The Port of Davisville is perhaps the biggest small port in North America. One of the top ten Ro Ro ports in North America on the import side, it’s also a port that is growing and growing fast. The Port of Davisville, Rhode Island, located in the Quonset Business Park (QBP), might just be the biggest small port in the United States. Like the state of Rhode Island itself, the port’s size relative to larger brethren like New York/New Jersey, belies its real stature as one of the largest ro-ro ports in North America, and one of the very few with land to get even bigger. In 2014, the Port of Davisville handled 178,215 vehicles at the North Atlantic Distributors Inc. (NORAD), the auto processor located in the QBP. It was just another ho hum, fifth in a row recording breaking year for the port. Another 34,000 autos arrived by rail [Providence and Worcester Railroad] and 3,000 more by truck. But Evan Matthews, port director at the Port of Davisville says, this year (2015) is looking even better. Matthews points out that the March numbers both in terms of vessels calls and units hit a record high of 19 ships and 21,215 units. April was also a good month for the port as 15 ships called unloading 16,812 units. While the March numbers were influenced by diversions from Canada, April volumes were “normal”. When asked by the AJOT, what is a “normal” month? Matthews explained, “It used to be 15,000 units was a typical month for imports, but now April is the new normal. To put it into context, our year-to-date volumes through April (the May numbers aren’t yet available) are 63 vessel calls and 67,118 units landed, up 22% over 2014.”
A Canadian Diversion in Reverse The numbers look better in part because the weather was worse than anything in recent memory. Unlike nearly every other Northeast port, Davisville was able to remain open throughout the wild winter weather, closing for only one day. “The one day we lost was because [Rhode Island] Governor Gina M. Raimondo issued a travel ban,” Matthews noted. Matthews points out that a diversion from Canada contributed to the record March numbers. “The Port of Halifax was forced to declare force majeure and VW Canada rerouted all the VWs [that would have been offloaded in Halifax] to Davisville.” “We got calls from both our processor Norad and VW asking whether we could handle the additional volumes from the ships [going to Halifax] which come here [Davisville] anyways. They couldn’t discharge their units in Canada and we [Port of Davisville] were able to clear enough land and space of snow so that Canadian volume could be landed in Davisville. Matthews explained, “We were able to activate a terminal designated for wind turbines by clearing an additional 15 acres of laydown area in 48-hours,” Matthews said. “The units were segregated here (into US and Canadian lots) and VW America and VW Canada issued the appropriate paperwork. The Canadian units were moved in bond and traveled as far West as Calgary (Alberta),” Matthews said of the diversion. The P&W Railroad played a key role in moving the Canadian vehicles back to Canada. The P&W worked with both CP and CN (Canadian Pacific and Canadian National) to move the vehicles to final destination. The winter diversion was a fortuitous chance for “proof of concept” of the potential value of the Port. The Port of Halifax is only served by CN, which in effect places all the eggs in one basket [or Class 1 Railroad]. On the other hand, the ability of the P&W to connect to both CN and CP gives the Port a variety of delivery options for the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). As Matthews says of the importance of the P&W’s rail connection for Davisville, “We can effectively be that secondary Atlantic ro-ro port for Canada for the OEMs.” “We think that Davisville by working with CP Rail through the P&W can carry a portion of the Canadian volume for the OEMs, especially since a majority of the Canadian market is located in the Ontario area.” Another aspect of the Canadian service is that it opens up the possibility of exports. As Matthews explains, a lot of the vehicles and related products that are created in Canada are railed down to Baltimore because of the convenient connections to CP Rail and the wide variety of ro-ro services available in the Mid-Atlantic port. “What we are hoping is that if we get a regular traffic moving up to Canada that it will be an easier sell for CP Rail to facilitate a backhaul through Davisville.” “We’ve demonstrated we can do it and hope the OEMs will create some redundancy in their supply chains with us.” Space the Final Frontier There are some good sound business reasons for using Davisville. One is the port is exempt from the HMT (Harbor Maintenance Tax). Importers are required to pay 0.125% of the value of the commercial cargo shipped through identified ports with the intention that these funds would be used to maintain channels funded through the Army Corp of Engineers. The Port of Davisville was formerly two Navy bases and (the now 32-foot) as were the port’s channels. When it came to dredge the channels the state opted to do it without the Army Corp of Engineers, thus eliminating any question of using HMT funds. It is a competitive advantage. Saving 0.125% of a $30,000 plus auto is a good start but if Davisville, in particular NORAD, the vehicle processor, didn’t perform well, the HMT exclusion wouldn’t be worth very much. NORAD has already invested in a 35,000 sq./ft. expansion project designed for vehicle accessorization. One big advantage that the Port of Davisville has on its ro-ro rival ports is space. Ro-ro facilities require lots of space and fortunately, Davisville has plenty of room for growth…in fact it is probably at only 50% capacity. Matthews says, “We have the ability to expand 75 to 120 acres depending on the layout.” “The port already has Terminal 6 what we call an inland terminal that we can use for additional vehicles.” With the inbound, also comes the possibility of exports. Matthews is already looking to convince the OEMs to use the capabilities of the port to export vehicles. The very same rail access to the North America inbound is access to the world outbound. “We have growth on our minds here,” that is what Davisville is all about.