OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings published sector briefings for U.S. Airports, Ports, Toll Roads, PPPs and GARVEES. These briefings summarize Fitch's expectations and views from recent outlook and special research pieces on key credit trends and issues in a presentation format.

Highlights include:

Airports
--Moderate growth at a slightly slower pace than 2015.
--Global economic weakness may weigh on the U.S. economy and international traffic to the U.S.
--Greater burden on airlines to cover debt costs.

Ports
--West Coast ports saw declines due to International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) labor dispute slowdowns, while East Coast ports registered robust growth driven in part by diverted West Coast cargos.
--Slowdowns at larger East and West Coast ports, stemming from yard inefficiencies and bottlenecks moving cargo, could result in shifts to alternate entry points.
--Heightened economic challenges, including a potential reduction in Chinese manufacturing and exports, may affect U.S. port volumes.

Toll Roads
--Traffic expected to grow if the economy continues to improve and low fuel prices are sustained.
--Revenue expected to grow faster than traffic as more authorities implement regular inflationary toll increases.
--Forecast risk remains high for greenfield or recently constructed projects.

PPPs
-- Modest growth in PPP pipeline.
--Increasingly, state and local governments are realizing the potential benefits of risk transfer, cost certainty and asset preservation.
--Growth in managed lanes and social infrastructure.

GARVEES
--Structural imbalance remains, federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) outlays will outpace revenues by 25% with the gap increasing annually.
--Without a new revenue source or increase in the gas tax, the gap will continue to grow as transportation needs outpace inflation.
--Fitch estimates the federal gas tax would need to be raised to $0.27/gallon in 2016 without additional revenues, pledged in order to meet projected outlays.