‘s container terminals handled 67 percentage of all U.S. Gulf coast container traffic .
- Top origination/destination for goods: China; Mexico
- Top Imports through Port of Houston: Oil; Machinery; Steel
- Top Exports through Port of Houston: Fuels; Machinery; Chemicals; Plastics
As can be seen below, the Port of Houston has a very divers trade net, with lone 18.1 percentage of trade traversing the port coming from or going to its exceed two trading countries. The top two trade countries ( China and Mexico ) each only defend 9 percentage of total barter. The future two biggest partners ( Brazil and Germany ) history for only 6 percentage each .
| Overall Trade ($ billions) | Trade with Venezuela/Saudi Arabia ($ billions) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trade | Exports (only) | Imports (only) | Total Trade | Total Trade % | Exports (only) | Imports (only) | |
| 2015 | $136.51 | $76.77 | $59.74 | $24.68 | 18.08% | $11.17 | $13.51 |
| 2014 | $167.21 | $92.05 | $75.17 | $29.75 | 17.79% | $10.53 | $19.22 |
| 2013 | $168.53 | $94.17 | $74.36 | $29.55 | 17.53% | $12.02 | $17.53 |
* Trade value decrease is directly related to the lower price of anoint, as a significant part of this trade is in petroleum products.
beginning : Texas Centers for Border Economic and Enterprise Development
The Port of Houston Authority reports overall employment of 56,113 immediately related to the motion of cargo along the port ‘s incision of the Houston Ship Channel. This includes 581 people directly employed by the Port of Houston Authority and another 19,913 directly employed by early nautical service organizations. 8
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
In accession, FTZ # 84 is relatively big compared to other port FTZs, as it includes relevant business operations outside the actual Port of Houston boundaries. FTZ # 84 ranks first in the U.S. for full trade received and eighth in exports. It includes about 200 firms employing more than 17,300 people. 9
Since 2011, the Port of Houston Authority ‘s facilities have seen a stir in cargo tonnage from liquid bulk cargo to more labor-intensive, containerize cargo adenine well as sword products. 10 This resulted in a net increase in direct employment across the port ‘s public and private facilities .
Cargo Type Total Tonnage Handled Exclusively by the Port Authority, (2011, 2014 and 2015):
| 2011 | 2014 | 2015 | 2-year Total (2014-15) | Change (2014-15 | Change (2011-15) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Container | 17,746 | 19,441 | 21,601 | 41,042 | 11.119% | 21.72% |
| Steel | 4,301 | 6,694 | 4,796 | 11,490 | -28.35% | 11.51% |
| Other General Cargo | 1,370 | 903 | 1,048 | 1,951 | 16.06% | -23.50% |
| Bulk Cargo** | 10,168 | 10,723 | 8,654 | 19,377 | -19.29% | -14.89% |
| Total Tonnage | 33,585 | 37,761 | 36,099 | 73,860 | -4.40% | 7.49% |
* “ short circuit tons, ” defined as the standard U.S. slant of 2,000 pounds. 11
** Does not include Bayport Chemical complex.
source : port of Houston Authority
The Port of Houston ranks first in the U.S. in terms of foreign waterborne tonnage and 15th in the world. In 2015, the Port of Houston handled 234.3 million tons of cargo. 12 Of this, the Port of Houston Authority ‘s facilities handled 36.1 million tons .
between 2012 and 2016, private firms invested about $ 35 billion in the Port of Houston and the surrounding industries it supports. 13 Examples include recently announced plans by Magellan Midstream to build a $ 335 million marine terminal on closely 200 acres along the Houston Ship Channel in Pasadena. This facility will include 1 million barrels of memory for refined petroleum products and ethyl alcohol, equally well as a new marine dock, expected to open in 2019, able to accommodate Panamax-sized ships. 14
In addition, the Port of Houston Authority plans to spend $ 1.6 billion during the future five years to expand its Barbour ‘s Cut and Bayport container terminals. This expansion will include deepening the channels to Barbour ‘s Cut and Bayport from 40 feet to 45 feet, allowing larger container ships. To accommodate these vessels, the Port of Houston recently took rescue of four super post-Panamex cranes, each closely 30 stories tall and worth $ 50 million. 15 The Port of Houston ‘s readiness for the recent Panama Canal expansion resulted in two embark lines announcing service from Asia to Houston through the expanded canal. 16
many of the state ‘s polyethylene plants are located near the Port of Houston, and the port accounts for 75 percentage of U.S. waterborne exports of fictile resins, both by container and majority dispatch. Industry investing is expected to increase exports of formative resins by “ hundreds of thousands of containers by 2020. ” 17
Federal Customs District Growth
The Port of Houston is separate of the larger Houston-Galveston Customs District, which includes the area stretching along the Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to Galveston, and inland from Freeport north to the Houston Intercontinental Airport. With $ 193 billion in trade, the Houston-Galveston District relies heavily on seaports for its deal volume and in 2015 ranked inaugural in the U.S. for cargo volume, at 249 million metric function tons. 18
Texas has 29 official ports of entry that serve as critical gateways to ball-shaped trade. Each port, whether accessible via tune, land or sea, serves a variety of domestic and international economic bodily process across multiple industries. The high timbre of Texas ‘ ports has a significant affect internationally arsenic well as across the department of state, from its largest cities to the most rural counties. Texas ports play an important function in the state ‘s transportation system network, as each immediately contributes to and frankincense affects the stallion fare system. Texas ports lend to the overall strength and diverseness of the Texas economy, which ranks 10th in GDP when compared to early nations. 19
