Port of Portland re-opens container operations

Oregon Container Terminal (OCT) officially launched at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6: “following a seamless transition from the Port of Portland to Harbor Industrial that sustains a competitive option for supply chains in Oregon, Southwest Washington, and Idaho,” according to a Port of Portland announcement on January 7, 2026.

OCT, Oregon’s only international container gateway, will be operated by Harbor Industrial Services under a long-term lease with the Port of Portland: “OCT offers direct vessel services, dual-rail connectivity via BSNF and Union Pacific, and future barge services connecting with inland locations. The terminal will support shippers in agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and retail. Weekly container service has already begun.”

The launch featured the debut of Harbor Industrial’s Ship Oregon initiative, “aimed at encouraging businesses to move their cargo through Oregon ports as a way to reduce overall transportation costs, reduce roadway emissions and congestion, and support Oregon-centric supply chains,” the announcement said.

Signaling OCT’s importance, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said, "Global connections like these give Oregon a competitive edge and help secure our economic future. They ensure that cranberries grown along the coast, hay harvested in the Willamette Valley, wheat from Eastern Oregon, and products made in the Portland metro area can reach global markets efficiently, competitively, and sustainably."

"OCT is about reliability, growth, and partnership," said Tim McCarthy, president of OCT, who moderated the launch ceremony: "This terminal gives shippers from Oregon and inland locations a stable, efficient, and competitive gateway, backed by 210 acres of already developed infrastructure, experienced operators, and a skilled workforce with a proven record of productivity."

Port of Portland Executive Director Curtis Robinhold said, "This transition ensures a reliable, cost-effective connection to international markets for Oregon businesses. Securing a long-term operator for container service at Terminal 6 means exporters and importers across the state and region can continue to move their goods efficiently, competitively, and closer to home, while supporting thousands of family-wage jobs and our state’s economy. We’re grateful to Governor Kotek and state legislators for their efforts to sustain container operations and invest in Oregon’s future."

Oregon Rep Shelly Davis

At the launch ceremony, McCarthy and Robinhold praised Governor Kotek and Oregon State Representative Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany), for their leadership in securing state funding for improvements at the terminal.

Davis, who praised the revival, said: "After years of uncertainty for Oregon importers and exporters, the Oregon Container Terminal flips the script …The promise of growth by Harbor Industrial at this terminal means more orders, more shifts, and more family-friendly jobs up and down the supply chain – from the farm and factory floor to the warehouse and dock. For Oregon businesses that have been riding the wave of turbulence, OCT is more than infrastructure; it is a glimmer of hope that we can compete, grow, and win right here from home."

The Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) Executive Director, Peter Friedmann, announced that the proposed shutdown of the Port of Portland had been canceled after a grassroots campaign in support of the Port staying open was led by Oregon legislator and businesswoman Shelly Davis. Friedmann was speaking at the AgTC Annual Meeting at Tacoma, Washington, on May 21, 2024, where he introduced Davis and hailed her initiative on behalf of the Port of Portland. Friedmann humorously quipped: “They ought to rename the Port of Portland the Port of Shelley!”

At that AgTC meeting in 2024, Davis told AJOT that she helped mobilize the business community to support container operations at the Port: “The industry really did show up. I think it was April 13 (2024) that they basically announced they’re shutting the doors on October 1st. There was a huge number of letters of support that flooded the governor that flooded the Port of Portland. As a result, the Port of Portland announced that it is going to stay open.”

Davis, who is Vice President, International Sales with Bosco Trading based in Tangent, Oregon, said at that time that there was still work to do: “The governor has mandated that they need a plan from the Port by August (2024). And the money that has been allotted to them through the legislature and through the governor's budget will not be approved until they see a plan, which I think is responsible.”

Davis said it was time for private industry to step in with a plan to revive the Port of Portland: “I truly believe that we need a private business, a third-party operator in there to run operations, in order to bring business to Oregon. Do we have challenges? Absolutely.”

Davis added, “I can't pick up my grass seed fields and my hazelnut orchards and move them to Texas. Right?”

ILWU Supports Revival

In 2019, a federal jury awarded $93.6 million to the former operator of the Port of Portland’s container terminal, “finding the dock workers union sabotaged shipping traffic and caused productivity to plummet through years of labor slowdowns and stoppages,” according to The Oregonian.

The Philippine-owned ICTSI Oregon, “which signed a 25-year lease in 2010 to operate Terminal 6, left the port in March 2017, idled by the labor strife it says the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and its Local 8 chapter encouraged.”

The award was eventually lowered, and a settlement was reached between the two parties.

With that history in mind, Davis met with the leadership of the ILWU Local 8 based in Portland to win ILWU support for reviving terminal operations: “I sat down and talked with Stuart from ILWU Local 8, and we sat down and had a beer. He specifically said: ‘We are not the ILWU of 10 years ago.’ And so here I think we are aligned on goals. We want cargo on the West Coast and in Portland. We can grow from there.”

On January 7^th, the Oregon Container Terminal launch was praised by Stuart Strader, Labor Relations Committee Member, ILWU Local 8, who said: "This is one of the good outcomes that can be achieved when government, business, and labor work together for the benefit of Oregonians.”