Virginia surpasses 2 million teus in Fiscal 2006

posted by AJOT | Aug 07 2006 at 08:00 PM | Maritime

The Port of Virginia wrapped up its fiscal year having handled more than 2 million teus, which a 7.6% increase over fiscal 2005. In addition, the port showed an increase in ships calls, rail cargo and overall growth at the Virginia Inland Port (VIP) in FY'06.

'Our growth is consistent and we see it continuing that way,' said Thomas Capozzi, the Virginia Port Authority's senior marketing director. 'We're forecasting seven percent growth for next fiscal year and with the business we have under contract and the new services that have started or are set to start calling here we believe that is an attainable goal.'

In FY'06 the port's numbers and corresponding percentage of growth over FY'05 are:

TEUs ' 2,045,065, +7.6%
Ship Calls ' 2,260 +5.5%
VIP ' 63,394, +11.4% (measured in teus)

In the first six months of calendar year 2006 the port has handled more than 1 million teus meaning its overall container cargo business is 6.7% ahead of where it was during the first half of last year.

'We're on pace for another record (calendar) year,' said J. Robert Bray, the VPA's executive director. 'I'm confident that we'll hit the two-million teu mark and meet our project goal of 2.15 million teus. The improvements we've made at our terminals are being put to good use and we have all the elements in place to handle this growth.

As of June, the port had handled 1,010,401 teus, compared with 947,291 teus for the same period has year. The monthly teu breakdown and the percentage growth over the same month last year is as follows: