Four Asian shipping lines to offer transit service to port

NORFOLK

A consortium of four major Asian shipping lines is making Hampton Roads its first U.S. stop in a new service that provides 22-day transit between China and Virginia, port officials announced Tuesday.

"This is the first, 'first-in' service from Asia that we've had," said Gregory J. Edwards, director of external affairs for the Virginia Port Authority, after a meeting of the authority's Board of Commissioners.

The new service will give the port a tremendous advantage in reaching markets east of Chicago, such as Columbus, Ohio, Edwards said.

Big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot "will welcome it as a new option," he added.

In addition to the new "first-in" service from Asia, the Port Authority also announced the return of two additional Asian-based services, including one by a Chinese-government-owned shipping line. "Once the rotation is in full swing, we'll see three new vessel calls a week, more than 150 combined a year," said Joe Harris, a port spokesman.

The good news came against the backdrop of a global economic downturn that has affected Hampton Roads along with ports around the world.

The number of cargo containers processed at the port dropped 9.2 percent in the eight months between July 1 and the end of February, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data presented Tuesday at the board meeting. The number of ship calls fell 14.5 percent for the same periods, from 1,453 to 1,242.

The same phenomenon is occurring at other U.S. ports.

In 2008, growth in cargo volumes in New York/New Jersey was flat for the first time since 1993, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported last week.

For the five months from Oct. 1 through the end of February, imports at the Port of Long Beach in California were down 22.5 percent and exports down 26.1 percent, said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port.

The Port Authority's board meeting took place about two weeks after CenterPoint Properties, a Chicago-area industrial real-estate firm, submitted a bid valued at $8.9 billion over 60 years to state officials, seeking to take over the port's operations.

The firm's bid, which has been under review by state officials, is expected to be released to the public within days, assuming that it meets state requirements.

Port officials said it is possible that some proprietary financial information related to CenterPoint could be withheld from public disclosure. The state attorney general's office is reviewing that corporate information to determine whether it would be exempt from disclosure under the state's Freedom of Information Act, said Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the Port Authority.

Also Tuesday, the board approved issuing $65 million in bonds, the proceeds of which will be used to help pay for continuing expansion projects at Norfolk International Terminals, as well as to refinance some debt.

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com