Port Canaveral exports first scrap metal shipment

New tenant is using port property to ship scrap metal to Turkey.    Port Canaveral Scrap Terminal, a new tenant at Florida’s Port Canaveral, on Wednesday loaded its first export shipment, according to the port authority. Local stevedore Ambassador Services Inc. loaded about 20,000 tons of scap metal aboard the chartered vessel Grikos for export to Turkey, where it will be used to create finished steel products.
   In August, Port Canaveral signed a one-year lease with the new company to use a four-acre facility on the North Cargo Terminal to ship scrap metal to mills in Turkey, with a minimum guarantee of 100,000 tons of volume. 
   A Port Canaveral Scrap Terminal official previously told American Shipper that the company plans to export about 200,000 tons of scrap steel per year, and that imports of steel coils and wire rods for construction could be imported in the future. Port officials expect about eight vessel calls per year and are working to secure a long-term lease.
   Continued scrap metal business would help boost Port Canaveral’s small breakbulk business.
   Meanwhile, another tenant, Martin Marietta, utilized a new and improved bulk conveyor system for the first time to discharge limestone from another bulk vessel at the South Cargo Terminal, the port authority said. The $1.5 million new conveyor system is capable of offloading 2,000 tons per hour. The Canaveral Port Authority and Martin Marietta jointly invested in the system to improve terminal efficiency and productivity.
   Martin Marietta imports various aggregates and distributes them to the Central Florida market.
   Read more about the flurry of new business activity going on at Port Canaveral, including the scrap metal deal, in the October magazine feature, “Canaveral ready for blastoff.”