Port secures last-stop status on shipping line's route to Asia

NORFOLK

A global shipping-line service connecting Asian ports and the East Coast through the Suez Canal has reworked its lineup of port calls, making Hampton Roads its last stop out in addition to its status as an inbound destination, the Virginia Port Authority has announced.

Mediterranean Shipping Co.'s "Golden Gate Service" links ports such as Shanghai and Hong Kong with New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., as well as Hampton Roads.

The change by the shipping line, the world's second-largest container-shipping company, is scheduled to take effect in early February.

"They're not making a double call at any other port on the East Coast," said Joe Harris, a Port Authority spokesman, adding that Hampton Roads' designation as the last stop before vessels head toward Asia gives the port an "incredible advantage."

The inbound service visits New York/New Jersey first, then Hampton Roads, Baltimore and Savannah. Ships then go to Freeport in the Bahamas, back to Charleston and then Hampton Roads, the last stop before heading back toward the Atlantic and the Suez, according to the Port Authority.

"As an exporter, if you put your cargo on the ship in New York, it is going to bump up and down the East Coast for 10 days before it starts heading back across the Atlantic," Harris said. "As an exporter, you would just send it to Norfolk, have it loaded, and then it heads out."

To put cargo on ships earlier puts exporters at a financial disadvantage, Harris said.

"You're not making money doing that," he said.

The Port Authority announced Hampton Roads' designation as the line's last port out on the rotation once before - in fall 2009.

Joe Dorto, president and CEO of Virginia International Terminals Inc., the Port Authority's operations affiliate, said Mediterranean Shipping did give last-stop status to the port over two years ago.

"Initially that was the case," Dorto said. "And then they changed the rotation and made Charleston the last port out, so we've been fighting that ever since, and now we've convinced them."

One of the things that has changed recently is that CSX Corp., the nation's third-largest railroad, now has on-dock rail service at APM Terminals Virginia. Mediterranean Shipping has a contract with CSX.

Rail is a big issue, Dorto said.

"We can bring rail in here and the transit time will be the fastest from here because it'll come in and we'll be the last out," he said.

Ships can be loaded to capacity without concerns about navigational issues because of Hampton Roads' deep channels, Harris said.