March service improvements slowed financial gains, according to recent statements from the port.
Virginia Port Authority finances returned to black in March, and the state agency on Wednesday announced further steps to improve service at its congested container terminals.
The Port of Virginia had an operating profit of $1.6 million last month, reversing a $560,000 loss in February and a $1 million loss in January caused by emergency expenditures to deal with harsh winter storms and resulting cargo backlogs.
The negative returns early in the year reversed several months of profitability resulting from turnaround efforts by new CEO John Reinhart, who had inherited an agency suffering from several years of multi-million dollar losses.
Despite the brighter financial results, however, congestion continues to plague Virginia’s port facilities.
“Our delivery of service in March was unacceptable and these profits will be reinvested in short-term projects and long-term capital solutions to help process cargo and address increasing volumes,” Reinhart said in a statement.
In March, the Port of Virginia handled 229,000 TEUs, an all-time record for the number of TEUs handled in a month and 16 percent more than in March 2014. Several vessels missed their scheduled arrival dates in February because of the weather and delivered more than 7,000 TEUs of cargo in early March.
The surge of cargo overwhelmed the port, especially the Virginia International Gateway (VIG), where long queues of trucks waited several hours to pick up or deliver containers. Officials have spent the past seven weeks scrambling to mitigate the congestion, and Wednesday provided a progress report on the situation.
The VPA said five new top-loaders have been delivered to Portsmouth Marine Terminal, with a few more units on order. Following testing and inspection, the final unit is scheduled to go into service early next week.
Virginia International Terminals, the port’s operating arm, has acquired and placed into service 500 chassis. An additional 500 new chassis have been leased, with deliveries to run between July and Aug. 31. The chassis are expected to help reduce wait times for truckers that need equipment to carry the container.
VIT has also ordered 28 “bomb carts” – flat yard trailers – and expects delivery of 18 of them in mid-June, with the balance due by the end of August. The port authority previously said the first 18 would be in service at Portsmouth Marine Terminal by the end of May. The units will increase lift capacity and reduce dependence on chassis for terminal operations.
On-dock rail at PMT is fully-operational for the first time in years, which should reduce some of the truck throughput and gate activity, the port authority said. Since PMT reopened last fall to supplement capacity, all container traffic in and out of the facility has been by truck.
The operations team on Monday opened a new service area for refrigerated containers at Norfolk International Terminal where temperature checks will be conducted on inbound containers, drivers will transfer loads, and generator sets will be installed on outbound loads of empty containers.
At Norfolk International Terminal, two satellite gates have been closed to make use of the automated gates. Officials said they want motor carriers to exit through the outbound gate where there is an optical character recognition system that identifies the container, truck and chassis and the driver can receive an electronic ticket on the way out. A third satellite gate lane is scheduled for closure on April 27. The automated gates also eliminate the need for the final inspection and security check on outbound moves.
The VPA said it is on track to complete a new rail container yard at VIG in June. The extra space will separate containers conveyed by rail and truck and create additional capacity in the container paid by removing rail containers from the stacks that are maintained by semi-automatic rail-mounted gantry cranes.
In addition, more efforts are being taken to ensure cargo-handling equipment doesn’t break down. Original equipment manufacturers and external contractors are on site to augment maintenance teams at key terminals to help expedite repairs and preventive maintenance. All straddle carriers, reach stackers, rail-mounted gantry cranes, empty handlers and other equipment will be put through an inspection and maintenance rotation to ensure these machines are safe and ready for operation.
Work on improvements and repairs to the berth at PMT are underway and scheduled to be completed by the end of May. Further, maintenance dredging is underway at PMT to ensure that the pier-side depth is maintained at 43 feet and should be completed within the next week, the port authority said.
Earlier this year, terminal managers also moved containers by barge from VIG to PMT, relocated cargo handling equipment from other terminals to PMT, opened weekend gates, directed smaller vessels to PMT to free up space at deep-draft terminals, and instituted a temporary embargo on empty containers.
The VPA has an operating profit of $6.2 million for the first three quarters of the fiscal year, compared to a prior-year operating loss of $16.5 million for the same period.
“We are confident that we are tacking in the right direction from an operational and financial standpoint, but there is still a significant amount of work ahead of us,” Reinhart said.
Port of Virginia provides progress report on congestion, finances
