The largest import steel shipment handled at the Port of Mobile commenced operations at the Alabama State Port Authority’s Pinto Terminal. The MV SHI DAI 20 arrived in port at a surveyed draft of 42.3 feet carrying 4,259 carbon steel slabs weighing in at 94,210.244 metric tons (MT).

Jimmy Lyons, director and chief executive officer for the Port Authority, noted, “As anticipated, our Pinto Terminal volumes are skyrocketing as the ThyssenKrupp rolling mill continues to ramp production. We’ve long known this mill and its markets would impact this port in a number of positive ways, now, investments serving steel are starting to bear fruit.” The Port Authority, in two short years, has moved the meter on total steel product volumes handled from just over 1.1 million short tons in CY2010 to 3.6 million short tons in CY2011. Roughly two-thirds of that volume represented inbound carbon steel slab bound for ThyssenKrupp.

Built in 2012, the MV SHI DAI 20 is an 115,663 dead weight tons (DWT) vessel measuring 833 ft. in length overall (LOA) and has a beam of 142 ft. The vessel is chartered and operated by Ultrabulk and Page & Jones served as the customs broker and vessel agent. The Alabama State Port Authority serves as the terminal operator discharging 25,000 MT of carbon slab per day. The offloading operations are expected to take approximately four days with forty plus percent discharged direct to barge.