SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
ASIA TRADE AND LOGISTICS
China’ s ESG Impact List, which salutes best practices.
Prospects, challenges ahead Moving forward, Houghtalin sees both volatility and opportunity on the horizon.
“ The North American market remains in a period of heightened uncertainty,” he said.
Diversification of global supply chains, particularly given the rise of Southeast Asia, creates new opportunities. The world is watching as cargo flows are shifting: Vietnam, Thailand and other markets are expanding exports, while China is increasing shipments of intermediate goods and industrial equipment.
The demand for highly integrated logistics is growing.
“ Customers increasingly seek end-to-end logistics solutions that connect shipping, inland transportation, warehousing, customs brokerage and final delivery,” Houghtalin said.
Their main desire is a supply chain that behaves like a single, coordinated system instead of a patchwork of disconnected vendors. Cosco Shipping Lines is addressing this demand by expanding its footprint across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Panama, among other initiatives.
Cross-border e-commerce is another major growth driver. To support this trend, the business recently opened a joint venture warehouse in Savannah, enhancing its ability to provide integrated transportation, warehousing and distribution services.
“ The most successful companies will be those that can combine global scale, network flexibility, digital innovation, integrated logistics capabilities and sustainable operations,” Houghtalin said.
A growing gateway
While major US gateways like Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York – New Jersey continue to handle massive volumes of Asia-origin cargo, secondary gateways are presenting strategic benefits that might prove irresistible, especially to beneficial cargo owners( BCOs) who have been sidelined one too many times at their established ports.
Port Tampa Bay is emerging as one such strategic alternative. The COVID-19 pandemic, vessel backlogs and periodic labor disruptions have illustrated how quickly congestion at a few large ports can ripple across entire supply chains. Against that backdrop, Tampa’ s rapid expansion offers a fresh option for diversifying Asia-US trade flows.
The port is scaling up quickly to meet rising demand, with Asian trade emerging as one of its strongest drivers of growth.
“ It’ s key because of the high volumes that we have had in the container area,” said Raul Alfonso, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Port Tampa Bay.
In six years, the port has gone from nominal volumes to“ around 7.5 million tons annually of imports,” mostly containerized consumer goods, plus“ about half a million tons” of exports.
“ Asian markets account for 80 % to 90 % of our trade when petroleum is excluded, or about 40 % when it is included,” Alfonso said.
Powerful global carrier lineup Port Tampa Bay has attracted a diverse lineup of global carriers.“ We have MSC on one of the services working with Zim,” Alfonso said.“ We have Maersk Line with Hapag-Lloyd on another. And then we have the Cosco, CMA CGM, Evergreen and OOCL Alliance.”
For Southeastern US shippers and receivers, that diversity matters— it brings more service options, competitive rates and routing flexibility directly into their backyards, without relying solely on
Excluding petroleum, Asian markets account for 80 % to 90 % of trade at Port Tampa Bay.
congested mega-gateways on the East and West Coasts.
A broader carrier presence means more sailing frequencies, more equipment availability and more opportunities to match transit times and service patterns to specific supply chain needs. It also reduces the risk of disruption: when labor issues, weather events or bottlenecks hit the major hubs, having multiple global carriers calling Tampa gives regional BCOs alternative pathways to keep cargo moving.
There is a need for increased vessel capacity, Alfonso noted, pointing to Tampa’ s strategic location and Florida’ s booming consumer market— one of the fastest growing in the nation. Approximately 1,000 people move to Florida every day, according to US Census Bureau data.
Alfonso noted that the containerized import cargoes are diverse—“ anything the consumer needs”— with furniture as the port’ s top import, followed by manufactured plastics, steel products and appliances.
On the export side, Mosaic— the state’ s largest fertilizer producer— is expanding its containerized shipments.“ They have been able to ship in smaller volumes by container, supported by a new blending facility here at the port,” Alfonso said. These exports serve not only Asia, but Latin America as well.
This is a win for the region because containerized fertilizer exports create a
Port Tampa Bay www. joc. com July 6, 2026 | Journal of Commerce 45