LOW oil prices has made the Port of Portland, Oregon, less economically viable for container shipping, said port boss Bill Wyatt.

Low oil prices has caused trucking rates to drop well below expected levels, making direct container service to the Puget Sound region less competitive, he told the Portland Business Journal.

"Trucking up to Puget Sound is a lot less expensive than people thought it was going to be a year and a half ago. Freight rates are very cheap right now, " he said.

"I don't expect to see any new carriers here for a while," he said. "With the cost of oil where it is."

Korean ocean carrier Hanjin Shipping in February 2015 stopped calling the Port of Portland from China and now calls at Prince Rupert, British Columbia; Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Then Hapag-Lloyd of Germany pulled out of Portland on its Med Pacific Service (MPS), which connects the region with the Mediterranean, stopping in Central America and the north coast South America along the way.

International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI), the operator of Terminal 6, Portland's only container terminal, at the time blamed work stoppages and slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for the departure of Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd.

ICTSI Oregon said it would remain committed to Portland and the Pacific Northwest region, and that it would seek new container carriers to serve the port, but so far has been unable to do so.

Westwood Shipping is the only line still offering direct container service to Portland with service that run 2,048-TEU ships through Vancouver, Longview, Portland, Sendai, Hitachinaka, Shimizu, Yokohama, Tokyo, Busan, Osaka, Nagoya, Shimizu, Tokyo, Everett, Tacoma and Vancouver.