November 19 - From January 1, 2010, tariffs at the Port of Houston will increase; three percent for container cargo and two percent for general cargo to help offset an expected eight percent increase in operating costs.
"The tariff increase will continue to enable the PHA to remain competitive in the current marketplace as well, and help cover the increasing costs of operating its terminals," the port authority said. "The new rates will continue to be competitive with those charged by other U.S. ports in the region, and were deemed necessary to address PHA's 2010 budget, that projects operating increases of 8 percent on container operations and 8.7 percent on general cargo operations."
"After considerable study, research and dialogue, it became overwhelmingly clear that moderate increases to tariffs made good sense, in both the short- and long-term," said PHA executive director Alec Dreyer. "Our biggest costs are labour, infrastructure and federally mandated security commitments. The costs of all three are rising and, as an organization, we are absorbing most of those cost increases."
