North America has no transshipment hubs (transshipment incidence of only
5.8 %), in spite of expectations from some ports (e.g. Halifax, Nova Scotia) to
capture this role. The transshipment function takes place in a few offshore hub
terminals along the Caribbean (Freeport, Bahamas or Kingston, Jamaica for
instance). Well positioned to act as intermediary locations between major shipping
routes (Asia-Europe, Europe-Latin America) and offering lower costs, this traffic is
relatively small in comparison to total containerized traffic. In the US, many
impediments in American shipping regulations gravitating around the US
Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (also known as the Jones Act) have favored a
process of limited (feeder) services between American ports. The Jones Act, which
basically states that cargo may not be transported between two US ports unless it is
transported by vessels owned by citizens of the US, built and registered in the US,
and manned by a crew of US nationals, implies that the potential of domestic
shipping in North America remains underutilized (Brooks 2009). The expansion of
the Panama Canal by 2014 may trigger more transshipment activities in the
Caribbean, which in 2008 handled about 10 million TEU of transshipment cargo
representing a transshipment incidence of 52.8 % (Rodrigue 2011).