Breakbulk shipments at Northeast ports slowed in the 2nd half of 2006. But the Northeast Ports are readying themselves for a turn around.By George Lauriat, AJOTThe flow of breakbulk commodities slowed at Northeast ports in the second-half of 2006. After a strong first half, imports of breakbulk and neo-bulk like metals and building materials dramatically dropped reflecting a decline in housing starts and other contributing economic factors. The Northeast ports of Portland, Maine, the Connecticut ports of Bridgeport, New Haven and New London, Port of Providence Rhode Island and others all reported some second-half fall off after a robust first half. However, the ports are looking to use the slowdown to position themselves for a future upturn in the market. Most of the ports have used the slowdown to work on infrastructural issues and to prepare their facilities for the inevitable upswing in the market. Connecticut’s three major ports, the ports of New Haven, Bridgeport and New London handle a vast majority of the state’s international seaborne cargo. The terminal management company for the three ports is Montreal-based Logistec Corporation. Logistec provides specialized services such as breakbulk, bulk and container handling to over twenty ports in Eastern Canada, the Great Lakes and East Coast of the US. The Port of Bridgeport’s main business is bananas and other fruits. Turbana Corp. is a Florida based distributor of Colombia’s Uniban Cooperative. Turbana started in the 1970s and is now one of the top labels in the US. Most of the crop is from Colombia and shipped from Turbana grower owned farms. Turbana imports around 200,00 tons of bananas and other fruit annually through the Port of Bridgeport. Although bananas are far and away the main business a spokesman for terminal “melons represent a little a new business for us this year.” The movement is generally inbound trade but some Kraft Liner Board moves outbound for crating for the fruit. The Port has draft issues that could hurt the business in the long run. However, policy makers are attempting to get a dredging program into place for the future. The Port of New Haven handles over half of Connecticut’s seaborne trade. The port’s stock and trade is lumber and steel related products. According to a terminal representative, “the first half of the year was very good, but October onward are numbers were way off. Overall we were up over 2005.“ “There was an over supply of coil and a high US exchange rate. US buyers reacted by buying domestic and European producers found buyers closer to the plants,” the spokesman added. Although the steel related products were off the group picked up a 2007 copper contract for 100,000 tons that should help next year’s numbers. The lumber and building materials was also off which impacted the Port of New London. The Port of New London in 2005 was nearly inundated with lumber, including shipments from Austria and the CIS. With the second half slowdown, the forest carrier ship calls were consolidated to a single call at New Haven (it is less than 40 miles between New London and New Haven). The result has been that the lumber has been shifted to New Haven, at least for the short term. “Right now we are trying to position ourselves for the next upswing in the cycle,” the spokesman said. Terminal operator ProvPort serves the Port of Providence Rhode Island. ProvPort founded in 1994 handles a wide variety of commodities including LPG, scrap metal, salt, coal, cement, aggregate, chemicals and plywood. The Port has a nice mix of facilities that include six deep-water berths totaling 3500 linear feet combined, three warehouses (300,000 sf ) and 20 acres of paved open storage area. For liquid bulk, ProvPort is the owner of its own Petroleum Tank Farm totaling some 335,000 barrels of capacity. The Port also has on-dock rail access with three rail spurs. The on-the-dock rail is run by the Providence and Worcester railroad and has a loop system that enables the Port to offers direct vessel to rail l