Panama expansion to boost Virginia ports market share

THE Port of Hampton Roads, Virginia, is getting ready to share in the bounty of the Panama Canal expansion with new facilities to take in more cargo from Asia, according to Jerry Bridges, executive director at the Virginia Port Authority.

"I see the Panama Canal being completed and cargo and big ships are starting to roll into Hampton Roads. Five years from now, our volumes will be upwards of the four million TEU level - at capacity, that's where I see us in five years," Mr Bridges told the Virginian Pilot in an extended interview.

"I would hope that in five years we'd grow three to five per cent in market share. We're currently at almost 13 per cent of east coast market share. But if we look at it from New York down to Norfolk, we would probably be between 15 and 20 per cent," said Mr Bridges.

"The economic downturn wreaked havoc on most ports in the United States, especially those on the west coast. But the east coast, and Norfolk in particular, while we were down by double digits, we were still in the teens rather than in the 20s and 30s, as some of our competitive ports were," he said.

The port authority has signed a 20-year lease for APM Terminals' US$500 million container terminal in Portsmouth. The authority reshuffled service in the port to free up Portsmouth Marine Terminal and its prime riverfront real estate for something new.

The Norfolk Southern railway opened the Heartland Corridor, providing faster, double-stack container service between the port and the Midwest US. "The Heartland Corridor is in place; we're running one train a day over it right now," said Mr Bridges.

In the planning stages is a lease for the Port of Richmond and an expanded barge service, including an inner-harbour container shuttle that will take more trucks off the area's congested roads.

Asked about intensifying competition among east coast ports, Mr Bridges said: "New York has a $1 billion deal to figure out what to do with the Bayonne Bridge so that the bigger ships can call there. Charleston has committed to building a facility. Savannah is committed to deepening their channel to handle the bigger ships. And, of course, Jacksonville is sitting down there with pretty deep water and, I think, they are improving their rail connectivity.

Asked about his recent China trip, Mr Bridges said: "Every time I go, I'm amazed. This last trip we visited a new port right outside of Shanghai. Basically, the Chinese government relocated a fishing village [Yangshan], moved them to the city, moved everybody on the island to the city and then created a port there. It's been in operation for about two and a half years, and this year they'll do 10 million TEU. They also shared with me that they were creating another port in southern China that will be just as big as the one that I visited on our last trip and be able to handle upwards of 15 million TEU.

"The thing about the growth there is that it's planned in such a way that not only is the port kind of isolated out in the hinterlands but they also designed support facilities all around it, including residential communities. The people who work in the free-trade zones and the factories that are near the port, and also live within the footprint of the port itself. They make their investment and the freight materialises because of all the manufacturing that's being done there.

"I've been going to China since 1994, and it is hardly recognisable in some of the bigger cities - the type of growth that has been happening, from the building of skyscrapers, to the sophistication of the restaurants and entertainment venues. It's just a phenomenal place," said Mr Bridges.
(Source:www.schednet.com)