E-Commerce Floods US Seaports With Unprecedented Volume

Industrial availability rates are declining faster than national rates.

HOUSTON—The rapid growth of e-commerce has fueled development of warehouses and distribution centers in the 12 primary US inland-port markets at nearly twice the national rate, according to a new report from CBRE Group Inc. Even with the surge in construction, demand for industrial buildings in those markets is so robust that nine of the 12 have recorded availability rates from post-recession peaks declining faster than the national rate.

CBRE senior vice president Tom Lynch tells GlobeSt.com: “Inland ports don’t have to be right at the port to be economically feasible; in Houston, for example, they can be as far as 60 miles away and still accomplish a company’s objectives. As long as warehouse facilities are within a reasonable distance, consumer goods companies are able to deliver products to their customers in a timely fashion, without having to cope with congestion that usually happens at some of the more major ports.”