THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290444
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
April was a cruel month for the port of Hampton Roads.
Cargo tonnage fell 10.2 percent for the month compared with April 1995, according to figures released at the Virginia Port Authority board meeting Tuesday.
But the news isn't all bad for the East Coast's second largest port.
``I think we're spoiled by all the success we've had here,'' said Joseph A. Dorto, general manager and chief executive of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which operates the port authority's cargo terminals. ``We're still ahead of the best year we ever had, despite the loss of 100,000 tons of rubber.''
So far this year, the port's terminals have handled 3.12 million tons of general cargo, 0.8 percent more than the 3.10 million tons it handled in the first four months of 1995, according to VPA statistics.
Also on Tuesday, the Port Authority board approved the port's first budget without cash support from the state's general fund. Chairman A. Russell Kirk called the budget a ``milestone.''
Despite the absence of the state's subsidy, the budget for the fiscalyear beginning July 1 increased nearly 6 percent to $120 million.
The budget projects a 7.3 percent increase in container volume, but only a slight increase in the man-hours needed to handle them at the terminal. The budget sets wages and benefits for the port's direct employees at $51.7 million.
Part of the reason for the slight increase in man-hours is the port's ongoing difficulty attracting labor-intensive break-bulk cargos such as cocoa beans, steel, rubber and paper.
Break-bulk cargo tonnage was off 19 percent in April largely because of the loss last year of Waterman Steamship Line to Morehead City, N.C. Waterman had shipped more than 100,000 tons of rubber a year through Norfolk destined for Goodyear Tire plants.
Dorto predicted that the port will see some more down months in 1996, but that the port should grow this year thanks in large part to the new alliance between Maersk Line and Sea-Land Service Inc.
The alliance of the Danish shipping giant and Sea-Land, the steamship subsidiary of Richmond-based CSX Corp., is starting a new service in June that will call in Hampton Roads and connect the port to markets in Southeast Asia through the Suez Canal. That service is projected to eventually bring an additional 50,000 containers a year through the port.
Another shipping line, P&O Containers, has joined NYK Line, Neptune Orient Line and Hapag-Lloyd AG in an existing joint service. Dorto estimates that P&O's participation will bring an added 3,000 to 5,000 containers a year through the port.
Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting was the last for Kirk, the chairman since early 1994, and members Robert Blair and Omer Bunn, whose terms expired.
Blair, who served on the board five years, is the head of the government practice group at the Washington law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Bunn, who missed the meeting, has served 14 years. He is president of Grundy, Va.-based Southwestern Virginia Coal Corp.
Kirk has been a board member for 10 years and is president of Armada/Hoffler Holding Co. of Chesapeake.
During their tenure, Hampton Roads surpassed Baltimore and Charleston, S.C., to become the second-largest general cargo port on the East Coast behind New York.
``I certainly believe that in the next 10 years, possibly the next five years, we will surpass New York,'' Kirk said. ``I'm very sad that I will not be here to be a part of what's going to happen in the next 10 years.''
KEYWORDS: PORT OF HAMPTON ROADS by CNB