Thursday, 01 March 2012 14:49
Port expansion will open markets
Written by Elizabeth Stevens
These two Liebherr LHM 550 cranes at the Port of Stockton each have a maximum lifting capacity of 144 metric tons, a maximum height of 180 feet, and each roll around on nine axles and 72 tires. The cranes give the Port of Stockton for the first time the ability to offload shipping containers. Business Journal photos by Keith Michaud
Barges with hundreds of shipping containers will begin taking freight up and down the San Joaquin River between Stockton and Oakland this spring if all continues as expected, opening up the world marketplace to Central Valley businesses.
It is the culmination of years of work that started with the purchase in 2000 of the former Rough and Ready Island naval base, which expanded the Port of Stockton. It now has the region’s cheerleaders declaring San Joaquin County is poised to be a major West Coast logistics center.
“This will really put us higher up on the world stage,” said Michael S. Ammann, president and chief executive officer of the San Joaquin Partnership. “It’s a turning point.”
Bill Bassitt, Ammann’s counterpart at the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance, agreed.
“It’s a good thing for the region,” he said. “It gives the opportunity for businesses to have shipping mechanisms to provide alternatives.”
In February, workers were setting up and testing two cranes worth $10 million, which will transfer containers between rail cars or trucks and the barges. The barges will travel along the San Joaquin River to the Port of Oakland, a route also known as M-580 or the Marine Highway. It is expected barge service could replace 350 trucks a day on the area’s highways with each trip and eliminate toxic air emissions from the atmosphere. The cranes also increase lifting capacity, which means shipping heavier containers is now a possibility.
Other infrastructure improvements, including extending the rails and updating the wharves at the Port were also underway, but Port officials had hoped for more cooperation from Mother Nature when it came to the barges. Winter storms are keeping two barges in Washington State where they have been retrofitted for use on the Marine Highway. Port officials had hoped to have them in Stockton by February, but they’ve been waiting for the green light from insurers to move them to Stockton. Now it appears they won’t arrive until mid-March.
“Those are expensive units,” said Port of Stockton Director of Marketing Bill Lewicki. “We won’t move them without insurance coverage.”
Michael Bowden, director of business development at Savage Services, the company that will actually manage the Port’s container-on-barge service did not sound worried.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re on schedule,” Bowden said.
In addition to handling the logistics of shipping hundreds of containers between Stockton and Oakland every day, Savage Services is pursuing contracts with companies for the container-on-barge service. Bowden said he could not provide details because of nondisclosure agreements, however, it is known that three companies are at the Port specifically to take advantage of the barge service: M&L Commodities, a cold storage service based in Modesto, Ferguson Pipe and Supply from England, and ACX Pacific Northwest Inc., an exporter of hay and straw.
The project is also getting more support from the federal government, which awarded $5.3 million in February. According to Rep. Jerry McNerney, (D-Pleasanton), $800,000 will go for the San Francisco Bay to Stockton project to improve shipping channels and $4.5 million will fund operations and maintenance dredging at the Port of Stockton.
The expansion of services at the Port is a big step forward said Ammann, and that Stockton’s assets of rail, an underused airport, Interstate 5 and state Highway 99, the intermodal centers in Tracy and Manteca, as well as the Port of Stockton mean San Joaquin County is poised to become a major logistics center and possibly more.
“Next year we’ll have the chance to sell the whole basket of logistics we have to offer,” Ammann said, adding that manufacturing could be the next step. “Next pitch: ‘Why don’t you make it here, too?”
Internet extra: Here’s the link to the live cam at the Port of Stockton showing the cranes. http://www.portofstockton.com/crane_cam.html
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