Post Sandy volumes flow to Virginia

On Thursday two vessels that normally don’t call Virginia arrived there: the container ship APL Indonesia discharged more than 1,000 containers at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) and the other, the car carrier Prestige discharged 1,300 vehicles at Newport News Marine Terminal. In the coming days as many as 3,000 additional containers are expected be off-loaded at APM Terminals in Portsmouth or NIT.

“We’re expecting additional discharge volumes and we know we’ll be challenged to keep everything flowing, but we can handle that,” said Rodney W Oliver, interim executive director of the Virginia Port Authority (VPA). “Much of the cargo we’ll be handling would stay in the New York metro area and serve that population, so the effort will be to get it off the ship and up to the Northeast as efficiently and as quick as possible, because they’re going to need it.”

Port leaders do not have a projection on the amount of cargo that could be diverted to Virginia, but on Tuesday they began crafting plans to address what could be several thousand additional containers per week in the short-term.

Mr Oliver added that the pressure to get cargo to the NY area is more than business related: “Our primary concern is the people in the Northeast – we have people in this office who are from that area and still have family there. Also, they’re industry people and we have friends at the Port of New York/New Jersey that we’re worried about.”

The latest update from VPA says that rail is already operating around the clock and VIT has implemented Saturday gate hours: truck gates will be open at APM Terminals in Portsmouth, Norfolk International Terminals and both empty container yards on Saturday, 3 November, from 8.00am to 5.00pm although at present there is no gate service on Sunday. However, as the situation remains fluid it is best to check before making plans.