| Journal of Commerce The
great container race When most port officials along the U.S. Gulf look into the future, they see containers -- lots of containers. Gulf ports that lost east-west cargo to mini-landbridges in the 1970s turned their attention to breakbulk and bulk cargoes, establishing themselves as specialists in niche and project cargoes. Several Gulf ports' images became associated with specific commodities: Houston was the petroleum epicenter; New Orleans had steel; Gulfport had bananas; Mobile had forest products; and Tampa orange juice, phosphate and fertilizer. But the long-term growth trend favors containerization. Overall trade volume continues to grow, and am-ple container vessel capacity and low freight rates have fueled continued diversion of breakbulk cargoes to boxes. Some long-established cargoes such as green coffee have all but disappeared from breakbulk carriers, while others such as steel coil will always be exclusively breakbulk. Gulf ports handled about 1.2 million TEUs of loaded international containers last year, about 60f the nation's total. Including empties, the total is about 1.5 million. That's far less than the combined 9 million-plus TEUs handled annually by Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's busiest container ports, but it still represents substantial volume. Prospects for continued growth have encouraged several Gulf ports to try to develop container-handling facilities. Here is a look at the status of some of those projects: Houston's Barbours Cut terminal was the first container terminal on the Gulf when it was built 25 years ago. In recent years, volume at Barbours Cut has approached 1 million TEUs of loaded and empty containers, straining capacity and sending port officials to the nearby Port of Galveston in 1997 to lease its container terminal. Galveston's terminal lost its only regular service this spring when the Tasco 2 weekly liner service to Northern Europe operated by China Ocean Shipping Co., Hanjin Shipping Co., "K" Line and Yang Ming was eliminated last month as part of a consolidation of trans-Atlantic services with CP Ships. John Horan, director of trade development at the Port of Houston Authority, said the port is seeking a replacement liner service. But he admitted that the extra $80 to $130 per container that it costs to truck containers from Galveston to Houston makes the Galveston terminal a difficult sell. Today, Houston handles nearly two-thirds of the Gulf's containers, and still needs more container facilities. The port has proposed building a seven-berth, 720-acre container terminal at Bayport. An Army Corps of Engineers environmental impact study has determined Bayport as the best site for a new terminal. Last year, voters approved a $387 million bond issue to help pay for the $1.2 billion terminal, which is scheduled for ultimate completion in 2022. Some facilities in the first phase could be open in late 2003. Houston has long-term plans for a third container terminal on 1,100 acres on Galveston's Pelican Island. The Port of Texas City, privately owned by Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., has been used to handle bulk cargoes such as petroleum products and liquid chemicals. During the next few years, it also could become a container port. City officials see opportunities for handling containers and have developed plans for a 300-acre terminal to handle ships with up to 50-foot drafts. Adding credence to the project is the involvement of Americana Ships and Stevedoring Services of America, which have contracted to design, develop and operate the terminal. The terminal, about 40 miles from downtown Houston, initially would have a 3,000-foot berth, 240 acres of container yard and a 60-acre, on-dock railyard. The companies and cities say it could be operational in three years. It would provide a strong competitor to Houston's facilities. While Houston spent the last decade cementing its title as the Gulf's leading container port, New Orleans reigned as the neobulk center for specialty niche cargoes. With cargoes such as aluminum ingots, raw rubber and specialty metals such as zinc and copper, New Orleans' general cargo base was as diversified as that of any port. But containers increasingly dominate global trade, and New Orleans has set out to increase its 18hare of the Gulf's international container market. In recent years, that trade was handled mainly at the France Road container terminal. But with that terminal limited to 36-foot water depth, the focus of cargo-handling at the port has shifted back to the Mississippi River. With limited land for expansion, the port has chosen to retool existing terminals once dedicated to the port's breakbulk mainstays: steel, rubber and coffee. On Nov. 1, the port is scheduled to open the New Napoleon Container Terminal, a $50 million conversion. The 61-acre facility will include two 45-foot-draft berths that are 1,700 feet long, four cranes and a 48-acre open area capable of handling 366,000 TEUs at a time. A second phase, which would increase Napoleon's container capacity by more a third to some 500,000 TEUs, is scheduled for completion around 2010. Earlier this year, the port purchased a 26-acre tract adjacent to the New Napoleon terminal. The land will continue to be used as an intermodal yard by Canadian National-Illinois Central Railroad, which will lease the property for another year. After that, the port expects to build more container-handling facilities on the site. "The new Napoleon Ave-nue Terminal will help attract some of the cargo generated from growing economies in Latin America," said Gary LaGrange, the port's executive director. LaGrange also has been retooling the port's concept for a $1.5 billion Millennium Port. He has abandoned the initial idea of a major container port at the mouth of the Mississippi River in favor of support for a cooperative of regional ports that share a container-barge transfer station where the river meets the Gulf. But Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster intimated recently that the unfunded project was premature and held low priority for the state. "Our new philosophy around here is called enhanced space utilization," LaGrange said. "It will help us plan future capital projects." Separately from the New Orleans and Millennium projects, longtime shipping executive W.J. Amoss Jr. is trying to develop Seapoint, a ship-to-barge container transfer station near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The project would use the region's abundant supply of river barges to move containers to New Orleans, other Gulf ports and points up the Mississippi River. Amoss, a former chief executive of Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., is seeking funding. To reduce dependence on one or two commodities, many Gulf ports are developing specialized facilities for handling containers and refrigerated cargo. For Corpus Christi, that means adding containers to its increasingly diversified cargo list. Corpus Christi's dominant cargo for years has been petroleum imports. In recent years, however, the port has sought other cargo. In 2000, the port completed a 100,000-square-foot on-dock, cold-storage warehouse and a multi-use cruise and conference center. Earlier this year, port commissioners also voted to issue $17.6 million in bonds to fund development of a new container facility, a new trade corridor and to pay for widening and deepening of ship channels. The La Quinta Trade Gateway is a proposed 1,100-acre container terminal on 3,800 feet of waterfront. Port Director John LaRue wants the project developed with private investors, and port officials are negotiating with four firms. A recent market study estimated that La Quinta could handle more than 500,000 TEUs a year within five years of opening. Corpus Christi also is expanding its ship channel, including the deepening of its draft to 50 feet and widening and extending the channel in specific areas. The Joe Fulton International Trade Corridor will establish intermodal links to highway and rail, providing access to 2,000 acres of raw land along the port's ship channel. Construction is scheduled to begin in two years, with completion estimated in 2006. The Alabama State Port Authority at Mobile also wants a piece of the container action. For decades, the port's mainstay cargoes have been bulk coal and forest products. But James Lyons, chief executive of the Alabama port agency, sees boxes in the port's future. Mobile officials want to develop a 100-acre intermodal container terminal near the McDuffie coal terminal. The Choctaw Point Container and Distribution Center will have two berths and four cranes on Mobile's 45-foot-deep shipping channel. Meanwhile, the port has begun a five-year, $300 million expansion plan that includes a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, 125,000 square feet of open storage, 1,500 feet of new bulkhead and pier capacity improvements at North Pier A scheduled for completion next year. A second ramp for roll-on, roll-off cargoes at North Pier A, a mobile harbor crane with a 110-ton lift capacity and a 75-foot reach stacker at Pier 2 also have been added. "We need to add container facilities to handle new automobile shipments from Alabama's Mercedes and Honda plants," Lyons said. Don Allee, the new port director at Gulfport, Miss., has a steady income from two floating casino barges to help fund the port's expansion projects as it diversifies its cargo base. Gulfport has grown from a port that handled mostly bananas a decade ago to one of the Gulf's top container ports. Banana imports still dominate, but the port's cargo also includes tropical fruit, frozen poultry, ilmenite ore, forest products, automobiles, heavy machinery, electronics and small appliances. The port is in the middle of a $250 million expansion that includes the addition of 60 acres to the West Terminal; a new pier to allow cargo handling of three additional vessels; new warehouses, upgrades to rail and intermodal connectivity; and the $40 million purchase from Kansas City Southern Railway of a 68-mile rail link to Hattiesburg, Miss. That link will give Gulfport a seamless connection to the Midwest and Canada for double-stack railcars. The rail link alone is expected to more than double Gulfport's shipments of containers to more than 400,000 TEUs a year. Containers could become more prominent in the next few years at Tampa, which handles few containers now. The Tampa Port Authority has embarked upon a $179 million, five-year capital-improvement program that includes becoming a major trade partner with Mexico. DaimlerChrysler recently began shipping its PT Cruiser automobile, assembled near Mexico City, from Veracruz to Tampa. John Thorington, director of government relations at the port, said the business could amount to as many as 400,000 cars a year. The port plans to build a $10 million facility on Hooker's Point to handle the business. |