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Larger Infrastructure for Supersize Ships


At a time of strained finances, local governments and port authorities are challenged to make the infrastructure investment required to accommodate the new generation of large ships.


“Local port authorities, local states and governments around the world will have to be looking at how to increase the size of their port facilities to accommodate the larger vessels.”


Tom Denniston, Lockton


Given the costly pollution disasters resulting from cargo ship accidents in years past — including Amoco Cadiz in France in 1978, Exxon Valdez in Alaska in Alaska in 1989 and Cosco Buscan in Oakland, Calif., in 2007 — marine insurance underwriters are well aware of the catastrophic risks presented by massive new vessels carrying ever-larger volumes of cargo over longer distances. But there is an even broader challenge: insufficient infrastructure to accommodate the new vessels. To serve these ships, ports must dredge their berths and channels to accommodate deeper vessel drafts as well as invest in larger gantry cranes to lift containers from wider ships. Moreover, highways and shore-side facilities will require substantial improvement to deal with larger volumes of cargo, particularly large energy and mineral cargoes. This comes at a time when government and port finances are under tremendous stress.


Copyright © 2011 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise.


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