Port of Houston to add second Bayport wharf
The green light is on for construction of a new $74 million wharf at the Bayport terminal at the Port of Houston.
The wharf would be the second at the terminal, which opened about a year ago to handle a growing amount of container cargo.
The Port of Houston Authority Commission today authorized seeking bids for construction of the proposed new 1,330-foot wharf. The contract likely will be awarded in March and construction could begin in the summer, said Tom Kornegay, executive director of the port authority. He guessed that construction could take around 18 months.
Container tonnage at the Port of Houston was a record 16.4 million tons in 2007, Kornegay said in an annual report to the commission. Operating revenue was up 14 percent to $188.9 million from $164.7 million in 2006.
Because of the uptick in containers and other goods, the port authority's revenue increased by $24 million, up 14 percent, Kornegay said.
"That dollar amount increase is the largest at least over the past 20 years," he said, "and it could be the largest one-year increase in port authority history."
The number of containers moving through docks was up almost 12 percent from 2006 to 2007 — with exports showing a big increase. Kornegay said while imports and exports traditionally have been about even, exports now comprise 60 percent of activity.
"The combination of the dollar's devaluation and the overseas demand for U.S. goods has made us a strong container port on the export side when ports around the country are heavily bent toward imports," he said.
Bayport was built to take pressure off the crowded 30-year-old Barbours Cut terminal, which has been operating over capacity and around the clock.
However, despite the shift by major French shipping line CMA CGM from the Barbours Cut terminal to Bayport last year, the number of containers moved through the older terminal still increased in 2007, statistics released Tuesday showed.
The wharf would be the second at the terminal, which opened about a year ago to handle a growing amount of container cargo.
The Port of Houston Authority Commission today authorized seeking bids for construction of the proposed new 1,330-foot wharf. The contract likely will be awarded in March and construction could begin in the summer, said Tom Kornegay, executive director of the port authority. He guessed that construction could take around 18 months.
Container tonnage at the Port of Houston was a record 16.4 million tons in 2007, Kornegay said in an annual report to the commission. Operating revenue was up 14 percent to $188.9 million from $164.7 million in 2006.
Because of the uptick in containers and other goods, the port authority's revenue increased by $24 million, up 14 percent, Kornegay said.
"That dollar amount increase is the largest at least over the past 20 years," he said, "and it could be the largest one-year increase in port authority history."
The number of containers moving through docks was up almost 12 percent from 2006 to 2007 — with exports showing a big increase. Kornegay said while imports and exports traditionally have been about even, exports now comprise 60 percent of activity.
"The combination of the dollar's devaluation and the overseas demand for U.S. goods has made us a strong container port on the export side when ports around the country are heavily bent toward imports," he said.
Bayport was built to take pressure off the crowded 30-year-old Barbours Cut terminal, which has been operating over capacity and around the clock.
However, despite the shift by major French shipping line CMA CGM from the Barbours Cut terminal to Bayport last year, the number of containers moved through the older terminal still increased in 2007, statistics released Tuesday showed.