PORTLAND PORT BOARD APPROVES TOYOTA TERMINAL PROJECT

PORTLAND PORT BOARD APPROVES TOYOTA TERMINAL PROJECT    The Port of Portland's board of commissioners has approved a 15-year marine terminal lease to Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. that will result in a two-year $40-million redevelopment project for the Japanese automaker.
   The project calls for updating a portion of the port's Terminal. Toyota will invest about $30 million in the project.
   Toyota currently processes vehicles in a 67,000-square-foot 26-year-old complex adjacent to Terminal 4. by completing a new, larger processing operation adjacent to the automobile receiving area will improve Toyota's productivity while reducing the amount of time cars are driven.
   The port of Portland also reported that its August container volumes ranked fifth highest of any month at the port. The 30,386 TEUs loaded and discharged marked an increase of 39.8 percent over August 2001.
   The port credited the increase on the new China-America Express service initiated by Hanjin Shipping on Aug.1, as well as the introduction of larger containerships by all three weekly transpacific carriers at the port — Hanjin, 'K' Line and Hyundai Merchant Marine. The port also credited the diversion of many empty shipping containers by rail through Portland that would otherwise have been loaded onto ships at other West Coast ports for transport back to Asia.
   For the first eight months of 2002, the port has handled 182,497 TEUs, down 8.1 percent over the same period in 2001. Total tonnage has declined 8.3 percent to 6.67 million tons.