Port of Virginia TEUs up 12% in February

Port of Virginia TEUs up 12% in February    The Virginia Port Authority’s three marine terminals — Newport News, Portsmouth and Norfolk International — handled a combined 162,948 TEUs and 47,000 tons of breakbulk cargo in February, up 12.4 percent and 58.8 percent, respectively, compared to the same month 2005.
   “The gain in breakbulk can be attributed to additional imports of paper, automobiles and machinery coming into Newport News Marine Terminal,” said Tom Capozzi, the port authority’s senior managing director of marketing services.
   “Autos are up almost 80 percent compared with last February, to date, Lydall Paper has handled almost 10,000 tons of paper at NNMT, our machinery tonnage is up almost 25 percent and we handled more than 2,100 tons of particle board. These numbers really point to the strength of Newport News’ breakbulk handling capabilities,” Capozzi said.
   In February, rail volume at the three ports equaled 18,742 TEUs, down 2.1 percent from 19,146 TEUs in the same month last year. For the authority’s fiscal year-to-date (July to February) rail volume is up 15.3 percent to 163,640 TEUs.
   Virginia International Terminals, the operating company of the Virginia Port Authority, has also signed a 10-year contract with Atlantic Container Line, one of the port's oldest customers.
   The new contract, valued at $25 million to $30 million, guarantees that ACL will have an annual throughput of 10,000 containers and 50,000 tons of roll-on/roll-off cargo.
   About 70 percent of the port's business is now secured with 10-year contracts. VPA has 11 such agreements in place.