THE Port of Seattle is to lose the Grand Alliance consortium of three shipping lines to rival port Tacoma taking away 20 per cent of its container traffic.
The consortium of three shipping lines, Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, Japan's NYK Line and Hong Kong's OOCL of Hong Kong will relocate to Washington United Terminal in Tacoma taking with it an annual throughput estimated at 400,000 TEU. This will boost Tacoma into a top ranking container terminals in the Pacific North West.
It is likely to lead to job losses for Seattle unless the two rival ports agree to cooperate, said the Port of Seattle in a statement.
