Industry demands spur investments in projects around central Gulf region

Port authorities and private industry alike are shelling out big bucks on projects that should help keep business on the upswing at ports throughout the central Gulf region. Besides advancing the region’s petrochemical and offshore energy interests, the new infrastructure supports efficient movement of such diverse commodities as grains, bananas, steel and wood pellets through mid-Gulf ports. Beginning in Alabama and heading westward across Mississippi and Louisiana, here’s the latest at key ports of the central Gulf region: Alabama State Port Authority A $36 million facility for handling steel coil has opened this spring on the Alabama State Port Authority’s Pier D2 berth, on a 40-foot-deep channel. Its operator, Alabama Steel Terminals LLC, is a joint venture between TriState Maritime Services Inc. and Richardson Group of Companies. The facility – which is served by ship, barge, rail and truck – boasts 178,200 square feet of covered bay area, with four 50-ton-capacity overhead bridge cranes, plus 168,000 square feet of open storage. A future phase is to more than double the bay area. By spring 2016, the $32 million first phase of an intermodal container transfer facility is slated for completion at the Port of Mobile, facilitating moves of import and export containerized cargos transiting APM Terminals Mobile. This phase is to include a rail bridge, two operating tracks, runaround track and car repair siding, as well as rubber-tired gantry runways, chassis storage areas, multilane gates, access road and additional related infrastructure and surface improvements.

Port of Pascagoula On the coast of Mississippi, about 40 miles southwest of Mobile, the Jackson County Port Authority’s Port of Pascagoula has made way for a planned wood pellet export terminal at its Bayou Casotte Harbor with the demolition of the 1960s-vintage, 175,000-square-foot Terminal E&F warehouse. Also, dock refurbishments are under way at the port’s Terminal A in the Pascagoula River Harbor. Bids are soon to be solicited for a rail relocation project that is to bring closure of 16 at-grade rail crossings and move a switching track, thus improving Port of Pascagoula access while decreasing congestion and emissions. The effort – part of the port’s overall $44 million intermodal improvement initiative – is supported by a $14 million Transportation Investment Generation Economic Recovery grant Also, the widening of the Port of Pascagoula’s entrance channel to 550 feet from 450 feet was completed in December, while the effort to widen the Bayou Casotte Channel to 450 feet from 350 feet is on the horizon. Mississippi State Port Authority The $570 million restoration and improvement project at the Mississippi State Port Authority’s Port of Gulfport is moving toward projected 2016 completion thanks to federal Community Development Block Grant Program funding. The project allows the port to recover from devastation exacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Meanwhile, with $8 million in port reserves and $4.1 million in federal funds, the Port of Gulfport’s channel and harbor have been returned to their authorized 36-foot depth for the first time since 2009. Also, a $58 million West Pier upgrade is to be done this summer, with three new ship-to-shore cranes to arrive in early 2016. In addition, a $80 million bulk-handling facility for DuPont is advancing toward anticipated fall 2016 completion; a new lease bodes to keep Dole Fresh Fruit Co. at the port through 2038; and the port’s diversification into the oil and gas industry is in full swing with arrival of Gulf Coast Shipyard Group and McDermott International’s marine operations base.

St. Bernard Port With acquisition of its third midstream mooring facility – the Violet Terminal – the Chalmette, La.-based St. Bernard Port, Harbor and Terminal District can now efficiently handle capesize vessels in 45 feet of water, including with transfers of as many as 120,000 tons of alloys and other bulk commodities from vessels to barges. St. Bernard Port, which occupies a 10-mile stretch along the Mississippi River just downriver from New Orleans, continues to enhance its capabilities to handle forest products as well, including via an 11-acre processing yard at its Chalmette Terminal and Industrial Park, where some 65 riverfront acres are being marketed for future development. Strategies at St. Bernard Port center around capitalizing upon its position at the gateway to the largest shipping corridor in the world, easy Interstate highway access and service by Norfolk Southern Corp. with connectivity to a total of six Class I railroads. Port of New Orleans Enjoying cargo volume at its highest level since 2000, the Port of New Orleans is positioned to continue its growth curve ascent with developments such as project cargo generated by the region’s chemical industry boom and return to the port of Chiquita Brands International Inc. banana imports and paperboard and plastic resin exports after a 40-year hiatus. Further adding to Port NOLA activity is Maersk Line’s return this year, with calls in weekly Northern Europe and Mediterranean services, and CMA CGM Group’s addition of New Orleans calls and increased tonnage deployment in its Victory Bridge service to Europe. Also, TCI Plastics looks to generate significant export volumes of containerized plastic resins from a 500,000-square-foot logistics facility being built at the port’s France Road property. To help the Port of New Orleans handle increasing activity, expansion is under way at the port’s Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, to include an intermodal container transfer facility, backed in part by a $16.7 million TIGER grant. Port Manchac With an April groundbreaking, the South Tangipahoa Parish Port Commission has embarked upon a $3 million Port Manchac bulkhead and dredging project funded primarily by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Project elements also include improvements to internal roadways, drainage and parking; rail spur maintenance; and enhanced laydown storage area. Port officials see the work as key to development of a state-of-the-industry inland transloading facility at the 140-acre terminal site adjacent to Interstate 55 and the Canadian National Railway Co. mainline on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. Modes may include barge, rail and truck for movement of bulk, breakbulk and containerized cargos. Transloading activity already taking place at Port Manchac includes the transfer from railcars to barges of crude oil shipments from Canada. Port of So. Louisiana The Western Hemisphere’s No. 1 tonnage port, the South of Louisiana is looking to build upon the record 291.8 million tons of cargo that moved through it in 2014. The port’s jurisdiction covers a 54-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. New businesses coming to the Port of South Louisiana include Norway-based vessel and offshore technology leader Kongsberg Maritime AS, which in January bought 5.2 acres in the port’s James Business Park for building of an 82,890-square-foot office and training facility, with abundant room for expansion. Also at the Port of South Louisiana, Yuhuang Chemical Inc., a Houston-headquartered subsidiary of China-based Shandong Yuhuang Chemical (Group) Co. Ltd., is building a $1.85 billion methanol complex on St. James Parish property, anticipating completion by 2018. And France-based Air Liquide SA has committed to a $170 million investment to furnish the complex with oxygen to be used in the process of getting methanol from natural gas feedstock. Port of Greater Baton Rouge Recently completed projects at the Port Allen, La.-headquartered Port of Greater Baton Rouge include Drax Biomass International Inc. unit Baton Rouge Transit LLC’s $30 million, 10-acre wood pellet storage and transfer operation, which in April handled its first export shipment, consisting of about 25,000 metric tons of pellets to England for use in ecofriendly power generation. Also, Westway Terminals LLC has finished a $3.5 million expansion at the port’s liquid bulk terminal and Stupp Coatings LLC has built a concrete-weight pipeline coating operation on 24 acres at the port’s Inland Rivers Marine Terminal, where extensive additional acreage is available for development. Slated for completion by the end of 2015 at the Port of Baton Rouge is Genesis Energy LP’s $150 million, 90-acre terminal for import and export of crude oil, intermediaries and refined products. In its second year of operation at the port is Louis Dreyfus Commodities LLC’s $150 million expanded grain and oilseed export facility. Port Fourchon The offshore oil and gas industry and related support services continue to fuel dynamic expansion at the Greater Lafourche Port Commission’s Port Fourchon, Louisiana’s southernmost port. The more-than-300-acre augmentation of the port’s Slip C continues while bucket dredging and other initial work is set to start soon on a new Slip D, which is to feature 10,000 linear feet of waterfront and a total of yet another 300 acres. Even more developable land – about 550 acres – may become available on the port’s Fourchon Island property once access issues are figured out. The port is advancing a feasibility study related to deepening the water depth to the island to 50 feet from its present 27 feet, a move that would facilitate bringing into port of deepwater drilling rigs. The continuing effort to improve the state highway that goes to Port Fourchon is moving forward as well, with a $46.5 million project under way on a milelong-plus section of Louisiana Highway 1. Port of Morgan City Located at the intersection of the Atchafalaya River and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in the Louisiana Oil and Gas Port Corridor, the Port of Morgan City has expanded in the import-export realm by serving Land O’ Lakes unit Purina Mills LLC. Since operations began last August, shipments have included feed ingredients exported from the Midwest to Mexico, Louisiana-grown rice headed to Haiti and salt imports from Mexico. Also at the Port of Morgan City, a new hurricane-resistant, two-level governmental operations and emergency center is nearing completion, while construction has just been finished on two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems, or PORTS, stations on the Atchafalaya Channel, funded by a federal port security grant. A continuing concern at the port is the sedimentation of the Atchafalaya River, requiring twice-a-year dredging for maintaining a consistent 20-foot depth and 400-foot width – a particular worry in times of limited funding for operation and maintenance of U.S. waterways. Port of Lake Charles At Southwest Louisiana’s Port of Lake Charles, which covers 203 square miles scattered along the Calcasieu River Ship Channel, a $60 million export grain terminal is scheduled to be brought online in July by New York-based IFG Port Holdings LLC. The terminal, to be served by Union Pacific Railroad, is designed to handle such goods as Louisiana rice.Other companies making big private-sector investments at the Port of Lake Charles – which port officials say total more than $81 billion – are Lake Charles LNG, Cameron LNG, Sasol USA, Big Lake Energy, Magnolia LNG, Cheniere Energy and Golden Nugget Casino. Recent infrastructure enhancements at the Port of Lake Charles include a double-loop track system that facilitates handling of units trains of as many as 120 railcars; a new entrance plaza and gate complex; and a high-efficiency ship unloader.