Port of Hampton Roads' container volume up in December

NORFOLK

December was a big month at the port of Hampton Roads. Container volume rose 11.4 percent from the same month a year earlier.

"That's the best month we've seen, really, for a couple of years," Russell Held, deputy executive director/development at the Virginia Port Authority, told its Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

Savannah, Ga., the port's big East Coast competitor, saw a 1.9 percent year-over-year drop in container volume for the same month, according to the Journal of Commerce.

Ship calls in Hampton Roads also were up in December - rising to 156, nearly 10 percent more than in the same month a year earlier.

On a calendar-year basis, it was a different story.

The port's container volume, as measured in standard 20-foot units, grew to 1.9 million units last year, up 1.2 percent compared with 2010. Savannah's, however, rose 3.5 percent to 2.9 million units.

Operating revenue for the port rose 5.4 percent to $149.7 million for the first six months of the fiscal year that began July 1, according to the combined statement of the Port Authority and its operations affiliate, Virginia International Terminals Inc.

Operating expenses at Port Authority terminals jumped 5.7 percent to $63 million for the fiscal year's first half. Increased rail volume - which grew 26.4 percent last year - was cited as a factor, because it's more costly to move, according to port officials.

The authority projects saving at least $3 million in rent this year at APM Terminals Virginia in Portsmouth.

Two cranes sidelined after one of them struck the other in February are still not up and running. Repairs are expected to be wrapped up late this month, but the cranes are not expected to be online - and fully accepted by the Port Authority - for roughly 90 days, port officials said Tuesday. Until that happens, the full rent for APM won't kick in.

The only action to come out of Tuesday's meeting concerned how the Port Authority's spending policy squares with that of Virginia International Terminals.

"What we have now are two different policies; they're inconsistent," said Commissioner Scott Bergeron, who chairs the finance/planning committee.

Joe Dorto, VIT's president and CEO, said his board had given him unlimited spending authority within the parameters of his budget.

Rodney Oliver, deputy executive director and chief financial officer at the Port Authority, said VPA's policy requires board approval for expenditures over $5 million.

"It could be interpreted that the subsidiary unit has greater spending authority than the VPA," Bergeron said.

The board eventually passed a resolution asking VIT's board to review the policies and try to bring them into closer alignment.

In other business, the board was briefed on port-related legislation before the General Assembly. Among other things, it would:

- Exempt the Port Authority from doing environmental impact reports for projects costing under $5 million.

- Offer two-year tax breaks to companies within a new "Route 460 Corridor Interstate 85 Connector Economic Development Zone."

- Allow the Port Authority to hire outside legal counsel without the approval of the attorney general.

- Let the Port Authority hire an outside company to perform its annual audit, instead of the Auditor of Public Accounts - provided that the General Assembly can ask the state auditor to conduct such an audit at any time.

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