Recent push makes area a better cargo destination
For an importer or exporter with cargo moving through the Port of Virginia, just as the old song says, it’s not a good feeling to be stuck in the middle.
But the problem isn’t at the port — unlike most American seaports, ships don’t have to wait at anchor before there’s a berth available. Containers move off and on Virginia Port Authority terminals quickly.
The feeling comes because cargo ships arriving from overseas tend to stop at other U.S. ports before they steam up the Thimble Shoals channel.
“I’ve got cargo sitting off the port of Savannah and I can’t do anything about it,” said Canon Virginia Inc.’s director of international trade Rick Morris at a recent roundtable on port issues held by Sen. Tim Kaine.
But a major push by the port authority to address the issue — one made much worse by this year’s supply chain kinks — has been paying off. Three of the world’s biggest shipping groups have adjusted schedules to make Norfolk their first stop on the U.S. East Coast.
Maersk’s service connecting Vietnam and China to the East Coast now makes its first American stop at at Norfolk before heading to Baltimore and New York. That shift lopped 10 days off the transit time for its earlier direct China-toEast Coast service, Maersk’s sailing schedules show.
The Hapag-Lloyd/CMA-CGA service from India and Pakistan now heads straight to Norfolk first before turning to Savannah and then to New York.
Mediterranean Shipping Co’s service from India, with port calls in Italy and Portugal as well, makes its first U.S. call at Norfolk before
continuing to Baltimore, Miami and Freeport, Bahamas
Last year, the port authority nailed down a service making it both the first and last port of call on the Caribbean Express Service linking northern Europe and the Caribbean, a move the port authority’s then-chief executive John Reinhart said mattered “because it gives cargo owners quicker access to their cargo, both on the import and export side of the equation.
“Vessels calling the US East Coast will essentially port hop along the coast discharging and collecting cargo. If a vessel is delayed along the way, it could delay discharge or loading cargo at the Port of Virginia,” said Michael W. Coleman, chief executive of CV International, a customs broker and freight forwarder whose business is helping importers and exporters move their goods.
A first call is a particularly big deal for importers, he said.
“First ins shorten the overall transit time,” enough to make Virginia an alternative to congested west coast ports for cargo bound for the Midwest, Coleman said
“Time is money in the supply chain, for exporters and importers,” he said.
And, while exporters prefer to route their cargo through the last port of call, they get a benefit by using a first call port, he said.
“First-in calls drive import cargo growth which in turn brings more equipment — containers — to the market which is critical to support growing exports,” he said.
Equipment is one of the Port of Virginia’s big advantages these days. That’s because it has its own pool of chassis — the wheeled frames that can be loaded with a cargo container to be moved by truck, said port authority spokesman Joe Harris.
No other east coast port has that, and these days, with warehouses so packed that truckers routinely leave their container-and-chassis loads on warehouse parking lots, being able to call up enough chassis can help keep cargo moving.
That pool is a byproduct of another distinctive feature of the port — all of its terminals are run by a single entity. If Norfolk International Terminal is full, for instance, it’s no big deal to bring a ship over to Virginia International Gateway, Harris said.
And if there are containers waiting for that ship at Norfolk, the port operates a barge service.