The Port of Houston Authority plans to significantly increase its landside infrastructure investment spending as the region’s population booms.
Port Houston plans to spend $1.7B on the landside infrastructure over the next five years, a 35% increase from the previous five years, Port Commission Chairman Ric Campo said, according to the Houston Business Journal.
The infrastructure will help prepare the port for further population growth. The region’s population has grown by about 1.2 million over the past decade.
“If we’re going to have another million people here, and we’re going to continue to increase our exports of energy products, … we need to have more infrastructure investment,” Campo said, according to HBJ.
This announcement comes as Port Houston handled 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent units through October of this year, a 7% increase from 2023’s year-to-date volumes, according to a news release. This volume is made up almost evenly of imports and exports. The port saw more exports than imports in October, but that ratio was reversed in September.
Volumes in October were down 15% from the year earlier, but Port Houston still expects strong container volumes through the end of the year.
Market reports indicate activity should surge in November and into the new year as users push volumes ahead of January’s port labor contract expiration and the early Chinese New Year, which is set to bring factory closures in Asia, the news release states.
Shoppers are also being encouraged to buy big-ticket items by the end of this year, especially if they come from China, given President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals for a 60% tariff on Chinese goods and 10% to 20% tariff on all other imports.
The port’s 12-month total container movements have increased from about 1.5 million units in 2014 to more than 3.3 million units in 2024, Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president and chief economist for the Greater Houston Partnership, said at an event last month. But he shares concern that proposed tariffs could slow that growth.
“I am concerned that if we have across-the-board tariffs, it will slow down this part of the economy,” Jankowski said. “It’s like a tax. A tariff is going to raise the cost of something you purchase … If something becomes more costly to purchase, people purchase less of it.”
Port Houston might have already seen “some record days” this month, Port Houston CEO Charlie Jenkins said, according to HBJ.
“And that’s all based on people playing the economy, wondering if tariffs are going to come in, worrying about the stability of the marketplace,” Jenkins said, per the HBJ. “And it’s going to be interesting to see where the volume ends.”
Port Houston remains significant to the region’s industrial market. The Southeast Houston submarket accounts for the largest portion of industrial product under construction, with 3.7M SF, or 25%, of the total, according to Colliers.