[ Baltimore’s Breakbulk Breaks Out ]

Baltimore’s effort to attract additional breakbulk and ro/ro cargo to
the port is meeting with success.
In the first six months of this year, according to Tay Yoshitani, exec
utive director of the Maryland Port Administration(MPA), the Port of B
altimore saw double digit growth in automobile, ro/ro, and forest prod
uct traffic through the port.
As port of a strategic plan announced last year, the port said it woul
d focus on attracting more of these and other specialty cargoes such a
s steel and refrigerated goods.
“We’ve been trying to identify and put in place and implement that s
trategic plan,” says M. Kathleen Broadwater, dicector of planning and
business development at the MPA. The port’s operations, sales, and
marketing departments have all been developing very specific plans aim
ed at customers the port would like to capture, and the MPA is develop
ing a longrange plan for new facilities.
The plan has garnered wide support in the port community from carriers
who specialize in moving such cargo, from terminal operators, and fro
m labor.
In their most recent contract, the International Longshoremen’s Assoc
iation(ILA) not only agreed to eliminate the $2.50 per man hour cargo
assessment in the port, but also agreed to manning and wage concession
s on various types of breakbulk cargo.
“We’ve done pretty well on our automobile operations, both import an
d export,” says Bill Schonowski, president of ILA Local 333 which rep
resents dock workers in the port.
Chrysler Corporation has been a partner in the Port of Baltimore with
Hobelmann Port Services, labor and the MPA in developing a quality shi
pping program. A state-of-the-art terminal for auto handling will ope
n on Atantic Terminal.
“There will be more export vehicles as a result of this team effort a
nd new facility, which also means more work for my men,” Mr. Schonows
ki says.
Mr. Yoshitani says the changes that the ILA agreed to in their contrac
t “signal a recognition that competition is increasing and an under s
tanding and recognition of the strategic plan.”
The ILA has helped the port improve the quality of service offered cus
tomers. Members receivee quality training and participate in events su
ch as the annual “Ro/Ro Rodeo,” where manufacturers of farm and cons
truction equipment send representatives to tutor longshoremen in the n
uances of operating their equipment so that they can be carefully load
ed and unloaded.
Baltimore is a powerhouse in the ro/ro business, with a 41% sare of th
e North Atlantic ro/ro heavy transportation and construction equipment
business and 35% share of the North Atantic car business. In additio
n to Chrysler, Toyata, Jaguar, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Mercedes, and Land R
over all move cars through Baltimore.
The MPA is beginning construction of several new facilities for automo
bile and ro/ro cargo.
Later this year work is expected to begin on a $140 million project to
develop the Masonville Terminal, a 120 acre site on the south side of
the harbor. The project will be completed in two stages. Phase one
involves development of a 50-acre upland parcel at a cost of about $20
-$25 million. Ships will call at a nearby dock used by Toyota for its
automobile imports. Ms. Broadwater says the port has had discussions
with several processors and ro/ro carriers interested in the site. P
hase two of the project includes development of an additional 70 acres
and the construction of two berths.
The port is also building new warehouse space at two existing terminal
s to satisfy the needs of two of its ro/ro carriers.
A new warehouse at the Dundalk Marine Terminal will be used by Valleni
us Line, principally to store “van paks”, wooden crates about a fift
h the size of a 20-ft. container that are used to store houshold goods
for military personnel moving between the U.S. and Europe.
“We’re encouraged any time a port such as Baltimore shows a commitme
nt to our kind of commodities,” says Gary Jones, vice president, oper
ations at Wallenius Lines North America.
At South Locust Point a warehouse will be built for Wilhelmsen Lines t
o store crates of general machinery that it carriers from the Far East
, principally Japan and Korea.
John Speakman, vice president, commercial division for Wilhelmsen Line
s USA Inc., says his company is also working to try and consolidate it
s operations and call at fewer terminals in the port. He says he has
found the MPA “very keen and very aggressive” in trying to assist Wi
lhelmsen in this effort.
Forest products have been a fastgrowing commodity in baltimore, and mu
ch of that business is handled by Balterm, a terminal operator which h
andled about 450,000 tons of pulp, paper, and lumber last year, most o
f it from South America.
Morgan “Trip” Bailey, senior vice president at Balterm, says his com
pany has recently begun handling coated paper being exported to the U.
S. by the Finnish paper manufacturer UPM Kymmene. Initially, Balterm
expects to receive about 10,000 tons of the paper monthly which is han
dled at the port’s North Locust Point terminal.
“Labor has done a tremendous job in handling this cargo. This spent
the time and money in training the longshoremen and warehousemen in ha
ndling paper and they have done a great job. Lobor took some labor and
wage concessions in the last contract and this piece of business is a
direct result of that,” says Mr. Bailey.
One type of specialty cargo the MPA would like to attract to Baltimore
is refrigerated cargo. The port has focused on imported meat and exp
ort poultry, but so far it is undecided about whether it will proceed
with building a refrigerated cargo warehouse.
“It is a very competitive market with fairly high entry costs,” says
Ms. Broadwater. “In the life cycle of that business, we may be too
late. But there are a lot of differences of opinions on this.”
“We are in discussion with various parties to see if there is a way w
e can spread the risk so that we can try to get into the business, but
create a situation where no one will take a huge bath” if the projec
t fails, says Mr. Yoshitani. He says the project will require the coo
peration of the MPA, labor, and the party that would operate the wareh
ouse.