The Panama Canal expansion in 2016 may shift 10 percent of oceanic container traffic from East Asia to East Coast ports according to C. H. Robinson. 
The expansion will permanently affect the competitive balance between the coasts according to the logistics provider.
“Goods shipped from East Asia through West Coast ports are currently transported by rail and truck as far east as the Ohio River Valley,” says the company website. “The canal’s expansion will permit big, efficient “post-Panamax” container ships—which have two to three times the capacity of current vessels—to reach the East Coast. Those ports will then become more cost competitive because it is cheaper to move cargo by water than over land. West Coast ports, however, will remain the destination of choice for shippers who need to use the fastest routes possible.”
The East Coast ports most likely to benefit will be the New York-New Jersey complex, Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston.