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October 13, 1999 9:08 AM, EDT

NEW YORK — The good news for maritime ports is that business is booming; the bad news is that business is booming.

International trade is projected to triple over the next 20 years, and this rapid growth is already evident in the United States, where ports and dray carriers are busier than ever.

U.S. dock facilities saw the amount of import-export traffic almost double over an eight-year span, from $888 billion in 1990 to $1.59 trillion in 1998, according to the Bureau of the Census.

The increasing volume had participants at the American Association of Port Authorities’ annual meeting expressing feelings of being somewhat overwhelmed by the challenges facing them.

For the full story, see the Oct. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. .