Port of Seattle closes overseas offices

Port of Seattle closes overseas offices    The Port of Seattle is closing five international marketing offices and eliminating its Economic and Trade Development Office in an effort to bring its budget in line with falling revenues, port officials said.
   The decision follows belt-tightening measures earlier this year that resulted in two-week furloughs for all non-union employees, a hiring freeze and a significant cut in its travel allowance. The job cuts are directly tied to a steep decline in container volumes at the port, which last winter projected a $9 million budget shortfall for 2009. The port suffered a 13.6 percent drop in total box volumes in 2008 to 1.7 million TEUs.
   Officials project container volumes to be about 1.5 million to 1.6 million TEUs this year compared to a peak of about 2 million a couple of years ago. Volumes are down 16.7 percent through August to 980,000 TEUs, versus the same period last year. Business has improved in recent months and the port experienced a 5.4 percent increase in container throughput in August, the first time in 17 months that monthly volumes improved from the previous year.
   The port authority is closing one-person offices in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Korea, as well as the five-person Trade Development Office, spokesman Mic Shultz said. The moves will be completed by next month.
   The nine positions are being eliminated through a combination of early retirement and layoffs. The port's representative in Japan is being retained at port headquarters because of his expertise and the fact that he is a U.S. citizen, Shultz added.
   The work of the Trade Development Office will be spread between the airport and seaport marketing groups, as well as the public relations department, Shultz said.

Yoshitani

   'There was a feeling that there was some redundancy and that work could be consolidated into other groups,' he said
      The office closures will save the port several hundred thousand dollars per year, said Tay Yoshitani, chief executive for the Port of Seattle, during a brief interview in downtown Seattle.
   The downsizing will not impact Seattle's ability to attract container business because most ocean carriers have established regional headquarters in the United States where many strategic decisions are made, Yoshitani told AmericanShipper.com. The port will also continue to make trips to Asia to maintain contacts with carriers.
   'We think we can do less of it and still be O.K.' he said.
   The port authority is also raising rent to market levels in the World Trade Center offices it owns, contributing to the exodus of several trade promotion groups such as the Washington Council on International Trade, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
   The cutbacks are a sign of the economic tough times. Other ports have also slashed overhead in response to the decline in container volumes and other revenue. Earlier this year, the Port of Tacoma eliminated 47 positions. Last August, the Port of Oakland cut 100 jobs, including vacant positions, at its seaport and airport. Port authorities that also operate their own terminals, such as South Carolina and Alabama, have also released dockworkers. ' Eric Kulisch