The Columbia/Snake River System in the US Pacific Northwest supports North America's only regularly scheduled inland container-on-barge services, but traffic was down 7.2 percent last year and the system faces some significant challenges in the future.
After nearly a decade of growth, container traffic on the river system fell to 47,835 TEU in 2001 compared to more than 50,000 TEU in 2000. The drop was blamed on Japan's on-going recession but also has to do with America's own sagging economy. Most containerised cargoes moving on the river are agricultural commodities produced in the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho for export to Asia....
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Approx 1620 words from WorldCargo News, March 2002,
page 23.
