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PORT ACTIVITY UPDATE
PORT ACTIVITY UPDATE Diversity helps ports weather COVID-19 storm
If there’s one take-away from this year’s Port Activity Update, it’s that those with a strategy of diversifying their port’s activities are weathering the storm that is 2020. Another takeaway is the stellar response from port management and executive. Without exception, each port activity update highlights sensible and measured steps taken to ensure supply chains remain fluid, staff are protected from the spread of COVID-19, and forecasts and budgets are adjusted quickly to ensure sustainable port operations.
While ports around the world — and the economies they support — are experiencing the loss of cruise ship seasons, blank sailings, interrupted supply chains and staff layoffs, APP Members are holding steady and responding capably. Here then, is a snapshot of activities around the Pacific...
American Samoa Port Administration
The Port of Pago Pago serves the U.S. Territory of American Samoa and is the gateway to other pacific islands as well as U.S. and international ports. As administrators of the territory’s ports, the Department of Port Administration continues to work toward meeting the While ports around the world ... are experiencing the loss of cruise ship seasons, blank sailings, interrupted supply chains and staff layoffs, APP Members are holding steady...
everchanging need of the port users. Highlights of activity for 2019/2020 include receiving over $7.5 million in port infrastructure projects aimed at improving maritime operations that include a new 453-foot dock extension, a new terminal building, harbor dredging, repairs to Ro-Ro ramp from storm damage, and new container tracking and billing system. In addition, the Port of Pago Pago was just awarded $943,000 from MARAD to improve the port lighting, replace dock fendering, repair the container yard, and purchase forklifts for the inter-island ferry cargo operation.
To date, American Samoa has no confirmed cases of COVID-19. The airside borders remain closed, with only Military/FEMA and cargo flights being allowed to land after being properly vetted; however, the aircrew remain on board. Small feeder aircraft flights with minimal passengers from neighboring island Samoa (that is also COVD-19 free) are being allowed entry on repatriation missions to return America Samoa citizens on a limited basis. All passengers are screened by Public Health and are put in a 14-day quarantine facility.
The local Longline and Purse Seine Fishing Fleet have been challenged by the closure of the borders given a lack of flexibility to fly in personnel for crew changes.
The maritime borders are only open to cargo, tankers, and fishing vessels that support the local tuna canneries. Cargo and stevedoring operations continue, with vessel crews having minimal-to-no contact with local clearance parties and stevedoring crews. The Port of Pago Pago has adopted a No-Contact policy for all vessel clearances however, Harbor Pilots continue to board and guide vessels into port but under strict health and safety rules/procedures for both the pilots and crews. Public Health monitors the stevedoring and Pilots on a continuous basis.
Cargo volumes remained steady in the beginning of the year during the onset of COVID-19 and in this past quarter, the
Port of Alaska, Anchorage
Photo courtesy of Port of Alaska
Port experienced a 15-per cent increase in cargo/container volume. This can be attributed to the increase in spending power from the recent distribution of U.S. stimulus funds, whereas local businesses, shops and stores are ordering more to keep up with demand.
With the increase of containerized volume, the container yard has reached its capacity and excess empties are being stored off site. The challenge with that is the ability to get the empties back to port and loaded onto outgoing ships. Our preliminary forecasts indicate that the volume will level off by the end of the year but given the situation with COVID-19 and how it is affecting the global market and supply chains, there’s just no way to predict.
For the coming year, the Port’s priorities remain the same — namely, keeping the port infrastructure, shipping and supply chains open. American Samoa is an island 2,500 miles from Hawaii and does not have the luxury of interstate rail or roadways to deliver goods and services. We are reliant on the maritime system to provide fuel and most of our food. While there are currently no reported disruptions to U.S. West Coast ports, or south and eastbound international ports — on which American Samoa relies for its supply chain we will continue to monitor the marine sector and adapt to changing conditions as quickly as possible.
Port of Alaska
Aside from the loss of the 2020 cruise season, Port Director Steve Ribuffo reported that it has been “business as usual” for the Port of Alaska. “We’ll lose 14 port calls and approximately $250,000 in revenue,” he said. “It’s not a game changer given our very diverse business model, and while it stings, it hasn’t been crippling.” Indeed, Ribuffo noted that there have been no adverse impacts for both the cargo and liquid bulk sectors supported by the Port, including three general cargo terminals, two petroleum terminals, a dry barge landing, bulk cement-handling, gantry cranes and Roll-on/Roll-off capability.
The Port has a number of activities underway as part of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar investment strategy that will see critical upgrades to infrastructure, ultimately improving operational efficiency, accommodating modern shipping operations as well as building in greater resiliency and optimization of facilities to keep up with changing economic and market needs. Project benefits include increased capacity; new ship-to-shore cranes to allow for larger container vessel visits; greater seismic resilience, and improved post seismic event operational capability; and a 75-year design life to reduce current maintenance requirements
In November 2019, the Port was successful in securing a $25-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) Program and another $20 million provided as part of the DOT’s Infrastructure Development Program. The funds will help complete the $214-million petroleum and cement terminal project now under construction.
“The Petroleum/Cement Terminal construction is proceeding nicely,” said Ribuffo. “Because the contractor (Pacific Pile & Marine) is from the Seattle area, there was a late start while they satisfied both Washington State and Alaska COVID-19 travel protocols, but that’s been behind us now and construction is progressing unimpeded. Most of the trestle and platform piles are in place; and the precast trestle and platform sections will be on their way to us by barge shortly.” He added that the platform and trestle structures will be completed by the end of this season and, by next summer, the fendering will be added along with the fuel and cement offloading infrastructure. He expects the project will finish on time by the end of the 2021 construction season.
Port of Columbia County
Attributing the minimal impact of COVID-19 on operations to the diversity of tenants and activities, Executive Director Doug Hayes was pleased to report that business at the Port of Columbia County was strong. “We’ve been doing well enough that we’ve actually hired a few new staff and, in late June, our Commissioners voted to set our tax rate to zero for the coming year for residents and businesses within the port district,” he said, adding that the Port’s multi-year growth trend continues.
Starting first with a review of the Scappoose Industrial Airpark,
The rezoning of land at Port Westward is almost approved.
Hayes reported that, in addition to a new 31,500-square-foot building for Devainaire, the Port is entering into a one-year lease agreement with Pipistrel, a Slovenian company with a large presence in Europe, for property to conduct flight training. With significant interest being expressed by additional companies, Hayes and his team will continue to keep the airport on its top-three list — along with Port Westward and McNulty Creek Industrial Parks — for continued focus in business development.
At the APP’s Winter Conference in Hawaii this past January, Hayes described the process underway to rezone 837 acres of land at the Port Westward site. Given that the Port first sought to rezone the land in 2013 but was blocked by Columbia Riverkeeper, Hayes was happy to note that, with their recent submission to the last outstanding question, a decision is now pending and should be received by late October. Potential uses for the land include a gas-to-methanol plant or refinery for diesel made from palm and vegetable oils.
Also at Port Westward, Hayes highlighted the lease signed late last year with NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon for a 90-acre site. NEXT is investing $1 billion dollars into facilities that will see the production of 50,000 barrels of biofuels per day (once at full capacity). Hayes estimated that the project will employ over 200 skilled, local workers.
Additional news for the Port of Columbia County included the recent approval for Global Clatskanie Terminal to add renewable diesel exports. Providing a good example of global demand for fuels, the Clatskanie Terminal, prior to being purchased by Global in 2013, was a transload facility for crude oil; Global shifted to ethanol by 2015 and now, to the cleaner, renewable diesel derived from plant and animal byproducts. While Hayes and his team have been hindered by the ability to meet in person with potential new stakeholders for the Port, they continue to field a lot of interest, especially from international parties. “There has been a lot of interest in the Portland area over the past few years,” Hayes said, “but Portland is pretty much saturated and companies are looking northward. We’ve been fortunate in that respect. It allows us to be more selective in the type of industries we want to see develop here.”
Admittedly acknowledging that forecasting during a pandemic is tricky, when asked, Hayes said they were continually monitoring and adjusting numbers as the year has progressed, but “having a strong, strategic vision has certainly helped.”
The Commonwealth Ports Authority (CPA), Port of Saipan has seen a gradual decrease in both inbound and outbound cargoes since the CNMI Office of the Governor issued the Executive Order No. 2020-04 which states “Declaration of State of Public Health Emergency and Continued Declaration of State of Significant Emergency Establishing Response, Quarantine, and Preventive Containment Measures Concerning Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID19).” On the same Executive Order No. 2020-04, it states that “it is hereby ORDERED that DIRECTIVE 7: Effective immediately, and until further notice, all government offices and all non-essential government functions are shut down for two weeks. All nonessential personnel are asked to stay home until further notice. Essential personnel shall be identified for COVID-19 public health emergency related work. Mayors of the municipalities shall have discretion in designating employees that engage in public health emergency related work.” As a result, the Port is seeing a decrease in incoming commodities, especially the constructions materials.
The impact of COVID-19 has reduced inbound containers as well as commercial vessels calling on Port of Saipan by almost 40 per cent for May 2020 compared to April 2020. In terms of port operations, it has reduced activity compared to the last fiscal year where at times the Port was very congested with vessels calling the Port of Saipan.
Port of Saipan
At this present time, the operation or activity at the port runs very smoothly.
The Commonwealth Ports Authority (CPA), Port of Saipan priorities in the future will be to expand the port area for the operation of the Ro/Ro Passenger Ferry Vessel so it will not hamper any activities related to military or commercial vessels and will ease the traffic of different vehicles entering the Port areas. The biggest concern will be the safety and security for both or either parties.
The Port of Saipan had forecast for the coming years that there would be an increase in passenger activities between the islands of Tinian and Saipan as proposed by a company to serve both islands. With this in mind, this would increase the activity of passengers here at the port and will benefit most especially our local people and hopefully we will see increase in revenue as well as local economy.
Port of Hueneme
The Port of Hueneme has remained fully operational during the pandemic with increased safety efforts and implementation of social distancing amongst other operational adjustments to ensure the safety and security of our workforce.
As 55 per cent of the Port’s revenue comes from automobile imports and exports, the shutdowns in the U.S. and internationally of 100 per cent of the auto plants have shown drastic ripple effects. The Port began to be impacted by the decreasing volume of imports as auto plants began to shut down in the Asian and European markets. The biggest impact was felt beginning in May with average auto ship arrivals going from about four per week, down to approximately one per week —a trend that is projected to remain through July. For the first four months of 2020, the Port saw an approximate 32-per-cent decline in auto volumes compared to the same time period last year.
The Port is assisting with options of storing vehicles on-Port and off-Port as needed to allow for the local auto processor to work through inventory on hand and further allow the supply
Automobiles: 2018 pre-COVID-19 — CY numbers were 319,510 autos; volumes grew in 2019 by over eight per cent prior to COVID-19 and we were trending upwards.
Automobiles post-COVID-19 — Autos YTD: first four months CY 2019 vs 2020; the Port’s auto volumes were down approximately 32 per cent.
Fruit segment post-COVID-19: The Port has seen overall growth for the first quarter of 2020 versus the first quarter of 2019 CY — eight per cent growth YOY predominantly in the fruit import and export segments. Bananas were slightly down by approximately six per cent YOY for the same time period.
chain downstream to unclog as result of shutdowns and quarantine.
On the fruit and fertilizer side, volumes have remained steady and a slight growth in fresh fruit commodities imports and exports — eight per cent total for the first three months of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019. Forecast for fruit at the close of this fiscal year is three per cent growth down from what was an eight per cent trajectory.
COVID-19 has impacted the industry in the apparent need for more visibility throughout the supply chain in order to plan for safety of workforce, operations, contraction and expansions of storage space needs, cash flow, and other planning reasons. The supplier and client relationships are always paramount and especially important during a crisis, so problems are solved faster and solutions can be worked out in a collaborative environment with as much real-time information as possible.
The Port is working closely with customers to forecast future trends however, it is still uncertain how the rest of 2020 volumes will be. It’s likely that volumes will be softer than last year due to COVID-19 impacts.
Port of Nanaimo
Taking an aggressive approach towards diversification, utilizing Nanaimo’s deep sea shipping terminals coupled with cost-efficient short sea shipping links to Vancouver, the Port of Nanaimo is focused on the future. Ian Marr, President & CEO, noted that work is continuing on the development of the Port’s Duke Point property for containers and breakbulk, while the auto import terminal and vehicle processing center at the Nanaimo Assembly Wharves is now operational with partners Western Stevedoring and the British Columbia Vehicle Processing Center.
Jason Michell, VP Business Development adds: “Our main focus currently is the completion of the $100-million Duke Point Terminal expansion project with our partners, DP World and Transport Canada through the National Trade Corridor Fund. The planned upgrades would nearly double Port of Hueneme
the length of the berth, and double upland paved capacity, giving us the opportunity to provide container vessel servicing while improving short sea and breakbulk vessel operations.”
“The 2019 fiscal year demonstrated that the Port of Nanaimo’s diversification strategy has had a successful impact on the financial numbers, making it second only to 2018 in terms of gross revenues,” wrote Marr in the Port of Nanaimo 2019 Annual Report. Indeed, as part of that strategy, the introduction of the BC Vehicle Processing Center in early 2019 has proven to be a great addition to port activities.
Despite the loss of the 2020 cruise season that would have welcomed seven visits to Nanaimo’s world-class Welcome Centre, Michell and his team are making progress with community and industry partners investing in a new
website and videos highlighting how Nanaimo and the Central Island provide unique, immersive experiences for passengers. “We are well positioned to welcome the industry back to Nanaimo when everyone is ready,” Marr said,
Of considerable importance is the recently renewed commitment to work closely with the City of Nanaimo by formalizing a new Protocol agreement. The agreement establishes “an effective and collaborative relationship between the parties and a process and understandings that will advance shared opportunities, agreements and mutual benefits. Additionally, the City of Nanaimo invited the Port to sit on the Nanaimo Economic Development Task Force, further complimenting the value of the opportunities presented to the community through the maritime industry. On this note, Marr adds “Duke Point has great potential to become a warehousing, distribution, and manufacturing hub in the Gateway given the industrial land availability and central location.”
Port Alberni Port Authority
Despite a predicted hit of between 20 and 30 per cent of revenues due to COVID-19, CEO Zoran Knezevic remains positive about Port Alberni Port Authority’s future. “Volumes of throughput will be down this year, as will tourism-related revenues from our marinas and campground. We had three cruise ship visits from Holland America in 2019 that added modestly to our bottom line, though none were scheduled for 2020,” he said, adding that the Port has “been working hard over the last few years at diversifying and growing other clusters of maritime activity and these areas continue to be strong.”
Looking at these new hubs, none is more exciting for Knezevic than the potential to develop a container service for the west coast of Vancouver Island. The San Group — who recently opened a new sawmill, purchased a specialty sawmill earlier this year and is building a remanufacturing plant nearby — have been looking at the possibility of shipping 300 to 400 containers per month. Port of San Diego
Add to that 60 to 70 reefer containers for Port Alberni’s growing seafood processing sector and 30 to 60 containers for Thunderbird Spirit Water and Knezevic estimates a healthy 500 containers per month plus service for returning empty containers back to the Vancouver Mainland. “We’ve started speaking with local terminal operators as well as options for short sea shipping and moving containers by barge,” Knezevic said,
noting that discussions were in the early stages.
Port Alberni has been developing a food processing hub with five confirmed anchor tenants — two oyster producers, one seaweed, one mushroom and other land-based “foraged foods” and, an experienced general seafood smoker and processing company. Additionally,- Independent Seafoods Canada Corporation now has two freezer trawlers based in Port Alberni. Knezevic is quick to point out that the growth of one industrial hub often leads to others — case in point: the expansion of Port Alberni’s shipbuilding and repair industry. “There are ongoing efforts to bring a floating dry dock here which would add to our shipbuilding and repair capabilities, especially for larger vessels like BC Ferries and Federal Government vessels. If it comes to fruition, it will mean hundreds of jobs for the area.”
Looking further into the future, Knezevic and his team have been working on the long-term vision of “PATH” — the Port Alberni Trans-shipment Hub. The concept of a two-million-TEU, fully automated container terminal is gaining traction with the South Korean government who are now seriously exploring the viability of the hub. In addition to benefits such as being a green field site, deep-sea access, and other synergies, The concept of a two-million-TEU, fully automated container terminal is gaining traction with the South Korean government who are now seriously exploring the viability of PATH — the Port Alberni Trans-shipment Hub.
Vancouver Island’s designation as a Canadian Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) greatly simplifies importing and exporting as well as duty relief, providing a significant advantage for Port Alberni.
Port of San Diego
With year-over-year growth for the last decade, the Port of San Diego is expecting the busiest summer in year for their breakbulk and project cargo business despite the current situation with COVID-19. “We don’t anticipate a drop off in breakbulk and project cargo,” said the Port’s Joel Valenzuela, Director of Maritime, “but if the effects of COVID-19 extend for another year, we would be negatively affected.” Valenzuela added that container business with Dole Fresh Fruit Company continues to do well.
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has had a somewhat delayed impact on Ro/ Ro cargo, in that most inbound Ro/Ro vessels require a 15 to 30-day voyage from their origin port prior to reaching National City Marine Terminal (NCMT). As the crisis progressed in Europe and Asia, existing port stock from those areas continued to be loaded and dispatched to North America. Only after the pandemic escalated to serious levels in the origin countries in Asia and Europe did vessel loading slow down, and in the case of Europe, cease altogether for a brief period. NCMT continued to receive a steady stream of inbound Ro/Ro vessels throughout March and mid-April, which gradually began to slow in late April and early May.
As the last of the vessels loaded at origin and dispatched during the pre and early COVID-19 periods are arriving, Europe has begun to re-open manufacturing plants, and will likely begin loading and dispatching vehicles in the coming weeks. Thus, there may be a 15 to 30-day lag period, between the last of the pre and early COVID-19 period vessels, and the more recent vessels carrying newly restarted production from Europe.
Several of the Asian countries never actually ceased manufacturing and
shipping of vehicles through COVID19, although they may have reduced volumes somewhat. Therefore, the Asiato-NCMT volumes never really stopped, they just reduced for four to eight weeks.
As the U.S. COVID-19 crisis escalated, several dealers in the USA stopped accepting new vehicles due to forced closure and stay-at-home directives. The net effect of this was a slight buildup of inventory at the U.S. Ports. As the U.S. begins to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, there should be sufficient vehicle inventory to sustain the re-emerging market until the newly built production from Europe, and the increased production from Asia, arrives by vessel in early June.
In other areas of activities, the Port of San Diego continues to be committed to its cruise business and cruise partners and is eagerly awaiting the restart of this important sector. “The cruise industry has an immense economic impact on our region with each homeported cruise generating an average of $2 million for the local economy,” noted Valenzuela. “That being said, the process of rebuilding will be long. New health standards and processes will need to be implemented across cruise destinations. Cruise lines won’t be sailing from U.S. ports until September 15, 2020. Here at the Port, we are scheduled to have our cruise business begin in September, as it usually does. It is difficult to anticipate how many cruise calls may be cancelled in the coming months, but we expect that disruptions will continue through the next cruise season.”
Port of Skagit
The Port of Skagit continues to make good progress on several initiatives, including the completion of a $5-million dredging project at the La Conner Marina just in time to mark its 50 th . They also restored public access to the SWIFT (Sedro-Woolley Innovation for Tomorrow) Center — one of five community goals identified during the transfer of ownership from State to Port; conducted environmental clean-up projects to deal with legacy contamination issues on the 100+ year old former mental hospital campus; and enacted a 20-year Industrial Development District levy to help support the re-development of the SWIFT Center, county-wide fiber network project, business development in the Bayview Business Park, and valueadded agriculture opportunities.
Another area of progress for the Port is the ongoing work on the Skagit County Community Fiber Optic Network, an 80-mile span of dark fiber infrastructure that will improve access to consistent and affordable high-speed internet in east county communities. As part of an effort to replicate similar broadband efforts in rural areas throughout the state that have little or no internet access, the Port hosted Governor Inslee
and stakeholders. The Port is one of six Washington ports to create Petrichor Broadband, a cooperative LLC that will work on broadband policy issues and funding opportunities statewide.
New initiatives undertaken by Executive Director Patsy Martin and her team included the launch of the educational outreach program, “Exploring Aviation,” utilizing VR technology. They also launched U.S. Customs & Border Protection Services at Skagit Regional Airport through a Reimbursable Services Program as well as the Genuine Skagit Valley certification mark, as a marketing tool for local agricultural producers and growers
In addressing the COVID-19 situation, the Port adopted an Emergency Declaration of Closure Policy. While buildings were closed to foot traffic and in-person interaction from March 23— June 1, they have been able to keep all staff working — many remotely with a minimal complement on-site to deal with operations. The Port also adopted a tenant rent relief program to defer rent for tenants whose operations were severely impacted by COVID-19.
On June 1, the Port re-opened offices with staggered/flexible work schedules to limit the number of staff in buildings at any one time. Projects that were underway continue to move forward under staff leadership, albeit some projects have been put on hold due to timing and prioritization of available funding.
As the situation progresses, the Port has continued to apply for grant funding to support ongoing projects and economic development opportunities, including EDA funds and FAA funds. They have also been active in communicating to Port tenants, including surveys to gauge impacts and needs, and outreach to funnel relevant information about assistance programs, best practices, policies, training and resources available at the local, state and federal levels.
The Port also continues to move forward with significant public works projects, including the development of Lot 72, the Mavrik Marine expansion, Systima Technologies development, Dyberg hangar project, broadband infrastructure and SWIFT Center renovations and infrastructure projects.
Taiwan International Ports Corporation, Ltd.
With four APP Member Ports under its purview — the Ports of Kaohsing, Keelung, Hualien, and Taichung — Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) has provided a full overview of operations as follows:
The global economy continued to grow in 2019 with an economic growth rate of 2.4 per cent while Taiwan’s growth was 3.38 per cent. Factors that affected the global economy in 2019, such as protectionism in the United States that raised trade policy uncertainty, Brexit, and crude oil price fluctuations, also influenced Taiwan’s economy. In the future, TIPC will make efforts to strengthen our competitiveness through the multioperations of our ports as well as business innovations.
Looking at our operating performance in 2019, the number of inbound vessels reached 39,215, container throughput volume reached 15.3 million TEUs, and the number of incoming and outgoing passengers reached 1.5 million.
At the start of 2020, the global economy was hit hard by COVID-19 and the
...Taiwan International Ports Corporation has announced major progress on the reshuffle of Kaohsiung Port’s terminals.
economic growth rate was revised to be minus 3 per cent while Taiwan was revised to 1.59 per cent. While the pandemic caused a global market shutdown, unemployment, and unknown market recovery schedule, we will continue to assist with maritime market recovery and get through the difficulties together with the industry.
Carriers have set out capacity cuts for this period including blanked sailings due to lower demand caused by the COVID19 pandemic. Ship calls and total freight volume handled by Port of Kaohsiung fell during the first five months of 2020. Although import and export container volumes still maintained a level, transshipment and empty container volumes declined significantly, having been affected by blanked sailings.
To prevent further infection of COVID-19, the Taiwan government took immediate action to ban all international cruise ships calling at ports of Taiwan since February 6, 2020. TIPC has been making every effort to stop new cases of this dangerous virus at the border through vigorous checks of inbound ship passengers and crew. Furthermore, the emergency response team established by TIPC on January 23 has been tasked with coordinating response measures to any outbreak of serious pneumonia symptoms at one or more of Taiwan ports. Concerning the health of commercial vessel crews, TIPC’s VTS assistance service transmits hourly information on virus prevention in both Chinese and English to shipboard AIS transceivers, and TIPC asks each ship to radio in any reports of health issues on board. Moreover, shipping agents are reminded during daily berth assignment briefings to regularly encourage vessel crew to self-report abnormal health symptoms
Taiwan's Port of Taichung
and to maintain consistently high levels of health management. Upon arrival in port, every captain must submit a signed maritime declaration of health to their agent for forwarding to Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (TCDC). All issues of healthrelated discomfort among the crew included in this or other documents are forwarded by shipping agents to TCDC. TIPC has stressed that the danger of this coronavirus outbreak is to be fought as diligently as any preventive war and stands on the front lines to bring the latest and most effective techniques to the fight. In addition to TIPC’s emergency response team keeping close tabs on arriving passengers and crew at all of Taiwan’s international commercial ports, senior officials at each TIPC subsidiary company have stepped up supervision of frontline staff to ensure the highest standards of virus prevention and control and to prevent new cases of this and other viruses from arriving in Taiwan by sea.
Activity update
Container Terminal No. 7 Project — Kaohsiung Port had hit 10 million TEU handling records six years in a row. This is already approaching the total capacity for all of Kaohsiung Port’s container terminals. And we estimate the current capacity will not be enough to accommodate the throughput in the short future. As an operating entity of Taiwan’s international ports, we must always prepare for the coming decades to maintain the competitiveness of the Port. So, several years ago we started the Container Terminal No. 7 Project (CT7).
The CT7 project includes five berths with a total length of 2,415 meters and with a water depth of 18 meters that can accommodate five 23,000-TEU+ vessels. Upon completion, it will be capable of handling five million TEU per year and will be the largest container terminal project ever in Taiwan.
Moreover, TIPC has announced major progress on the reshuffle of Kaohsiung Port’s terminals. In 2018, TIPC first signed a lease agreement with Evergreen Marine Corp. for wharves S1-S5, which will be the Port of Kaohsiung’s Container Terminal No.7. Upon completion of the Terminal No.7 in 2022 and 2023, EMC will return its current Terminal No.5 (berth No. 79~81) and Terminal No.4 (berth No. 115~117) respectively and shift to the new reclaimed Terminal which will enable them to double in the hinterland. This is defined by TIPC as the first step of Port of Kaohsiung’s container terminals’ relocation.
The second step is now unveiled. Another Taiwanese national carrier Wanhai will move from its current Terminal No.2 to EMC’s Terminal No.5 in 2022.
Negotiations were finalized with Wanhai regarding terminal re-location in Kaohsiung Port. After Evergreen returns its current terminal No.5 and moves to terminal No.7, Wanhai will take terminal No.5 and return its terminal 2 (Berth No. 63~64). A lease agreement will be signed shortly. TIPC added terminals relocation will continue including negotiating with interested carriers to take over Wanhai’s Terminal No.2 and further consolidating operators in Port of Kaohsiung. TIPC estimates the first and second step together
will add more than 1.5 million TEU of annual throughput to the Port.
Green Energy for Port Area
Offshore Wind Power — the Taiwan government has announced the policy of “non-nuclear homeland” and aims to install 5.5 gigawatts (the allocated capacity has now reached 5.73GW) of offshore wind capacity to replace nuclear power by 2025. Taichung Port is the closest international commercial port to these potential wind farms with complete infrastructure, sufficient channels, and draft and space for back-end operation. All of these not only facilitate the transportation and installation of large components of offshore wind turbines, but also satisfy the operating needs of installation work, installation ships, and transportation maintenance ships. Therefore, the Port of Taichung is accredited as the best base for the development of offshore wind power by both the government and industry.
In support of the national offshore wind-power initiative, TIPC will Port of Keelung
renovate or construct a new wharf and support facilities at Wharf Nos. 2, 5A, 5B, 36, and 106. These wharves and facilities will be available for private firms to use in wind-turbine production, storage, assembly, and transport. A statement by the Port of Taichung notes that related renovation work on Wharf No. 2 was completed in 2019 and that this wharf was used to support installation of new wind turbines in the Formosa I Offshore Demonstration Wind Farm zone. And this year, Wharf No. 2, #5A and #5B will support Formosa II, TPC
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Phase 1 and Yunlin Offshore Wind Farm respectively. Wharf No. 106 was completed in April 2020 and Wharf No. 36 will be finished in 2020. On top of that, TIPC provides an industry zone covering 107.3 hectares of land dedicated to the localization of wind turbine manufacturing. TIPC will construct roads along with other public facilities of the said industry zone. Companies of the related industry like Yeongguan, Tien-Li, Tai-shing, Siemens Gamesa, and Hua-Cheng will invest and build plants in this industry zone for the production and assembly of wind power parts, driving the localization of wind turbine manufacturing.
TIPC also plans to provide offshore wind power operation and maintenance services with its current personnel, tugboat, crane vessel, shipyards, and warehouses, basins for work ships and light-draft ships, CTV and barge. TIPC aims to make Taichung Port a homeport for offshore wind power operations.
TIPC invited Taiwan Power Company (TPC), CWind Taiwan, China Steel Corporation (CSC), China Ship Building
SHIPPING SOLUTIONS AT TWO DEEP SEA TERMINALS LINKING VANCOUVER ISLAND’S ECONOMY TO THE WORLD.
• The Port of Nanaimo ships 18 different Vancouver Island products to 25 ports in 14 countries.
• Short-sea shipping to Vancouver with capacity to handle containers, bulk, break bulk, heavy lift and project cargoes. • Enhanced infrastructure providing versatility and efficiencies for diverse cargo and vessel solutions and to meet a growing container business both locally and globally.
LOCAL BENEFITS — GLOBAL REACH
For Cargo and Terminal oppportunities, please contact: Jason Michell, VP - B.D. (250) 734-3457 JMichell@npa.ca
100 PORT DRIVE, NANAIMO, BC Corporation (CSBC), and Swancor Renewable Energy Co. (Swancor) to develop a Joint Venture company to set up a GWO training center in Taichung Port. Taiwan International Windpower Training Corporation (TIWTC) was founded in May 2018 with the goal of providing related training. TIWTC has acquired a Training Provider certificate of GWO BTT and GWO BST courses. BTT includes three modules: Mechanical, Electrical, and Hydraulics. BST includes Working at Heights, Sea Survival, First Aid, Fire Awareness, and Manual Handling. And the construction of the training facility of the new center was completed in September 2019. More than 300 people have completed the training so far and the courses have received excellent acknowledgment from participants. TIWTC will continue to provide GWO-related courses and at the same time design new, customized courses catering to the needs of the offshore wind industry.
2019 throughput
• Port of Keelung — The container throughput of Keelung Port was 1,455,293.0 TEU in 2019, with a YoY drop of 1.13 per cent. • Port of Taipei — The container throughput of the Taipei Port in 2019 was 1,620,391.75 TEU, a 2.39 per cent decrease compared with 2018. • Port of Taichung — Taichung’s throughput in 2019 was 1,793,965.5
TEU, a 2.86 per cent increase compared with 2018. • Port of Kaohsiung — The container throughput of the Port of Kaohsiung in 2019 was 10,428,634.25 TEU, a 0.2 per cent decrease compared with 2018.
Additional areas of focus
Environmental sustainability — TIPC has been promoting green port activities through a series of actions. All seven of our international ports have been Eco-Port certified and we also work on sustainability projects. For example, TIPC set up solar photovoltaic equipment in idle space on the roof of the port office and warehouse. As of 2019, a total of 66,191 square meters of solar photovoltaic equipment have been installed, generating about 11,000,975 (kwp) annual power and reducing carbon emissions by 5,819
metric tons (equivalent to 390.4 hectares of forest area.)
In addition to solar photovoltaic equipment, each port builds various water resource recovery facilities according to the characteristics of different ports. The annual amount of water recovered is about 16,000-17,000 degrees, and the carbon reduction is about 2.6 metric tons. Recycled water is used in car washing facilities, dust suppression during loading and unloading operations, ground, and toilet sanitation cleaning, etc., effectively reducing water consumption and carbon emissions.
In cooperation with the government to promote the use of green energy, TIPC is gradually changing the lighting to energy-saving lamps in the port area and installing solar and wind power circuit lights in parts of Kaohsiung Port. In addition, TIPC continues to advocate the replacement of obsolete equipment with high-efficiency green energy-saving equipment.
Currently, TIPC is working with the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to tackle air quality issues, which is one of the most concerning environmental problems in Taiwan these days. Knowing that ocean-going vessels (OGVs) emit more than 90 per cent of the ports’ air pollution, TIPC proposed three emission reduction strategies: vessel speed reduction (VSR), shore power, and low sulfur diesel. TIPC has been pushing for VSR in Taiwan since 2013. In 2019, the national VSR achievement rate reached an average of 49.6 per cent, an increase of 2.7 per cent compared to 2018.
Priorities for the coming year(s)
Safety, efficiency, and sustainable development are three fundamentals for port operations yet, while facing the challenges and severe competitiveness in today’s maritime market, finding diversified business opportunities and new value to our services via new technology trends are certainly two important tasks we need to focus on.
TIPC is devoted to promoting the diversified development of port business. In terms of the travel business, TIPC cooperates with the cruise industry and local government to optimize port and travel facilities to provide a Port of Umatilla
convenient customs clearance environment, and also to endeavor to develop cruise tourism and waterfront space.
TIPC will be continuously expanding its scope of business and creating new values for ports by developing diversified businesses such as establishing a wind-power training center to cultivate local wind-power talents, and investing in the Southeast Asia market in response to the New Southbound Policy.
Therefore, besides the scheduled infrastructure upgrading and green port policy, TIPC also initiated the TransSMART Plan (Transform Sustainable, Modern and Advanced ports with Revolutionary Technology), through which we invest in port and terminal operations to develop innovative technology that will optimize transportation safety and efficiency, and enhance the competitiveness of Taiwan’s port group.
Port of Umatilla
Looking at the three main sectors of activity — the grain, fuel, and container-on-barge terminals — Kim B. Puzey, General Manager for the Port of Umatilla, reported that both the grain and fuel terminals were operating normally. There has also been no change for the container-on-barge terminal, however Puzey noted that, since the loss of container ships calling on Portland, the yard has been serving as a container yard for the overflow of containers from local food processors since 2016.
Photo courtesy Tidewater Transportation and Terminals
Looking at other areas of the Port, Puzey is expecting to receive final approval soon to incorporate an additional 1,000 acres into inventory following the decommissioning of the old Umatilla Chemical Depot, once the repository for 11 per cent of the chemical and biological agents the U.S. had in reserve during the Cold War. The process has taken 26 years and Puzey is looking forward to developing infrastructure for industrial use in the future.
Despite COVID-19 having a “brutal” impact on small, commercial businesses in and around the Umatilla area, Puzey said that most of the Port’s industrial clients have not been as affected. “As for port operations,” he noted, “while the office is closed to walk-in traffic, staff have been able to maintain productivity by working remotely and/ or scheduling office hours that avoid more than two people in the office at once.”
The Port of Umatilla is in the fortunate position of having solid financial reserves, a tax base that has been increasing, and some property sales — allowing Puzey to continue implementing the Port’s mandate of increasing trade and diversifying the economy. “While it’s too difficult to forecast the future, we are in a very good place,” he said, adding that he was doubtful there would be any appropriations for infrastructure in the next legislative session or even the next several.
