Jaxport CEO: St. Johns River won’t be deep enough in 2014
By, Mark Szakonyi
for bizjournals.com
on January 25, 2010
Jacksonville Port Authority CEO Rick Ferrin said the St. Johns River won’t be deep enough to handle fully loaded post-Panamax ships when the expanded Panama Canal opens in 2014.
Ferrin said the soonest he expects the river channel to be deep enough to handle the fully loaded larger ships will be 2016. Post-Panamax ships will have to be loaded light enough so they don’t run aground of the river bottom, which is between 40 feet and 41 feet deep.
Shipping companies are aware that, although the port will have post-Panamax-ready terminals, it could take until 2017 before its channel is deep enough to handle packed ships, he said.
Although other shipping customers may develop supply chains into fully post-Panamax-ready competing ports, Ferrin said Jacksonville will still be able to attract business.
The Port of Jacksonville has the strength of being a landlord port, where private tenants, not the authority, run terminal operations. Plus, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. and Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd and shipping alliance members will make it an attractive port of call, Ferrin said.
He expects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release the result of a study on deepening the river in February 2011. He hopes the project will be authorized in 2012, with funding appropriations made in 2013 or 2014.
Copyright 2010 bizjournals.com
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