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Keeping Up With the Joneses
There are a range of ports on the USEC competing for container traffi c. Each faces individual challenges and has its own game plan. AJ Keyes assesses developments
Larger ships entering New York/New Jersey (NYNJ) and a strong desire to also call Savannah in the South Atlantic region means other US East Coast (USEC) ports have the potential to see demand increases. Baltimore, Virginia and Charleston continue to invest to target additional container traffi c as gateways in their own right.
So, what are these three ports doing to increase competitiveness against the current backdrop?
BALTIMORE GOES UP AND DOWN
Baltimore is ready for the addition of larger vessels calls at Seagirt Marine Terminal. Four new all-electric neo-Panamax cranes are scheduled to be operational before the end of Q1 2022 and are joining the existing four units.
This means two 16,000TEU vessels can be worked simultaneously across the two berths There are further expansion plans too. “A third berth will be built and open in early 2025, and a fourth berth is also in the long-term plan,” explains William Doyle, Executive Director, Maryland Port Administration.
One major issue that has long impacted Baltimore’s ability to compete more effectively for US Midwest markets has been its intermodal connectivity. This is because CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway have not been able to offer double-stack trains.
However, after around 10 years of delays due to funding issues, CSX Transportation has finally initiated a project to reconstruct the Howard Street Tunnel, the key obstacle to offering double-stack services. The US$466 million project, which also includes improvements at 22 other locations out of Baltimore, is slated for completion in late 2024 or early 2025. Once finished, it will finally overcome one of the biggest weaknesses to Baltimore’s competitiveness in the region.
NIMBLE VIRGINIA STILL INVESTING
For all of 2021, the Port of Virginia did not suffer with vessel congestion like other ports on the US East Coast. This was due to its ability to be “nimble” when receiving/shifting delayed ships at its two terminals, Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) and Virginia International Gateway (VIG), which are linked by barge services and utilise semiautomated cranes in the container yards.
Indeed, despite growth in 2021 of 25.2 per cent, the port maintains that it never once had waiting ships in double-digit numbers. That said, the process was definitely tested at the end of January 2022 when snowstorms resulted in “a loss of around 44 per cent of capacity,” according to Stephen Edwards, Executive Director, Virginia Port Authority (VPA).
To overcome these sudden vessel queues and backlog, VPA is bringing into play its “NIT North” area of the terminal. Although limited to ships up to 8000TEU in size, the rarely used berth (VPA said it only handled “two or three ships” in 2021) will help ease the pressure on NIT and VIG.
“We are going to open NIT North up for more cargo in April……that brings about another 200,000-container [per year] lift capacity on top of what we had,” Edwards states.
VPA is coming to the end of a substantial five-year investment programme. Starting in Q2 2022, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is deepening and widening Norfolk Harbour to 55-ft to facilitate two-way vessel traffic as part of a US$350 million inner harbor dredging project, with completion due in 2024.
In addition, VPA is taking possession of the final two shipto-shore cranes needed to allow NIT South to handle three vessels of up to 20,000TEU simultaneously, to match the 12 similar units at VIG.
Importantly, a new railyard at NIT, capable of building 10,000-ft trains on-dock, is commencing before the end of Q1 2022. The new yard will double annual rail capacity of NIT to 630,000 containers and replicate the operation at VIG.
With VPA reporting that 33 per cent of containers through the port use rail, investment in new intermodal capacity will support growth, with dredging allowing a two-way shipping flow helping Virginia retain its flexible and nimble approach moving forward.
SHORT-TERM CAPACITY CRUNCH FOR CHARLESTON
In March 2021, South Carolina Port Authority (SC Ports) finally opened its new Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal (HLT), offering an initial 700,000TEU per annum. This largescale project is expected to be fully built-out by 2033 and will add 2.4 million TEU per annum to Charleston’s overall container capacity, representing the long-term expansion plan to keep pace with future demand.
HLT has an excellent location and deep water, with a sailing time of just two hours from open water. However, there is no current on-dock intermodal rail option, with a short one-mile dray still required to access rail trackage.
Yet at the time of writing (mid-February 2022), up to 20 ships were queuing to access the port and in excess of 7000 containers had been on the terminal for more than 15 days, severely hampering the ability of SC Ports to clear the backlog.
The need to maximise the new HLT facility to overcome this issue remains the clear goal for SC Ports, but an ongoing dispute with the unionised workforce is hindering this aim. Current estimates of mid-March, earliest, to clear the backlog represents a frustrating outcome for SC Ports, especially after the time and investment spent developing HLT to offer deep water and new capacity.
8 VPA is coming
