Push for cargo terminal gets Foxconn boost

Logistics and business interests are pushing to re-establish an intermodal cargo terminal in or near Milwaukee, driven in part by the increase in shipments expected from Foxconn.

An intermodal terminal here, which would transfer international cargo containers from rail cars to trucks and vice versa, would expedite shipping and lower costs, advocates say.

The closest such facilities now are in Chicago and at times are congested, some freight industry executives say.

“Our time down in the rail yards is anywhere from two to four hours to get in and out with a container,” said Chris Winkler, owner of Aim Transfer & Storage, an Oak Creek trucking firm that hauls some 300 containers a day between the Chicago-area intermodal terminals and destinations in Wisconsin.

Milwaukee’s port on Jones Island hosted an intermodal freight terminal until 2012, when Canadian Pacific Railway stopped routing container-carrying trains there in a cost-cutting move.

Now, public and private officials want to see a Milwaukee terminal revived, and the drive is being bolstered by the promise of Foxconn Technology Group shipping large volumes of freight into and out of southern Wisconsin as it moves toward production of liquid crystal display panels in Mount Pleasant.

Foxconn’s logistics subsidiary, Jusda Supply Chain Management Corp., is a member of a special committee created last year by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to study intermodal. Jusda registered with the State Department of Financial Institutions in May.

“I think Foxconn is driving a large component of (the) discussion” to reinstitute intermodal service here, one observer said.

“They know that they are going to require a massive increase in logistics capacity in this community,” he said.

Even without Foxconn, enough demand exists among Wisconsin-based importers and exporters to support an intermodal terminal, said Peter Hirthe, senior trade development representative for Port Milwaukee.

During its last decade in operation, the port’s former intermodal terminal handled the equivalent of 18,000 to 25,000 20-foot containers annually, Hirthe said.

To be viable, an intermodal terminal needs at least 20,000 to 30,000 units a year, Brian Buchanan of the Canadian National Railway said last March at a meeting of the DOT’s intermodal committee. .

Support from a railroad is essential. Without it, there would be no way to move containers into and out of a terminal.

The effort to re-establish a terminal here now appears to have a powerful ally in Foxconn.

Hirthe said the prospect of Foxconn shipments strengthens the case for intermodal, and that the company has “certainly made it clear that they would like to see a solution before their facility is completed.”

Jim Best, owner of the Pilot Freight Services franchise in Milwaukee, said he attended a meeting at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce in which Foxconn representatives spoke strongly in favor of a new terminal.

“They were adamant that in order for their strategy to work, they need to have intermodal in Milwaukee,” Best said.

In a statement, Foxconn said it “welcomes and supports efforts to boost logistics capacity and other core infrastructure development” in Wisconsin.

“Initiatives to enhance infrastructure will increase the state’s competitiveness and attractiveness as a location for investment by companies including our strategic partners from Asia and the U.S. who will locate their operations at our campus,” the company said.