THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, August 3, 1995               TAG: 9508030503
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   57 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** The ships of Di Gregorio Navagaceo currently call every other week at Norfolk International Terminals. Another terminal was mentioned in an Aug. 3 story about the small Brazilian shipping line. Correction published , Tuesday, August 8, 1995, p. D2 < ***************************************************************** PACT MAY SEND BRAZILIAN SHIPS THROUGH PORTSMOUTH TERMINALS

A small Brazilian shipping line may soon be sending its cargo vessels to Portsmouth Marine Terminals, port and line officials said.

The ships of Di Gregorio Navagaceo currently call every other week at Newport News Marine Terminal, moving the equivalent of about 5,000 20-foot containers a year through that terminal.

A move to Portsmouth would be the result of an agreement Di Gregorio reached Monday with a global consortium of shipping lines. The group has agreed to collaborate in the growing trade lane between the U.S. East Coast and the east coast of South America.

The big containerships of the consortium, known as Tricontinental Services, are among the largest carriers of containerized cargo shipped through Portsmouth Marine Terminal.

``In time, we'll probably move Di Gregorio over to PMT,'' said Joseph A. Dorto, general manager and chief executive of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which operates the Newport News and Portsmouth terminals. ``We would want them to grow there. . . .''

Tricontinental will add two vessels to Di Gregorio's current three vessels plying the waters between the United States and South America, said John Graham, executive vice president of D.G. Agency L.C., Di Gregorio's agent in Hampton Roads.

That will increase the frequency of its stops in Hampton Roads to every 10 days by mid-September and eventually once a week, Graham said.

Vessels in the service also call at ports in Chester, Pa.; Savannah, Ga.; and Miami before sailing to Brazil and Argentina.

The alliance with Tricontinental will at least double the number of containers shipped to and from the Hampton Roads port aboard vessels affiliated with Di Gregorio, Graham said.

The Di Gregorio line is owned by Franco Di Gregorio, a Brazilian transportation magnate, whose interests include Brazil's second largest trucking company, a small cargo airline, a container terminal and the Amazon Line, a shipping line serving that river.

Tricontinental is a vessel-sharing alliance of some of the world's largest shipping lines including Cho Yang Line and DSR Senator Line. by CNB