THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409150427
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Several shipping lines are on the verge of signing contracts that could increase container traffic at Portsmouth Marine Terminal by a third, a port official said Wednesday.
The new lines, which will begin service later this fall, would add between 40,000 and 46,000 containers a year to the roughly 130,000 that Portsmouth currently handles each year, said Joseph A. Dorto, general manager of Virginia International Terminals.
VIT is the operating arm of the Virginia Port Authority, which represents the Portsmouth facility, Norfolk International Terminals and Newport News Marine Terminal. Together, the port's three terminals handle more than 500,000 containers a year.
``This is a big piece of new business,'' Dorto said.
Most of the new business is especially welcomed because Hampton Roads won't have to compete with Baltimore for shipments on these new services.
While the new services are not likely to create new jobs, they will keep the port's longshore workers busier, Dorto said.
There are three new agreements that will bring added business to the port.
One involves four shipping lines that have formed a joint service that would extend their existing service between Asia and the Mediterranean to the U.S. East Coast with stops in New York, Hampton Roads and Savannah, Ga. Calling on Portsmouth every week, the 13 ships in the service will ship about 20,000 containers through the port annually, Dorto said.
The carriers include Cho Yang Line of South Korea, DSR-Senator Lines of Germany, Compagnie Maritime d'Affretement of France and Canada's Cast Group. That service starts Oct. 9.
And in another agreement involving joint carriage with Cho Yang and DSR-Senator, the big Korean line Hanjin will begin a North Atlantic service that will add between 5,000 and 8,000 containers to the port's volume, Dorto said.
``These are lines that we will have that Baltimore won't have,'' he added.
In the third deal, Hampton Roads will have to compete for shipments with Baltimore on a new weekly service provided by Mediterranean Shipping Co.
That carrier, which has been sharing space aboard Atlantic Container Lines ships calling in Hampton Roads, has agreed to begin service from Portsmouth to northern Europe, Dorto said. It will also be going to Baltimore.
It will share space with Polish Ocean Line on its ships and will move between 15,000 and 18,000 containers a year through the port starting in November, Dorto said.
About 85 percent of the ports' general cargo volume is in containers, which also can be carried by trucks and trains. About 6.2 million tons of general cargo moved through the port in the 12 months prior to June 30. < by CNB