Page 13: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Jan/Feb 2019)

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The potential here is extraordinary.

JAXPORT is a tremendous success story and on the cusp of continued, incredible growth both for the port and for our business partners.

You have served in business development roles of in- Your harbor deepening project is well underway. Tell creasing responsibility for shipping lines owned by A.P. us where we are on that journey, how much more work

Moller – Maersk. In theory, ports and liners all want the needs to be done, and what it will mean for the port once same thing: robust profts, quick turnarounds and safe completed. Will you be able to receive ‘full and down’ operations. Does your previous experience help you mar- 20K+ TEU boxships when done?

ket the port today? How so? Congress authorized a 13-mile deepening project for Jackson-

It is the perspective I bring. My prior experience allows ville, which we have always supported. We have divided this me to understand the carrier decision base for a deployment into four phases. Currently we are focused on funding the initial schedule and that understanding helps our team build a mean- three phases to 11 miles so we can expedite the acceptance of ingful value proposition for choosing JAXPORT. more cargo aboard the larger container ships. It is not entirely accurate to put forth exact sizes as weight and air draft certainly

Jacksonville remains at the epicenter of Post-hurricane play a factor. Once the deepening project is complete and we are

Puerto Rico recovery efforts. Much of that effort stems at 47 feet, we will be able to handle 13,000 plus TEU vessels. from Tote and Crowley, of course, but the port also has to play a role. Where has Jacksonville been helpful? LNG powered vessels have arrived. And, for East Coast op-

JAXPORT serves two fundamental roles. First, we offer op- erations at least, JAXPORT is at the heart of that conver- erational fexibility. This gives us the ability to fex on sched- sation, especially considering that you have two port cus- ules, labor fuidity and round the clock accessibility, which tomers employing two separate means of bunkering. That leads to nimbleness. Second, we help coordinate with entities implies fexibility for the next LNG adopter. How important within the community. This allowed us to capture the chari- is the LNG bunker variable and where do you go from here? table energy of the greater Jacksonville area for the beneft of We are watching this closely. We have much to positively the hurricane victims and assist with all of the logistics ser- capitalize on with the success of LNG in Jacksonville. As an or- vices that keep the supply chain fuid with Puerto Rico. We ganization, we are further assessing what this means for our re- also serve Puerto Rico through Trailer Bridge. gion and for JAXPORT. Certainly, I believe Jacksonville’s mar- itime community has positioned itself as innovative and willing

You saw rapid growth in box shipping in the past year. to use advances in technology to everyone’s beneft and I expect

But, then, most ports did. This is a function of a then to see more of this kind of creative thinking in the future.

red hot economy, and, in part, the rush to ‘beat the tar- iffs.’ What’s your projection for 2019’s JAXPORT box JAXPORT is known for many things; among them, the ro- traffc, why and what role will U.S. trade policy play in bust RO/RO trade in this port. What’s fueling that, what’s that outcome? next and are there plans to expand that footprint?

One of the cornerstones of strength in JAXPORT is our di- As one of the nation’s busiest vehicle handling ports, Ro-Ro versifcation. We have built a business model that allows us to helps defne us. Our reputation, our location and connections best weather the storm when the economy throws us a curve plus the depth and skill of our labor continue to fuel our growth ball. We cannot predict the future, but we have a business mod- in this area. We recognize the need for additional space. To el that considers contingency planning to offset disruptions. offer this to the industry properly, we are carefully assessing www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 13

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