Pacific Link

As I was walking along the Oakland Estuary last weekend I happened upon the Pacific Link, fully loaded, in the midst of turning around to head out of port. The Link, built in 2004, sails under th flag of Germany and is operated by CMA CMG. The company dates back to 1851, a time when shipping goods across the ocean was a business very different from what it is today. Last year the company had revenues of 5.7 billion Euros and shipped 5 million twenty foot equivalent containers on a fleet of 244 vessels. That makes CMA CMG the third largets shipping company worldwide. In response to US consumers insatiable appetite for foreign goods CMA CMG has been increasing US operations. As politely pointed out in the company magazine American ports and distribution systems are inadequate to get goods to hundreds of millions of customers spread across nearly 6 million square miles. Looking at the size of our ports, the lengths of the trains, the number of trucks on the highways and the logistical resources available in this country it's astounding to think we need more capacity and haven't invested enough in the infrastructure of the country to operate distribution systems more efficiently.