Bills back legislative input on port

NORFOLK

Port officials said Tuesday that they opposed several state bills that would give the General Assembly a voice in any privatization of the Virginia Port Authority's assets.

"For the most part, we are opposed to the bills as they are written," said Jerry A. Bridges, the Port Authority's executive director, after the regular meeting Tuesday of its Board of Commissioners.

Three General Assembly bills now pending would give Richmond legislators the power to block any sale or long-term lease of the authority's port terminals.

Last year, the Port Authority received three bids proposing private operation of its port facilities. The deals could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state. Those bids, however, remain in limbo as talks continue with privately owned APM Terminals about a 20-year lease of APM's $500 million Portsmouth terminal by the Port Authority.

Port officials are concerned about extending oversight that now rests with the state's executive branch, which appoints its Board of Commissioners, to the legislative branch.

"All these bills would add another level of bureaucracy," said Jeff Keever, the authority's senior deputy executive director for external affairs, in brief remarks about the bills to commissioners Tuesday.

There also are concerns about a possible chilling effect on the state's Public-Private Transportation Act, under which the three port proposals were submitted, port officials said.

"The governance of the Port Authority has served the port extremely well," said Keever, adding that Hampton Roads has grown from the nation's 30th-largest port when the authority was created to No. 5 today.

The recession took a bite out of that growth last year, however.

The number of 20-foot containers handled portwide fell about 16 percent, from 2.08 million in 2008 to 1.75 million last year, said Russell Held, the authority's deputy executive director for development.

"They are ugly," Held said of the numbers.

"From other ports around the country that have reported at this stage, we're in the middle," he said, adding that Savannah, Ga., reported a drop of 11.5 percent last year and Long Beach, Calif., 20 percent.

The number of ships that called the port fell 9.1 percent in 2009, from 1,933 in 2008 to 1,758 last year.

In a switch of longtime trends, exports eclipsed imports all year long. Loaded containers of exports at year's end stood at 53 percent, with imports at 47 percent, Held said. Agricultural products accounted for much of the exported goods.

Cargo volume looked better in the second half of the year - the first six months of the port's fiscal year, which began July 1.

The number of 20-foot containers handled through December dropped to 913,175, a 12.8 percent drop from 1.05 million from July to December 2008.

Financially for the first six months of the fiscal year, operating revenues dropped 10 percent to $101.7 million, from $113 million in the same period a year earlier, in the combined statement of the Port Authority and Virginia International Terminals Inc., the private tax-exempt firm that operates its terminals,

Competition among East Coast is fierce, said Joseph A. Dorto, CEO of Virginia International Terminals Inc.

"We need to fight for every box," Dorto said. "Everybody's up for grabs... We need to watch our back."

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