In the face of finished vehicle congestion at the Port of Tacoma, logistics provider The Pasha Group has used the Port of Grays Harbor in Washington to unload 3,200 new Kia vehicles, marking the first ever shipment of vehicles to a port more used to exporting logs.
The M/V Morning Menad, operated by Eukor Car Carriers, delivered the vehicles inbound from South Korea.
The port recently signed an agreement with The Pasha Group for trial shipment and both groups plan to build on the contract for long-term automotive handling. “The Pasha Group believes that Grays Harbor is uniquely and strategically positioned to be a major automotive processing and distribution facility long into the future, ” said Stan Gabara, The Pasha Group’s Vice President of Automotive Services. “Grays Harbor possesses superior vessel access, land availability, a skilled and motivated workforce and excellent proximity to the major markets of Tacoma/Seattle, Portland by truck, and to the heartland of the US by railroad.”
However, Kia has no plans to use the port again according to a spokesman for the company who told Automotive Logistics that the movement “was a one-off due to space limitations at their normal import locations and that no processing took place – just off-load and storage. Grays Harbor is not due to become a regular importation location,” he emphasised.
Nevertheless, the port has adequate capacity. Marine Terminal 4, where the vehicles were unloaded, boasts two deep-water berths with paved uplands, warehousing and dockside rail access. It is the port’s main general cargo terminal with nearly 10,000m2 of dried, covered warehouse space, a rail loop with on-dock rail access to BNSF and Union Pacific operated lines, and around 50 hectares of paved cargo yard.
The Port of Gray’s Harbor is Washington State’s only deepwater port on the Pacific coast and operates four marine terminals and more than 162 hectares of industrial property.
