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Issue 6 2019 - Freight Business Journal


///US EAST COAST


Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) has achieved its best ever July container volumes, with total movements increasing 19% over July 2018 with over 116,000teu moving through the port in July 2019. So far in the 2019 fiscal year,


more than 1.1 million containers have moved through Jaxport, an increase of 9% over the same period last year. (The port’s fiscal year runs from 1 October to 30 September). The port added that it was


on pace to set a container volume record for the fourth consecutive year. Asian trade has grown an average


of 14% annually over the past five years. The port offers regular service to destinations throughout Asia, including China, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. July trade car business was


up 6% over the same period last year, with nearly 57,000 vehicles moved. Year-to-date, the port’s auto volumes are up 7% and Jaxport is set to surpass the car volume record set in 2017, when 693,000 units were moved. Terminal operator SSA


Atlantic is set to break ground on a $238.7 million container terminal at the port’s Blount


It’s quite a party in Boston


Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) announced another record year for the port of Boston’s Paul W. Conley Container Terminal on 26 July. From July 2018 to June 2019, Conley handled 307,331teu – an 8% increase in cargo volumes over 2018 and a new all-time record for the fifth consecutive year. Total imports also rose by 12% over 2018 to 152,960teu, boosted by trader’s concerns over


pending tariffs being


imposed by the US government. Conley offers New England


traders three weekly services from nine of the world’s ocean carriers – MSC, COSCO Shipping, OOCL, Evergreen, CMA CGM, APL, Yang Ming, Hapag-Lloyd, and Ocean Network Express (ONE). Acting port


director Mike


Meyran said: “We are proud of Conley’s continued growth and success, which reflect the region’s strong economy and Conley’s high levels of productivity. For


2020, we


will continue to make smart infrastructure investments and operational improvements to support the needs of the companies that depend on the Port.” Meyran replaced Lisa


Wieland who has become the authority’s new chief executive director. Meyran has been deputy port director since 2007, responsible for the general management


of operations and facilities. Prior to his time at Massport, he served at numerous ports including APM Terminals in Los Angeles, APM Terminals in the Netherlands, Maersk Pacific in Long Beach, and Sealand in Atlanta. Massport is currently


completing a new berth 10 as well as ordering three new ship-to-shore cranes. These will be fully functional by the end of 2020 and will support the terminal’s continued growth, handling larger ships transiting through the Panama and Suez Canals. Landside improvements


include technology upgrades, a new reefer racking system, and new gate facilities through a $42 million Federal Fastlane grant. Massport


Island Marine Terminal and the federal project to deepen


the Jacksonville shipping channel to 47 feet is ahead


of schedule, with anticipated completion in 2023, based on continued funding from all partners. The port also recently


reached a long-term agreement with automobile processor Amports to expand the company’s leasehold site to 170 acres at the port’s Blount Island and Dames Point marine terminals, with plans to develop around 45 acres more at Dames Point by 2023. Jaxport set another record


on 25 April with the arrival of the ZIM vessel Kota Pekarang, the largest container ship to ever call. The 11,923teu vessel was on a 2M Alliance service that had transited the Panama Canal from Northeast Asia before reaching the US East


Mobile on the move


Alabama State Port Authority has received federal authorisation for its plan to modernise Mobile Harbor to handle larger vessels


and improve efficiency. The US Army Corps of


Engineers will now execute a design agreement with the State


New blast freezer for Mobile


MTC Logistics(MTC) and the Alabama State Port Authority have broken ground on MTC’s 12


million cubic feet international tempera ture-co ntro lled distribution centre at the Port of


Port Authority and construction could begin in late 2020. The project would deepen the existing Bar, Bay and River


Mobile. The $61 million facility will


expand the port’s blast freeze capability by 30 truckloads per day and provide 40,000 pallet spaces of racked storage. It is located outside the container terminal gates with


Coast, following which it called at Jaxport’s Blount Island Marine Terminal. It came little more than a month after the previous largest ship to ever call Jaxport – the 11,000teu ZIM vessel Cape Sounio at Blount Island on 18 March. Jaxport is expecting that


increasingly larger vessels will call, driving the demand for deeper water from a harbour deepening project currently underway. Jaxport has meanwhile


joined Northeast Florida’s Foreign Trade Zone No. 64, meaning that any company within Flagler County can apply to the US Foreign Trade Zone Board for FTZ designation – a process that typically takes 30 days or less.


Channels to 52feet (15.84m), 50feet(15.24m), and 50feet (15.24m), respectively, as well as widening the Bay Channel by 100 feet for three nautical miles to accommodate two-way vessel traffic and expanding the current Post-Panamax sized turning basin.


immediate access to the I-10 main highway. MTC Logistics now operates


four distribution centres with more than 40m cubic feet of refrigerated and frozen space, serving the ports of Mobile, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Wilmington.


Evergreen giant is a sign of things to come in Baltimore


The 14,424teu Evergreen Triton became the largest container ship to ever visit Maryland when she called at the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore on 24 May. Previously, the largest


received two


new RTGs in May and two more are expected to arrive in autumn and there are plans for an eventual fleet of 16 RTGs by 2020. A $75 million freight haul road was opened in autumn 2017


for convenient truck


access to interstate highways. Another major infrastructure


project initiated in the last few years is the Boston Harbor Dredging Project. Maintenance dredging of the inner harbour was completed in December 2017 and the deepening of the main ship channels will be completed by the end of 2021. The $350 million project is now about 40% complete.


container ship to visit the Port of Baltimore was the 11,000-TEU container ship Gunde Maersk, in October. The Port of Baltimore is one of


the few ports on the East Coast with a 50-foot deep channel and a 50-foot deep berth able to accommodate vessels operating through the recently expanded Panama Canal. Earlier, the of


Maryland Transportation


Department Maryland


Port Administration said it was to receive $6.6 million in US Department of Transportation grant funding to contribute to the cost of deepening a second container berth to 50 feet at Baltimore’s Seagirt


Marine Terminal. Maryland will contribute $7.8 million and Ports America Chesapeake, which operates the Seagirt Marine Terminal has added $18.4 million for a total project cost of $32.7 million. The federal funding is


from a program called Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD). Construction was scheduled to begin in the second half of 2019 and should take about a year to complete. A second 50-foot berth will


allow Baltimore to handle two supersized container ships simultaneously. It follows a public-private partnership agreement signed in 2010 with Ports America Chesapeake for the first 50-foot deep draſt at Seagirt.


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