14 >> 12 Ports and terminals


The relative strength of breakbulk markets concerns ports and terminal operators who must decide how to allocate resources and investments. Traditional


breakbulk


commodities such as paper and wood pulp have shiſted to containers and those cargoes, among others, such as heavy-liſt, require dedicated staging and storage facilities at seaports. “It’s a delicate dance how much space to allocate to containers


“There is now a substantial new


market for exporting LNG that didn’t exist five years ago.”


– Dennis Devlin, DB Schenker


Issue 7 2017 - FBJNA


directions for our fleet,” said


Berg. “We aim to have a holistic fleet and a capable platform that is able to adjust to the uncertainty of any given project, the political turmoil all over the world, and to bankruptcies among customers and competitors.”


and other cargo opportunities,” said Frank Camp, director of non- containerized sales at the port of Jacksonville. Ports like Jacksonville and the


Northwest Seaport Alliance ports of Seattle and Tacoma meet that challenge by maintaining a diverse portfolio of assets. “It’s not easy to redeploy terminal assets quickly because of long- term lease commitments,” said Bari Bookout, chief commercial


officer for non-containerized cargo at NWSA. But ports must still invest in


specialized breakbulk facilitates if they are to attract that type of cargo. “Port Houston maintains its status as the number one breakbulk port in the nation, despite the decline in steel volumes since the peak in 2014,” noted Stan Swigart, marketing director, Port Houston. “We continue to make every effort to attract a diversified breakbulk cargo mix, with investments at our Turning Basin wharves and laydown yards.” The Port of Baltimore leads


in high and heavy cargo and in agricultural and construction equipment. “Our berths had to be totally reconstructed to handle the heavy stuff,” said Rick Powers, the port’s director sales and marketing. “We also invested in two heavy-liſt cranes and reconfigured our rail to facilitate direct discharge of cargo.” Breakbulk cargoes have


slipped at NWSA over the last couple of years, noted Bookout, an assessment concurred to


COVERING ALL COASTS


Providing stevedoring & terminal operations in more than 42 U.S. ports and 80 locations


Thorco Clairvaux in Hobart, Tasmania loading a passenger ferry. (Thorco photo.)


by the other ports, but many believe the cycle has reached bottom. “We are starting to see breakbulk numbers that are flat, which is good because they not declining,” she said. “We are receiving positive indications from customers in construction, mining, wind energy, and oil and gas.” The targeting of


traditional


breakbulk cargoes by container carriers is necessarily of concern to ports and terminal operators. “Breakbulk terminals need to be looking continually for ways to improve productivity and keep costs down in order to compete,” said Chris Smith, vice president for breakbulk at Ports America. “Ports America has been aggressively deploying our process improvement teams throughout our network to constantly look for opportunities to keep costs down.” Low oil prices have been a


big story for breakbulk, with reductions


in steel volumes


related to oil and gas seen at Port Houston, but there are bright spots as well. “Wind


energy components have been one of the strong project cargo segments,” said Swigart. There have been major


investments near Houston in ethane crackers to manufacture resins. “This has been driven by low-cost natural gas feedstocks to produce various ethylene products,” Swigart noted. In Florida, road and residential


construction has been robust, and Jaxport has seen increases in breakbulk steel volumes. “There is a lot of movement toward updating power generation in


“It’s not easy to redeploy terminal


assets quickly because of long-term lease commitments.” -- Bari Bookout, NWSA


Florida,” said Camp, “and we are participating in moves of transformers, generators, and turbines.” benefited


Jaxport has from natural


also gas


liquefaction projects, some of them directed towards providing bunker fuel for the locally-based carriers TOTE Maritime and Crowley.


in 2018 to 2022 due to a moderate uptick in drilling activity,” said Swigart, “but


little contribution


from other types of steel imports. We expect breakbulk volumes at Port Houston to level out with very modest growth over the next five years.” Smith still


sees breakbulk 16 >>


Overall the outlook is guarded. “We expect steel to grow mildly


///BREAKBULK


Baltimore Baton Rouge Bayonne Beaumont Boston


Brunswick Camden Charleston Concord, CA Coos Bay


Corpus Christi


Crockett Davisville Eureka, CA Freeport Galveston Gulfport Houston Jacksonville Long Beach Longview Los Angeles


www.PortsAmerica.com Thorco Isabella in New York Harbor. (Thorco photo.)


Miami


New Orleans New York Newark Olympia


Philadelphia Port Arthur Port Canaveral Port Everglades Port Hueneme


Portland, ME Providence San Diego Savannah Tacoma Tampa


Vancouver, WA Virginia


Wilmington, DE Wilmington, NC


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24