Jacksonville port signs 5-year agreement with Ceres Marine Terminals

Jacksonville port signs 5-year agreement with Ceres Marine Terminals    The Jacksonville Port Authority has signed a five-year operating and lease agreement with Ceres Marine Terminals Inc., a stevedore and terminal operating company based in Weehawken, N.J.
   Under terms of the pact, Ceres will lease 13 acres at the port authority's Blount Island Marine Terminal. Ceres is expected to handle 44,000 vehicles and provide stevedoring services to 100 vessels annually from the leased property.
   The agreement represents about $3.2 million in new revenue for the port authority over the term of the contract.
   In 2002, Nippon Yusen Kaisha acquired Ceres, which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary in the harbors division of the NYK Group. NYK's harbors division also has operations in the ports of Oakland and Los Angeles, Calif.; Tokyo and Kobe, Japan; and Kaoshiung, China.