By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTGeneral Motors Corp. may be struggling with domestic sales, but the Detroit-based automaker continues to do well with exports, particularly of sport utility vehicles to the Middle East, and that has meant a boom in business at the AMPORTS Inc. processing center at the Jacksonville Port Authority’s Blount Island Marine Terminal. “GM’s global sales have increased rapidly over the past few years,” said Richard James, product communications manager for GM. “In 2008, 64% of the 8.35 million vehicles sold by GM were sold outside the United States.” From 2003, when General Motors exported 57,243 units to the Middle East, to 2008, when the automaker’s export units to that region numbered 144,485, GM’s shipments to the Mideast were up a whopping 152%, according to figures provided by James. “GM’s best-selling models across the Middle East continue to be its full-size SUVs – the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade – all of which are exported from the US,” James said. Many of these units move through the AMPORTS Jacksonville facility, at a pace of between 50,000 and 60,000 a year, according to Dave Haviland, AMPORTS general manager. Most of the units are railed to Jacksonville from a GM factory in Arlington, Texas, which recently assumed production of the SUVs from a Wisconsin plant that GM has closed. The increased GM activity has led AMPORTS to add 100 employees and institute a second eight-hour daily shift, according to Haviland. “GM export business has expanded dramatically,” said Larry Warren, South Atlantic and Gulf region general manager for ocean carrier Höegh Autoliners, Inc., which transports most of these units and has responded by doubling to a dozen a month its number of vessel sailings from Jacksonville to the Middle East. Overall, JAXPORT finished the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008, having handled a record 656,805 automotive units, up seven percent from the preceding 12-month period.