By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOT Ability to handle rising volumes of a diverse range of cargos is stimulating infrastructure progress at ports of the Central Gulf region. While the energy sector is behind much of this growth, demand-driven moves of agricultural goods, metals and other commodities are also behind the flurry of mid-Gulf port development activities. Starting in Alabama and then heading eastwardly across Mississippi and Louisiana, here’s the latest at ports of the Central Gulf: Alabama State Port Authority The $110 million Pinto Steel Terminal is among Alabama State Port Authority facilities enjoying increased activity. The terminal, which began operation in 2010 handling carbon steel slabs bound for the new ThyssenKrupp Steel USA plant in north Mobile County, has helped the Port of Mobile boost total steel product volume to 3.62 million short tons in calendar 2011, more than triple the amount handled in 2010. An April shipment of 102,488 metric tons of slabs marked the largest such single-vessel delivery to the port. Activity continues to grow as well at the $300 million APM Terminals Mobile facility, where container volumes experienced a 32 percent year-over-year rise in 2011. Mediterranean Shipping Co. and China Shipping have recently joined Maersk Line, CMA CGM, Zim Integrated Shipping Services, APL Ltd. and Hyundai Merchant Marine in offering global services out of the Port of Mobile. At the port’s McDuffie Terminal, rapidly rising export coal volumes have spurred a $15.5 million port authority investment in equipment for enhanced ship loading and railcar unloading, as well as rail track. Port of Pascagoula Navigational projects are at the fore at the Jackson County (Miss.) Port Authority’s Port of Pascagoula. Widening of the port’s main entrance channel to 550 feet from 450 feet is set to begin in 2013, while plans for widening an additional channel segment are in the environmental permitting process. Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to seek bids this summer on a project to provide beneficial material use through marsh creation at the Singing River Island confined disposal site. The $1.1 billion Gulf LNG Energy liquefied natural gas facility that formally opened to commercial activity last fall in the Bayou Casotte Harbor boasts a capability to send out 1.3 billion cubic feet a day of regasified product through numerous pipelines. The LNG facility’s operator, El Paso Corp., was just acquired by Kinder Morgan Inc. At the port’s Pascagoula River Harbor, a June 2 commissioning ceremony was held for the $2.6 billion USS Mississippi, the U.S. Navy’s newest attack submarine. Mississippi State Port Authority The Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport continues to make progress with its $570 million restoration from destruction incurred in 2005, when it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The recovery plan, supported by a federal community development block grant, is restoring damaged maritime facilities, elevating the port’s West Pier to 25 feet and modernizing container operations. The authority is embarking on the first phase of a dredging and filling project that bodes to make an additional 24 acres available for port terminal use. Separately, the authority is investing almost $5 million in new interim maintenance and repair structures for longtime tenants Crowley Maritime Corp. and Chiquita Brands International Inc. Also, initial engineering has begun for a $5 million extension of rail track on the port’s East Pier. The project is designed to allow Chiquita to continue its rail and transit shed operations once construction at the West Pier construction necessitates a temporary relocation of those activities. Port Fourchon Officials of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission are encouraged by the rebound in activity related to the energy sector following the October 2010 lifting of the federal moratorium on new offshore drilling permits that followed the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion off the Louisiana c