Photo: NWSA.
The Seattle and Tacoma seaports recently marked more than a half century of moving Mazda vehicles through the Pacific Northwest.
The carmaker first started importing vehicles through the region on April 14, 1970—first through Seattle, and then through Tacoma almost a decade later—making Mazda the longest-running automobile to move through Tacoma.
In 2004, the one-millionth Mazda vehicle moved through Tacoma and to date, 1.9 million Mazdas have been imported through the NWSA gateway making the company, ports officials say, a key customer as well as a partner in the automobile business that diversifies cargo movement at the Northwest Seaport Alliance, the marine cargo operating partnership of the ports.
The Mazda business is recognized as an important job creator for the Pacific Northwest region. Each Mazda vessel call creates an average of 40-45 longshore labor jobs. Additional jobs are created down the supply chain in finished vehicle processing as well as rail and truck transportation to the vehicles’ final destination.
“The Northwest Seaport Alliance is proud to call Mazda a partner and appreciates the many decades of working together,” Northwest Seaport Alliance Co-Chair and Port of Seattle Commission President Ryan Calkins said. “We look forward to celebrating the two-millionth Mazda vehicle to be imported into our gateway very soon.”