THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701180840
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: 1997 FORECAST
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 58 lines
After posting its third straight year of healthy increases in general cargo volume, the port of Hampton Roads may find growth a little harder to come by in 1997.
That doesn't mean that there won't be growth however. The port should easily surpass the 10 million ton mark in 1997.
Marine terminals in the region handled more than 9.5 million tons of cargo in 1996. The needs to grow by just about 4 percent to top 10 million tons this year.
That's exactly what port officials are projecting for 1997's growth.
``That's something I've only dreamed about and now it's becoming a reality, said Joseph A. Dorto, the chief executive and general manager of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which manages terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News for the state.
Most, if not all, of 1997's growth will come in containers, the truck-sided metal boxes most cargo is now shipped in. The port has been losing break-bulk cargo, including rubber and cocoa beans, for several years.
Reversing that trend will be a priority in 1997, Dorto said.
The loss has been particularly felt at Lambert's Point Docks, Norfolk Southern Corp.'s cargo terminal in Norfolk. The terminal, which specializes in break-bulk cargo, handled just 128,127 tons of cargo in 1996.
``No doubt about it, it was our worst year ever,'' said H.R. ``Bob'' Jones, the terminal's president.
Not only has Lambert's Point lost cargo to other local terminals, but to other ports with less expensive labor, including Morehead City, N.C., which stole away a major rubber shipper in 1995. Lambert's Point had been handling more than 300,000 tons of cargo per year before losing Waterman Steamship Line.
Jones predicts 1997 cargo volume could rebound to 150,000 tons.
Meanwhile, the region's other private terminal, the Sea-Land Service facility in Portsmouth, will likely continue to boom in 1996 thanks to Sea-Land's alliance with the Danish shipping giant Maersk.
The two lines are so big that they're served not only by the Sea-Land terminal, but by the adjoining Portsmouth Marine Terminal and Norfolk International Terminals, both owned by the Virginia Port Authority. Dorto hopes to consolidate the alliance's ships at Portsmouth Marine Terminal this year where the port has recently added a new container crane to handle the growing volume.
The expansion of Norfolk International Terminals should begin in earnest in 1997.
``The biggest challenge we have is expansion,'' Dorto said. ``We have to be able to expand the terminals in order to keep growing.'' ILLUSTRATION: PORT PERFORMANCE
SOURCE: Virginia International Terminals Inc. and Virginia Port
Authority
VP GRAPHIC
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
KEYWORDS: 1997 FORECAST SHIPPING PORT CARGO