Page 30: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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Container Ports

Credit: Port of Virginia

The Port of Virginia set a new annual record for container cargo volume having handled more than 2.85 million TEUs, in calendar year 2018.

ports. The deal potentially represents approximately a half-billion regional ports, NC Ports is banking heavily on leveraging the dollars of private and public investment in the region’s economy. state’s considerable, multi-billion dollar agricultural trades, much

Notably, the NWSA also received four additional super-post-Pan- of the output of which today goes to other regional ports. Port amax container cranes in March. The cranes will allow two 18,000- of?cials attributed the Port of Wilmington’s ef?ciency in mov-

TEU vessels to dock simultaneously at Husky Terminal in Tacoma. ing trucks and cargo through the port, as just one of the reasons for its overall increase in the movement of containers in 2018. A

Oakland’s Historical High planned increase in reefer plug-ins as well as the arrival of the

The Port of Oakland, the nation’s seventh-busiest facility, pro- ?rst-ever 12,000 TEU vessel to the Port of Wilmington, says port cessed nearly 209,500 TEUs in January, compared with 205,800 of?cials, bode well for the port’s future.

in 2018. For all of 2018 the port moved more than 2.5 million

TEUs, compared with 2.4 million in 2017. 2018 was the busiest A nod to NOLA year in the Oakland history. Scrap paper shipments were up 3 The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) moved more containers percent in the ?rst 10 months of 2018, contrasting with a gener- in 2018 than at any time in its history, totaling 591,253 twenty-foot ally challenging environment for U.S. exports. That’s important equivalent units (TEUs), up 12.3 percent compared to one year ago. because waste paper is the largest export commodity, measured Most importantly, those numbers included a 58 percent surge in con- by container volume, shipped from Oakland. tainers moved by barge on the Port’s growing container-on-barge ser-

The Port said that it shipped the equivalent of 110,400 20-foot vice operated in conjunction with the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.

containers of wastepaper in 2018 through October; nearly 18 percent A recently announced Marad grant of $3.1 million will support of Oakland’s total export volume, with much of that headed for Asia. the barge service, allowing them to purchase purpose-built ves-

The good news was balanced by a local proposal to build a sels that will increase the viability of the service. As Louisiana’s baseball stadium and thousands of housing units in close proxim- chemical industry grows, the barges are essential to increasing the ity to the port’s gates. Stakeholders fear that the proposal, if it capacity of the shuttle, intermodal ef?ciency and reducing costs. comes to fruition, could negatively impact the port’s growth plans The existing container on barge service currently moves approxi- and ef?ciencies. mately 16,800 FEUs between Memphis/Baton Rouge and New

Orleans, operating twice weekly to deliver export cargo that will

Wilmington, NC sets record be loaded on deep-draft container ships.

The Port of Wilmington set a record for container moves in the Also of note, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, which the 2018 calendar year, NC Ports reported in a news release. The port Port acquired in 2018, realized a 15 percent growth in intermodal had 175,500 container moves in the 2018 calendar year, up 23 cargo and new connections with domestic markets. percent from nearly 143,000 in the 2017 calendar year, according to numbers released by the port. PhilaPort: open for business

Modest, though its box volume might be in comparison to other The Port of Philadelphia (PhilaPort) saw cargo volume growth 30 Maritime Logistics Professional March/April 2019 | |