Crowley expands Port Everglades terminal

Crowley expands Port Everglades terminal    Crowley Liner Services has entered a new 10-year terminal lease with Florida's Port Everglades that calls for additional acreage and increased container guarantees.
   On Tuesday, the Broward County Commission, the governing board for Port Everglades, approved the new lease, which includes two five-year options.
   The new lease terms call for expanding Crowley’s terminal from 68.2 acres to 80 acres. Guaranteed container moves will begin at 110,000 in 2011, and increase to 112,000 in 2012, followed by 1,000 annual increases through 2020. Crowley’s first-year guarantee represents nearly 96 percent of its fiscal year 2010 container volumes, the port authority said.
   'It is the favorable business climate in Broward and Port Everglades which has allowed Crowley to triple their business volume through this port over the last 20 years,' said Michael Hopkins, vice president of operations for Crowley's Latin America services, in a statement. 'The new agreement provides fertile ground for more expansion and new business development.”
   Port Everglades noted that Crowley was the first container line to operate in its Southport area, starting in January 1990, and the carrier has expanded its operation there three times since.
   Today, Crowley operates the largest container terminal in Port Everglades and the company’s economic impact through the port could increase by 9 percent over the remaining term of the new agreement, based on the increase in guaranteed volumes alone, the port authority said.