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PROJECTING GOOD THINGS FOR THE PORT OF GREATER BATON ROUGE

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PROJECTING GOOD THINGS FOR THE PORT OF GREATER BATON ROUGE

Despite a worldwide pandemic, three successful projects were completed at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge in 2020: a major expansion of shipping container storage capacity; delivery of a custom-made, deep-reach stacker for transloading containers into and out of barges; and the opening of a $22 million railcar chambering yard.

Last year, more than 16,000 containers moved through the Louisiana port, more than double the volume of 2017 when the service began. In the process, SEACOR AMH LLC transports empty containers from Memphis to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge via barge to be loaded with resin from area plants, and then moves the loaded barges downriver to the Port of New Orleans for international transport. 

This rapid increase in container volumes prompted the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to increase the size of its container storage facility. The $5 million expansion created nearly 4 acres of additional paved container storage capacity and gave the port the ability to store about 2,000 containers.

A 20% efficiency gain in its container operations was just one positive outcome of the port’s new, deep-reach container stacker known as The Big Red Beast. With its telescopic boom for stacking four containers high, shorter loading and unloading times have helped meet the increasing demand for container shipping services for area customers in the petrochemical industry sector, says Port Executive Director Jay Hardman. Financed almost 100% by a Maritime Administration grant, the one-of-a-kind Beast was designed and manufactured specifically for the port by Taylor Machine Works of Louisville, Mississippi.

The railcar chambering yard was completed in 2020 on port property south of the Intracoastal Waterway. The yard facilitates the storage of railcars and expedites the arrival and departure of unit trains of 80 or more railcars into and out of the port. The chambering yard currently facilitates delivery by rail of wood pellets to tenant Drax Biomass for export overseas. Grön Fuels, which recently announced plans to build a $9.2 billion renewable fuels complex at the site, is also planning the utilization of the rail chambering yard.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is the head of deepwater navigation on the Mississippi River; a 45-foot shipping channel to the mouth of the Mississippi River is maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. The port’s deepwater terminal on the Mississippi is currently capable of docking three deep-draft vessels simultaneously. 

 

Port leadership recently applied to the Louisiana Department of Transportation Port Construction and Development Priority Program (PCDPP) for a $15 million rehabilitation/expansion of its “Northern Berth” on the Mississippi River that would allow for the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to have a fourth deep draft vessel berth at its northernmost point.

US Northwest, Canada Log Exports to Asia Climb

Seattle, WA – The volume of log exports from the US and Canada to Asia during the first quarter of this year climbed 14 percent over the first three months of last year and 30 percent more than the same quarter in 2012, according to industry consultancy Wood Resources International LLC.

Almost 53 percent of the exports were shipped from the US Northwest, while 41 percent originated from British Columbia and the remaining share split between Alaska, California and the US South.

Log exports from the US South increased by the highest rate of any North American region with a 130 percent surge in shipments to China, Japan and other Asian countries, the group said.

There are nine ports that handle breakbulk log shipments along the US West Coast with the Port of Longview, Washington, exporting more logs than all the other eight ports combined. Over the past five quarters, each of the eight ports shipped an average of one vessel per month, while the Port at Longview loaded one vessel for Asia every three days.

The most interesting development the past year, said Wood Resources, has been the sharp increase in shipments of logs in containers from the US South to Asia, mainly China and India.

Total shipments of southern yellow pine were up 130 percent for the period January through May this year compared to the same period last year, and volumes are already 70 percent more than they were for all of 2012.

Combined with the first reported bulk shipload departing from the Port of Baton Rouge in May, “we are likely to see increased exports of logs from the Southern states in the coming years,” the consultancy said.

08/05/2014