Mobile looks for steel terminal operator

Mobile looks for steel terminal operator    The Alabama State Port Authority said it is seeking a private sector partner to lease and operate its new Pinto Island Steel Terminal in Mobile.
   Built at a cost of $100 million, the terminal is to be completed by the end of the year and begin handling steel slabs that will be raw material for the new ThyssenKrupp USA steel mill, which is slated to open early next year in Calvert, Ala., about 30 miles north of Mobile.
   The Pinto Terminal is specially designed to handle steel using three gantry cranes equipped with electro-permanent magnets. The cranes can also handle electro-hydraulic buckets or grapples. The cranes are designed to transfer cargo from ships onto barges, which sit in a dockside slip and are moved using an automated pulley system.
   At the mill's full production the Pinto Island terminal will receive about 75,000 tons of steel weekly, about one Panamax ship’s worth. Steel slabs weighing an average of 25 tons will be transloaded to barges at the terminal then pushed up river to the ThyssenKrupp mill where they will be rolled into product. The terminal may also handle some steel exports for ThyssenKrupp.
   The port said ThyssenKrupp's business will consume about 80 percent of the facility’s storage capacity.
   'This is a unique terminal and ASPA is looking for the right partner to help us grow this portion of our business,' said Jimmy Lyons, director and chief executive officer of the port. “We have ThyssenKrupp on board and there is a lot of opportunity for new and bigger business here in the port.”
   The port authority plans to act quickly in hiring a private operator for the terminal, which is slated to receive delivery of the cranes this month. Representatives have to schedule a site visit and submit their documents Dec. 14. A decision will be made by the end of the year.
   Companies interested in responding will have to submit, among other things, a plan for hiring employees, operating and maintaining the terminal, as well as financial statements demonstrating their ability to take on the project.