Tacoma WA (Washington)

Tacoma WA is a Pacific Northwest USA cruise port and city in Pierce County (Washington USA) with population around 220,000 (metro around 3.94 million). Port Tacoma (locode USTIW) is located on Commencement Bay (Puget Sound) and is operational since 1918 (inaugurated on November 5, first ship received in 1921).

In August 2015 was formed the Northwest Seaport Alliance via a merger of Port Tacoma's and Port Seattle's cargo shipping operations. By annual cargo volumes, the Tacoma-Seattle joint marine terminal operations are ranked USA's 4th-largest (after Port Los Angeles, Port Long Beach and Port New York-New Jersey NYC) and among North America's top-10-largest.

As cruise port, Tacoma WA is included in the regular schedule of the USA's largest river cruise company - ACL-American Cruise Lines. Next table shows ACL's 10-night/11-day "Grand Puget Sound Cruise" itinerary roundtrip from Seattle.

ACL's Grand Puget Sound Cruise fares started at ~USD 6000 per person (double-occupancy outside cabin rates).

Port Tacoma owns a land area of approx 2400 acres (970 hectares / 3,75 mi2 / 9,7 km2) and provides mainly cargo terminal services, including docking, stevedoring, bunkering, storage (warehousing), logistics (distributing), manufacturing, ship repairs. The port supports 43,000+ Pierce County jobs (plus ~113,000 Washington jobs) and is often dubbed the "Gateway to Alaska" as it handles ~70% of all the shipping trade to Alaska.

Port Tacoma-Seattle's annual containerized cargo volume is 3,5+ million TEU-containers. The annual bulk cargo volume is 9-13 million tons. The annual turnover is ~USD 25 billion. Principal imports include vehicles (and parts), electronics, industrial machinery, toys, furniture, food (fruits, frozen meat). Principal exports include cereals and grains (mainly corn and soybeans), forest and agricultural products. Most of the international shipping traffic is with China and Japan.

Around 70% of the imported TEU-containers are moved by rail (BNSF Railway and Union Pacific cargo trains) to Midwest and East Coast USA markets. Tacoma Rail (city-owned company) provides shortline rail services. Another major business at Port Tacoma is the oil refinery of US Oil and Refining Co (1952-founded). The facility handles tankers carrying crude oil, which is refined here (daily capacity 39,000 barrels) into petrochemical products.

City's largest employers are JBLM (Joint Base Lewis–McChord), MultiCare Health, CHI Franciscan Health, Washington State and Pierce County (administration), Public Schools, State Farm Insurance. Major local companies include TrueBlue Inc (staffing, on-site workforce management, recruitment), Simpson Lumber Company (pulp and paper manufacturer), food companies (Roman Meal International, Brown & Haley Factory, Mars Inc), Tacoma Mall (city's largest shopping mall, owned by Simon Property Group), hospitals (run by MultiCare Health and Franciscan Health).