(http://images.vesseltracker.com/images/vessels/hires/Mol-Competence-893665.jpg)
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2015/01/06/big-ship-big-business-largest-ship-in-citys.html?ana=e_jac_bn_newsalert&u=ws/wFtnjeqX1uMQ/9qEFWQ08d60585&t=1420570379 (http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2015/01/06/big-ship-big-business-largest-ship-in-citys.html?ana=e_jac_bn_newsalert&u=ws/wFtnjeqX1uMQ/9qEFWQ08d60585&t=1420570379)
QuoteCarrying 46,000 tons of cargo, the container ship MOL Competence called at the port of Jacksonville on Tuesday, marking not only the arrival of the largest ship in the city's history, but a moment of victory for those involved.
"There are those that who said big ships wouldn't come to Jacksonville, but here it is," said Nancy Rubin, senior director of communications for the Jacksonville Port Authority.
And it's not a one-time thing: The ship will be calling at Jaxport about five times a year.
The ship came from South Asia, transited through the Suez Canal and stopped at Norfolk and Savannah before Jacksonville. From here, it will head to Charleston.
Clocking in at 1,036 feet long, the vessel can hold the equivalent of 8,100 twenty-foot-long containers. The last large ship that called at Jaxport maxed out at 6,700 TEUs.
To come in through Jacksonville's 40-foot-deep channel, the vessel had to wait for high tide and could only be two-thirds full. About 19,000 tons of cargo were lost in Norfolk and Savannah, which are deeper and able to handle heavier ships.
That lost cargo means dollars and jobs that weren't brought to the region.
"We can bring in large ships," Rubin said, "but there is an opportunity cost. There was nearly 20,000 tons of cargo which should have, could have come through Northeast Florida."
Dennis Kelly, vice president and general manager of Trapac, the U.S. subsidiary of MOL, agrees. "Why bring in two-thirds capacity?" he said. "I want 100 percent."
Kelly added that it would be best for the port of Jacksonville to be either the first port of call or last port of call on the East Coast. Those ports (Norfolk and Charleston, in this case), get all of the discretionary cargo that is then shipped to cities such as Atlanta and Memphis. That cargo means more money and jobs for the region.
However, Rubin and Kelly both said they are confident that Jacksonville is poised to position itself as a first or last port of call. The intermodal container transfer facility is to be completed by the end of the year; 100-gauge cranes are being built to better serve the larger ships); efforts are underway to improve rail lines in North Jacksonville; and the deepening should begin construction this year.
With everything coming in to place, Rubin said the key is to keep aggressively marketing the port of Jacksonville.
"We're telling everyone that geographically we are where you want to be," she said. "We have the raw material of location, location, location. They just need to capitalize on it."
Two thirds capacity to Jacksonville...seems like the rest needed to be elsewhere and so perhaps this worked out the best anyway? Otherwise, why not unload all at one of the other two ports? It seems there had to be a valid reason to enter two other ports and have the extra expense of that.
In any case, still not a good enough argument to potentially destroy the river as we know it. Not to mention the extremely high costs involved.
Trapac positioned the ship in Asia this way. The fact they went to the trouble of press releasing it means they are providing some impetus to the JaxPort effort. And why not? They have invested alot here.
As far as the river goes, when I last spoke to an engineer from the Army Corp of Engineers, (he transferred out after the dredging got delayed) he was unaware of some of the remediation designs you can do to deal with waves and erosion. I gave him the info but not sure if it took or not.
Just saying, there are ways to deal with this and reduce the impacts to the river.