Port of Everett: Small port that’s going global

Boeing strike makes a dent, but the port is diversifying.

Big things are happening at the Port of Everett in Washington state. CEO Lisa Lefeber – the first female leader in the port’s more than 100-year history – is just back from London, where she collected an international award in recognition of the port’s ability to handle oversize cargo.

The prize, awarded by the Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International magazine, is the culmination of the port’s decade-long project to finally obtain Strategic Seaport Designation, and increase its range of services.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve been making substantial infrastructure investments in order to not only achieve the designation, but also to be able to handle pretty much any type of cargo,” Lefeber told AJOT.

It’s impossible to talk about Everett for long without thinking of Boeing, the U.S. airplane manufacturer and owner of the world’s largest building by volume – the gigantic 98-acre Boeing production center located in Everett. A well-documented strike saw production at Boeing grind to a halt on September 13, halting shipments and creating a “huge revenue hit” across the supply chain. Though an agreement saw the West Coast strike end shortly before AJOT went to press in mid-November, 236 local aerospace suppliers in the area were affected by the shutdown.

“Boeing’s the largest exporter in the nation and all their oversized cargo, including their commercial and military derivatives, all come through the Port of Everett. So, when they struggle, we all struggle.”

Fortunately, the port was able to make a name for itself during the COVID pandemic and has succeeded in diversifying its cargo mix. “The pandemic helped put us on the map, because shippers were looking for alternatives,” says Lefeber. “We were fast and easy to work with, so we were able to fill that gap, especially for the oversized containers.

“Because all the Boeing parts are so oversized, we had the right 53-foot spreaders to be able to handle them. We were one of only a few ports on the coast that had them at the time, so we saw a 400% increase in our oversized container volumes during that period.”

Expansion Milestone

The port’s long-hoped for acquisition of the former Kimberly-Clark mill in Everett was realized in mid 2020 – an important milestone for port expansion. The site was heavily contaminated yet, within 18 months, Port of Everett was able to clean it up and open Norton Terminal – a 40-acre cargo terminal that’s almost doubled Everett’s cargo handling capability.

“During 2020, we removed 14,000 dump truckloads of contaminated debris from the site – we did all of that during the pandemic,” recalls Lefeber.

“We’ve got state-of-the-art smart stormwater management technology in there, plus a significant amount of electrical infrastructure. So, for future electric tugs or any other equipment, we’re really built for it.”

The port’s facilities include four shipping terminals comprised of eight berths, two 100-foot-gauge Post-Panamax gantry cranes, heavy-lift mobile harbor cranes with 100-ton and 150-ton mobile capacity, as well as over 12,000 lineal feet of shipside rail and terminal trackage, with direct access to the BNSF rail line to the Midwest.

Everett is regularly called on by Swire Projects, the projects and heavy-lift shipping arm of Swire Shipping, which launched a dedicated semi-liner service connecting East Asia with the West Coast of North America in November 2023.

Previously offered on an ad hoc basis, the service supports what Swire calls “growing demand for reliable breakbulk and project cargo transportation into the West Coast,” and on to the interior of the U.S., avoiding the need to route cargo via the Panama Canal.

“We’re probably different than a lot of container ports,” says Lefeber. “Large container ports often want quick throughput. Our workforce, however, is skilled at handling the cargo that takes more time, uses more lay down area. We’ve got around 150 acres of cargo lay down area – it’s exclusively for breakbulk.

“We’ve obviously got our aerospace business, but we’ve also got the capacity to handle pretty much whatever anybody needs. So, wind energy, whether it’s offshore or onshore, steel, breakbulk, things that require larger lay down areas – we can do all of that.”

Straight shot to Canada

Like other ports in the Pacific Northwest, Everett handles a substantial amount of Canadian-bound cargo. “We do quite a bit of business with Canada, absolutely. Given the freight routes, we have a straight shot to Canada, via rail or truck, using specialized heavy haul routes on the highways. So, we’re well suited to support that type of activity.”

On relations with Everett’s nearby competitor ports, Lefeber says: “I always joke that I’m Seattle and Tacoma’s biggest cheerleader, because I want as much containerized cargo to be at Seattle and Tacoma as possible, and then we can specialize and continue to focus on our breakbulk cargo.

“All of us have our niche and I want to make sure that we work together to bring value to the Puget Sound region.”

Looking ahead, Lefeber said Everett is “definitely interested” in supporting the offshore wind energy in California – the Golden State aims to develop 5 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045.

Though president-elect Trump has vowed to end offshore wind development, analysts say unwinding a decade of Biden-era subsidies for clean-energy projects – and the red-state jobs that followed – will be near-impossible.

“As a supply chain port, we think that our facilities are very well suited for offshore wind, plus our labor market, so that is definitely an area of focus,” says Lefeber. “Though we think it’s years out at the moment.

“There’s going to be cargo no matter what type of energy it is, there will always be project business tied to energy – it just depends on what those energy projects are.”

On the task ahead of her, Lefeber concludes: “We’ve just put in over $150,000,000 in infrastructure so, really, my focus right now is on making sure that the infrastructure investment is being fully utilized and trying to get additional shipping business to Everett.

“It’s the only industry where you build it – and they shall come.”