Ship Adds Link From Asia to Hampton Roads

Jul. 9–PORTSMOUTH — Scheduled to arrive today at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, the new container ship APL Virginia symbolizes the growing direct trade between Asia and East Coast ports such as Hampton Roads.

Named for the commonwealth at its christening just more than three weeks ago in Shanghai, China, the APL Virginia crossed the Pacific Ocean laden with containers destined for the massive consumer markets on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

Faced with surging demand for shipments to the U.S. from Asia and congestion in West Coast ports, shipping lines such as APL Ltd., the second-largest in Asia, have begun services bringing the cargo directly to the East Coast.

The APL Virginia joins the eight-vessel New York Express service, which APL operates in partnership with two other lines. The service links several Asian ports, including Shanghai to New York; Hampton Roads; Savannah, Ga.; and Miami, via the Panama Canal. The New York Express is one of several such services that have begun calling in Hampton Roads in recent years.

Demand for products from Asia is driving more sea cargo through Hampton Roads’ shipping terminals, said Tom Capozzi, senior managing director of marketing services for the Virginia Port Authority, which owns Norfolk International Terminals, Newport News Marine Terminal and Portsmouth Marine Terminal.

“We think the Asia growth will become a larger and larger percentage of our growth here,” Capozzi said.

In 2003, northeast Asia — including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong — surpassed Europe as the port’s largest source of imported goods, Capozzi said. Last year, that region accounted for more than 30 percent of the containers that moved through Hampton Roads, and about 40 percent of imported containers, he said.

The port of Hampton Roads expects to handle more than 300,000 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, of containers imported from Asia this year, or three times as many as in 2001. TEUs are a measure for containers that come in a variety of lengths, including 20- and 40-feet.

China is “the fastest-growing market that we have in Asia,” said John Lauer, managing director of APL in the northeastern United States. The route filled by the APL Virginia is “a direct link from that fast-growing market to the East Coast,” he said.

The vessel, built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Ltd. in South Korea, is capable of top speeds of 25 knots, or about 28 mph. Like its sister ship the APL New York, it can hold 5,000 TEUs when fully loaded but is just slim enough to squeeze through the Panama Canal.

APL’s shipping volume on the East Coast has grown by more than 40 percent in the past year, Lauer said, bolstered by U.S. demand for electronics, toys, clothes and shoes from Asia — staples of the New York Express and ships such as the APL Virginia.

“China is definitely a significant driver of our growth,” said Mike Zampa, spokesman for APL Americas. “Lots of companies are sourcing products from Asia. Many are building factories there, and importing goods from Asia to the United States.”

APL, which began calling in Hampton Roads in 1998, is one of the dozen-largest customers in a field of more than 40 lines using the port of Hampton Roads, Capozzi said.

“In the past several years, they have grown significantly in the port,” he said.

Lauer said the port of Hampton Roads fits APL’s strategy of increasing its service from Asia to the eastern United States. The port is “tremendously important for us in the Northeast — it’s vitally important for our success,” Lauer said.

He said there has been a major push to take advantage of local warehouse expansion and the presence of distribution centers for big-box stores such as Wal-Mart .

APL has come a long way from its roots as the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., which began in 1848 as a government contractor handling mail between Panama and Oregon. The company was bought out and became the Dollar Steamship Co., which ran into financial trouble. The federal government took it over in 1938 and renamed it American President Lines Ltd., from which APL takes its name.

Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., a logistics and shipping company owned by Singapore’s finance ministry, bought APL in 1997. Neptune garnered revenue of $6.5 billion last year. About $5.4 billion of that, or about 80 percent of the parent company’s total last year, came from APL’s fleet of about 80 vessels.

The APL Virginia won’t linger in its namesake state. In shipping, time is money.

A representative from the Virginia Port Authority will greet its captain and present a plaque bearing the port of Virginia’s seal for the ship’s stateroom, said Joe Harris, a port authority spokesman. But the message will be all business.

“We’ll tell them, ‘ We hope your stay here is brief,’” Harris said, “because that means it’s efficient.”

News researcher Ann Johnson contributed to this report.

—–

To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pilotonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.