Although San Francisco is more noted for a bridge, a song and the Giants, the port still moves the freight necessary to build the buildings in the booming Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Peter Dailey, deputy director maritime for the Port of San Francisco told AJOT that he “bristles” when people tell him San Francisco is not a freight port. Well, there is a lot of real estate development along the Port’s waterfront… but San Francisco also handled 1.6 million tons of freight in 2014, as Dailey readily points out. For the self-revenue generating agency of the City and County of San Francisco, every ton is important. The freight moved by the Port, is almost all aggregate used to feed the hungry construction market that is booming between San Francisco and the San Jose/ Silicon Valley area to the South. In 2010 the Port handled 750,000 tons of aggregate, “so we have seen the tonnage double in less than five years,” he says. There are some iconic names and big-ticket city projects being built. New buildings include a new Children’s Hospital and a new headquarters for Apple that will be “one of the biggest corporate headquarters in the United States.” There is also the new Levi Stadium, the San Jose home of the San Francisco 49ers, and a new San Francisco basketball home for the Golden State Warriors that is in the permitting process.
Peter Dailey, deputy director maritime, Port of San Francisco
Peter Dailey, deputy director maritime, Port of San Francisco
Rock On The Port is handling this trade because of a lack of domestic materials. As Dailey noted, “The supply of aggregate that we need for new construction has been declining from existing sources in the (San Francisco) Bay Area and new quarries are getting harder to permit. The result is that we now import aggregate from Vancouver Island in Canada to meet our construction needs.” In 2014, 36 aggregate carrying vessels shipped nearly 1.6 million tons of aggregate to the Port of San Francisco from Canada, he noted. The ships are self-unloading vessels that shift their cargo onto a conveyor belt that then loads trucks, which carry the bulk cargo half a mile away to two concrete batching plants. At the batching plant, the aggregate mixes with cement and water to form concrete that is then transported by truck to construction sites from San Francisco to San Jose and other Bay Area destinations. The two concrete batching plants are operated by Central Concrete and CEMEX. Based in Monterrey, Mexico, CEMEX is one of the world’s largest producers of building materials including concrete. The company operates production facilities in 50 countries in North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Dailey also points out that the Port of San Francisco has a maritime capability in other areas: The Port just signed a new 20 year lease to allow BAE to continue to operate a ship repair facility that will accommodate Panamax-size cruise ships capable of transiting the Panama Canal. The facility features two floating drydocks. The Port just opened up a state-of-the-art cruise ship terminal that allows the Port to handle 300,000 cruise passengers and 85 cruise ship calls per year. This business enhances San Francisco’s tourism and re-acquaints visitors with the City’s long maritime history. The Port has installed shore power capability for the cruise ships allowing them to turn off their engines and reduce emissions while in San Francisco.