February was a good month for both container and breakbulk cargo at The Port of Virginia, with both types of cargo showing growth when compared with the same month in 2005.

In February, port handled 162,948 teus and 47,000 tons of breakbulk cargo. A year ago, those numbers were 145,009 teus and 29,591 tons, respectively.

'The gain in breakbulk can be attributed to additional imports of paper, automobiles and machinery coming into Newport News Marine Terminal,' said Tom Capozzi, the Virginia Port Authority's senior managing director of marketing services. 'Autos are up almost 80% compared with last February, to date, Lydall Paper has handled almost 10,000 tons of paper at NNMT, our machinery tonnage is up almost 25% and we handled more than 2,100 tons of particle board. These numbers really point to the strength of Newport News' breakbulk handling capabilities.'

Through the first two months of the year container traffic is up 11.7% and breakbulk traffic volume is up 19.7% when compared with the same period last year. For the fiscal year,

In February, the port's rail volume was 18,742 containers, compared with 19,146 containers that were handled in same month last year. The fiscal year-to-date (July ' January) rail volume is 163,640 containers teus, compared with 141,977 containers for the same period in 2005; this is a 15.3% increase.

The January-February rail volume is 39,694 containers compared with 37,515 containers moved in the first two months of 2005; the increase is 5.8%.

In December 2005 and in January, the port handled 173,022 TEUs respectively and 169,000 teus, respectively.

The month's highlights:

  • The port had 179 ship calls in February, up 13% over February 2005.
  • Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) had a strong month for both teu throughput and breakbulk tonnage, both of which were up 21% and 89%, respectively. Since January, nearly 12,000 tons of breakbulk cargo has been handled there, primarily machinery.
  • Portsmouth Marine Terminal's (PMT) teu throughput is up 16% for the first two months of the year. PMT has had increases in the amount of steel billets and wire it handles.
  • Newport News Marine Terminal's (NNMT) breakbulk tonnage increased nearly 200% when compared with last February.
  • Virginia Inland Port (VIP) has had 22.6% growth in container volume for the fiscal year-to-date.