By Leo Quigley, AJOTVehicle imports at the Port of Hueneme, CA, received a major dent when Mazda Motors of America decided to move its operations to the Port of San Diego last year. However, Pete Wallace, Deputy Executive Director of Maritime Services with the port told AJOT that the loss of Mazda merely represents a temporary setback for the port and every effort is being made to fill the hole with other vehicles. Port Hueneme is the only deepwater port between Los Angeles and San Francisco and one of the busiest West Coast ports for the import and export of automobiles, including BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Saab, Suzuki and Volvo. Its ro/ro facility provides access to US markets by Asian, Scandinavian and European manufactures and a variety of shipping lines including NYK, K-Line, Mitsui OSK Line and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines. The port offers shipper four major vehicle preparation and distribution facilities less than two miles from the waterfront. The stevedores and management at the port are experienced in the operational aspects of the automobile trade and work closely with both manufacturers and shipping lines to ensure zero damage. Because of Mazda’s pull-out the port’s automobile imports dropped by slightly over 13% at the end of the third quarter and expectations are that vehicle imports will be down by roughly 100,000 units at the end of the fiscal year, June 30. However, Wallace said, “There’s a difference between what we forecasted originally which, in the auto business, was about a seven percent growth. “Last year we handled just under 300,000 cars and this year I’m forecasting about 240,000 cars. The largest of that,” he said, “was Mazda, where 56,000 cars came in last year. The numbers this year for Mazda is somewhere around 24,000 at the end of the year. So, that puts us down by almost 30,000 cars just by itself.” Accompanying the Mazda move has been a decline in several other brands of cars handled by the port. “BMW’s been very good,” he said, “but, Hyundais and KIAs are down quite a bit, and Volvos are off. “They’re not off a huge amount, but when you have 13 different car lines and everybody’s off just a little bit - it adds up to a larger number. It’s just kind of a soft market,” he said. Another factor working against Port Hueneme’s auto business is the move by Asian automakers to build production plants in the US, thereby reducing the amount of water transportation required to distribute vehicles. Many of the Toyotas and Hondas being sold through US outlets are now being made in the US, and recently Hyundai made a decision to move its Sonatas and Santa Fe cars and trucks from Alabama by rail carrier rather than ocean carrier. As well, Wallace said that Volkswagen is building cars in Mexico, and those vehicles get moved by rail into the US market. However, Wallace said he feels confident that this is year is proving to be a bit of an “off year,” and the port’s auto import business will improve. “BMW’s going to help a lot. Next year they’re coming out with a One series from what I understand, which will be a whole new design. That will be a hot car. It will come in between the Mini Cooper and the Three series. I think it will be a popular model with gas prices the way they are. We’re going to be out there aggressively marketing the port and trying to get a piece of business to take care of the loss of Mazda,” he said.