DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709050893

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: HAMPTON ROADS ALMANAC '97

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   72 lines

THE PORT CHANGES BRINGING GOOD AND BAD NEWS HAMPTON ROADS IS ON PACE FOR A RECORD YEAR - THANKS TO BIG GROWTH IN CONTAINERIZED SHIPPING.

Two decades ago, nearly all international cargo was shipped on break-bulk ships.

Boxes of cigarettes, stereos, clothing and, well, everything, came stacked on pallets or in crates that were lifted one by one from the holds of small ships, moved into dockside warehouses and loaded into boxcars and trucks for distribution. It was a labor-intensive operation.

Now, nearly everything is shipped in containers - truck-sized metal boxes that can hold up to 40 tons of goods. Containers can be readily moved from ships to trucks to trains.

With containers it's possible to move more cargo more safely with less manpower.

It's a trend that has reshaped the port of Hampton Roads. Even traditional break-bulk cargos such as rubber and cocoa beans are migrating to containers.

``There's a big savings in manpower and productivity,'' said H.R. ``Bob'' Jones, president of Lambert's Point Docks.

Lambert's Point used to be Hampton Roads' busiest marine cargo terminal, but that has changed. The Norfolk break-bulk terminal handled 327 ships in 1981, but only 125 two years ago.

Now the busiest is Norfolk International Terminals, a modern container facility that handles up to 30,000 containers a month.

As the port's container tonnage has grown dramatically in recent years, break-bulk tonnage has been dwindling. Last year container tonnage crossed the 9 million ton mark, rising 8.7 percent; meanwhile, break-bulk tonnage fell 20.4 percent to 611,694 tons.

Today, only a handful of commodities are still shipped in break-bulk: steel, paper and plywood.

Cocoa beans and rubber, once mainstay break-bulk cargos shipped through Hampton Roads, now come in mostly in containers, said Rick Knapp, assistant director of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which operates the state-owned terminals of the Virginia Port Authority.

Knapp said he understands the transition has a lot to do with the growing availability of containers to the inland plantation river ports in producing countries like Indonesia.

The number of containerships also is growing, said Jack Hilgers, program manager for the International Maritime, Ports & Logistics Management Institute at Old Dominion University.

The switch from break-bulk to containers is a two-edged sword for the port of Hampton Roads.

It's good because Hampton Roads has become the second largest port on the East Coast thanks to containerization. Modern terminals, deep channels and superb rail connections to Midwest markets ensure the port's role as a future container load center, Hilgers said.

However, break-bulk cargo, by its labor-intensive nature, generates more economic impact per ton than any other form of cargo.

A study by Gilbert Yochum and Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University shows that break-bulk cargo had an economic impact of $110.64 per ton in 1995, while a container ton generated $66.82. Nearly all of the difference was labor costs on the dock. MEMO: BUSINESS ALMANAC ILLUSTRATION: Photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Michael Young waits to unlock...

Graphic

The Virginian-Pilot

PORTS

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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