by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Within the next 12 weeks, the Jacksonville Port Authority will mark two major milestones — the signing of the Hanjin shipping deal and the first containers to come off ships at the new TraPac terminal.
According to Port Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin, the board of directors of Hanjin is expected to meet Nov. 4 and formally approve a deal that will see the Korean shipper build a new terminal at the Port.
“Dec. 10 there will be a formal signing,” said Ferrin.
About a month later — Jan. 12 to be exact — Ferrin expects the first containers to come off ships at the new TraPac terminal, a project initiated by the signing of Mitsui OSK Lines.
Once the Hanjin deal is inked, Ferrin said the permitting and design phase will take approximately 18 months, meaning construction of the terminal will commence in June 2010. Two years later, the Hanjin terminal will be done and Jacksonville will find itself positioned to quickly became the third-largest port on the East Coast of the United States.
“Together, those two bring us eight new steamship lines,” said Ferrin.
Those terminals will also enable the Port to expand its cargo capacity from today’s 800,000 containers a year to anywhere from 2.8 million to 3 million containers a year. But it’s not just the sheer numbers of vessels and containers that has Port officials and other area economic development officials excited about Jacksonville’s future as a major player in the port industry. By 2014, it’s the type of ships that will make Jacksonville a port of call that’s intriguing.
“These vessels will be post-Panamax,” said Ferrin.
Post-Panamax vessels are those that currently cannot navigate the Panama Canal and must circumnavigate South America coming from Asia. Once the Panama Canal widening project is complete in 2014, it will be capable of handling such vessels. Ferrin believes Jacksonville — which will already have a solid footing with Asian shippers through the Hanjin and Mitsui deals — will become the logical first stop in the United States.
“This opens us up as a global gateway,” he said. “Jacksonville is ideally located to be the first port of call.”
Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Executive Ron Barton said the JEDC and JTA are already preparing for the two new shippers. About $200 million worth of road infrastructure work on Heckscher Drive has already started. That work includes ingress and egress roads to the Port’s property and widening where necessary. Barton said it’s good to hear the Hanjin deal is close to being finalized
“That finalization is great news. It’s something we should all celebrate,” he said, adding the June 2012 completion date isn’t far from what was originally planned. “Obviously, that’s good news.”
Barton did say the world economy will truly dictate the immediate local economic impact of the two new terminals and eight steamship lines. However, he said indications are that by late 2010, the world economy will be coming out of the current downturn and the timing of the Hanjin and Mitsui projects will likely prove very strategic.
“The economy will dictate how we ramp up, but there’s really nothing we can do,” said Barton. “The business relationships and the capital investment, that solidifies a pretty position for us. The good news is we’ll be in position to take advantage of the economy as it turns. We’ll have the relationships in place and the capital investment in place.”
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