The Port of Boston handled over 200,000 teus at Massport’s Conley Terminal in 2006. Breaking the 200,000 teus barrier was an important milestone. But after three consecutive years of operating at 100%, is there room for growth for the New England hubBy George Lauriat, AJOTIn Copernican fashion, Oliver Wendell Holmes penned the expression, (with more derision than endorsement), that Boston was “Hub” to the Solar System. To some less informed New Englanders (in modern day terms, anyone living outside the Route 128 belt), the City was the Hub of the entire galaxy but modesty prevented early Bostonians from such an assertion. To ensure outta-towners could find the spot, a plaque was embedded in the street at Downtown Crossing, near Filenes Department Store to mark the exact center of the Solar System. Of course, Filenes and Jordan’s next door, are now Macy’s, which is part of Federated Department Stores of Cincinnati Ohio, which clearly is not located in the center of the Solar System. Presumptive geography aside, there was a brief time when Boston was arguably the economic HUB of the United States. The Port of Boston’s location as the nearest major seaport to Northern Europe enabled the region’s economic ascendancy. The region was a manufacturing and commercial powerhouse controlling a significant portion of the nation’s imports and exports. Although the Hub may not be the Hub it once was the geographic advantages still exist and are important in marketing the port of Boston to shippers and carriers alike. For the most part, New England’s manufacturers are long gone replaced by a service industry that includes strong hospitality, commercial and financial service sectors, recently spliced together with contributions from the construction and building related materials and engineering sector. The result of the past three decades of economic re-alignment is that New England has generally become a region that on one hand imports high value consumer items that support a robust retail marketplace. And on the other, exports some manufactured products, a little hi-tech, various forms of machinery, supplemented by high volume but low value low exports of recycled paper & fibers and scrap metals. There are also high profile seafood and other related exports, but seafood imports are far larger. Historically, imports have outrun exports at a 60-40 to 70-30 clip in tonnage and much higher ratio in terms of dollar value. Perhaps one of the statistics that underscores just how successful the Massport has been at selling the Port, is that in 2006 (see chart) import fulls were just under 93,000 teus and export fulls over 66,00 teus, a surprisingly narrow gap of imports to exports. The Hub-bubMassport’s Maritime Director Mike Leone, has been at the helm for much of the transformation from a Port on the verge of being relegated to regional backwater to mini-hub. In a recent interview at Leone’s Fish Pier offices overlooking Boston’s inner harbor, he remarked on cracking the 200,000 teu mark “We’re [Massport] very happy with the results. The results for CHKY (Cosco-Hanjin-Kline-Yang Ming) were very positive. MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) also had a good year. The CMA-CGM service [which commenced in December 2006] is going well, increasing in volume and giving shippers more options to Europe. The barge service [between Port of New York/New Jersey] maintained its service. We are also looking forward to the re-establishment of a containership feeder service between the Port of Halifax and Boston in the near future.” The CHKY service that Leone noted showed significant growth in 2006. The five-year-old Asian service between Boston and ports in China posted a 13% increase in volume (64,685 total teu in 2005 to 73,061 total teu in 2006). Asia now accounts for over 40% of the port’s box throughput. (The consistent growth in Boston’s maritime trade with Asia was a key factor behind the launching of Boston’s first-ever direct air cargo link with Asia, which began last month with a th