Shippers: What recession? - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Ltd.’s unveiling of a remotely automatesd portin Busan, South Korea, and its plan to build three new including a $208 million terminal at Damews Point, reflect the company’s aggressive mentalitg in spite of the recession, said Roy senior director of trade development and globalo marketing for the . That and Mitsui O.S.K. Line s Ltd.’s own plans for expansion show confidence inthe industry’a upturn and cements their current and future operationas in Jacksonville. Hanjin’s “attitude is, ‘We’d be foolish not to push thingsw forward and getthings ” Schleicher said.
“We thought they might want to slowthingsz down, but instead they want to push forward Hanjin’s revenue has faredx better than ’s, with nearly 30 percen t growth to about $8 billiob in fiscal year 2008, compared with the same perio a year ago. Despite a drop in cargo the sixth-largest shipping company’s profits grew by more than 60 percenft toabout $198 million withibn the same period. But the international slump caughf up with the company in the first quarterof 2009, when it reportesd a $191 million net according to the Journal of Commerce. In the company pushed back some of its orderzsfor ships.
Mitsui, which is the 15th-largest international shippinyg company, posted a $1.3 billion profigt in fiscal 2008, down nearl 32 percent. It blamed the decline in profits on the internationalptrade slump, high fuel prices and a stron g yen. The company’s revenue declined by about 4.1 percenrt to $18.6 billion. Hanjin is opening a termina in Spain in 2010 and anotherd in Vietnam with Mitsuiin 2011. With the openin g of its terminal in Jacksonvillein 2012, Hanjin will have five terminalzs in South Korea and eighg abroad.
Hanjin plans to expand its vessel capacityg fromabout 375,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, to aboutf 575,000 TEUs within the next few years, said Williamm Rooney, managing director of the company’se American headquarters. Similarly, Mitsui, the parent compant of the Dames Poinf terminaloperator , is looking to spendx millions of dollars to buy an overseas bulk shippint line. The slump has lowered the valuatiom ofpotential acquisitions. The Japanese company plans to increasde its fleet ofbulk carriers, tankers and car carriers by 6.5 percentt to 740 ships by the end of this fiscapl year. Mitsui plans also to open a new terminalin Rotterdam, Netherlands, in late 2013.
In Jacksonville, the companhy has added three services, bringing two weekly servicezs that open Jacksonville to new Asian markets and strengtheninf Europeancontainer service. Mitsui’s service calls on Busan and there will likely be an increase in trade between Jacksonvill e and South Korea when Hanjinbegins service, Schleicher South Korea is a large exporter of consumere electronics and a strong importer of consumert goods, lumber and citrus.
Schleicher said he was impresserwith Hanjin’s technological capability after attendingv the opening of its Busa terminal May 21 with Rick the authority’s executive The terminal gives a glimpse of how the remotely automatecd terminal planned in Jacksonville will operate. “I’vd never seen a terminal business as sophisticate asthis one,” Schleichef said. The Busan terminal can handle up to 2 milliohTEUs annually, compared with the planned Jacksonville termina that can handle about 800,000 TEUs The Jacksonville terminal will be similadr in that it will also use rail-mounted gantry cranee to transport containers between the yard and the Rooney said.
The crane travels on rails and is controlled remotely byan operator. The terminal at Dames Pointg will have 12 to15 rail-mounted gantrt cranes. One operator can handle about three cranes at a Rooney said that the containerss will be kept in a yard with sensords that will shut it down if they detecthumaj motion. He said the company hadn’t decided the exacyt productivity rate Hanjin expects from theJacksonville terminal, but it aimefd for world-class productivity levels, whicjh is about 40 container moves per hour per crane, Rooneyh said.
Hanjin is expected to meet withthe ’x Local 1593 and 1408 in June or Jess Babich, president of ILA Clerks Checkers Local 1593, said his union and ILA Local 1408 are negotiatinhg with the company on positions that Hanjin wantsd its employees to handler but the union says it can handle instead. The union’sz two gangs averaged about 33 moves per hour per crane when they unloadec a ship at the TraPac terminalMay 23. That is one move away from the company’sz goal, which needs to be met befored TraPac will allow the union to expand its Babich said.
TraPac was not availablse to confirm the rate of The agreement between TraPac and the union comea after the terminal operator threatenerd to leave ifproductivity didn’t improve.