THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503120227
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding remains in contention.
That's the latest word regarding the location for building the novel container ship proposed by FastShip Atlantic Inc.
FastShip wants a 770-foot semi-planing vessel - propelled by waterjets capable of sustaining 43 mph - equipped with a rapid cargo handling system called Alicon.
Plans call for constructing four such vessels at a total cost of about $150 million.
Hampton Roads is not in contention as a home port. The vessels would sail by 1998 between Philadelphia and Belgium.
FastShip president Collister Johnson Jr. said the Virginia Port Authority was asked by FastShip in 1991, when he was VPA chairman, to help base the swift vessels in Hampton Roads.
Johnson called the timing wrong then. The port didn't want to invest in a novel shipping method that would compete with its new customers.
Hampton Roads had focused on winning cargo business from Baltimore and other large Eastern ports. As a result, Hampton Roads has surpassed Baltimore in tonnage handled.
A. Russell Kirk, former VPA commissioner and current chairman, added that VPA concluded FastShip would compete ``with existing customers, and as a public authority that was not something we could get involved with.''
FastShip's key partners are the Delaware River Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia entrepreneur Thomas J. Holt Sr., who wants to build a $250 million marine terminal in Philadelphia.
FastShip claims the ships will cruise at high speed in all but the most severe storms.
``That remains to be seen,'' said Rod Vulovic of Sea-Land Service Inc., part of Richmond-based CSX Corp., the nation's largest container shipping company. ``Certainly, the description is that they'll be able to maintain high speeds in bad weather. It's hard at this point to say yes or no. Those are mainly predictions.''
John Leeper, president of Leeper Cambridge & Campbell in Northern Virginia, said the maritime industry has adopted a wary approach.
``There's skepticism about introducing two new technologies (the vessel design and the loading system) at the same time,'' Leeper said. ``It's been my experience that it takes a long time to work the bugs out. You'd better be prepared to suffer some setbacks.''
Instead of propellers, the ships would use waterjets powered by General Electric gas turbines similar to the jet engines on Boeing 747s. FastShip predicts a cruising speed of 37.5 knots, or about 43 mph, allowing an Atlantic crossing every 3.5 days.
The typical container ship averages 18 to 24 knots. U.S. ocean freight often takes about eight days to reach Europe.
Less glamorous than the vessel, but as important to the FastShip concept, is the Alicon freight system. Cargo would be loaded on steel pallets hovering on a thin air cushion. The system would reduce freight loading and unloading time to four to six hours compared to a day or more on conventional container ships. The system underwent the first full-scale test in Europe on March 2.
``This is what has been missing in ocean shipping for 90 years,'' Johnson said. ``This is going to revolutionize the way ocean shipping is going to be conducted.''
FastShip will charge premium rates above the 7- to 18-cents per pound for conventional ocean transport, but below air cargo rates as high as $2.73 per pound.
By late April, Johnson said, FastShip hopes to announce service commitments from more than two dozen manufacturers. Among the possible customers are luxury automakers, clothing manufacturers and specialty food companies. by CNB