NOLA (green) eyes advantage of Gulfport port expansion

At a time when Gulf cargo hubs will be going head to head to capture new business through the Panama Canal, the money gives Gulfport a leg up on the competition. Port officials also say the project represents a glaring example of Mississippi’s dominance of recovery money.

The Sunday Times Picayune gives Governor Barbour plenty of fuel to move forward with the proposed expansion of the port at Gulfport – although certainly not intended.

For months, officials at the Port of New Orleans have been waving copies of their master plan before elected officials, consultants and anyone else who could help pay for the ambitious slate of initiatives outlined in the document.
But money for the $1 billion expansion has been slow to come as the clock ticks down to 2014, the year a wider channel through the Panama Canal is scheduled to open a new shipping route to the Gulf of Mexico and flood seaports with cargo.

The dearth of capital has fueled bitterness about a recent windfall for the Port of Gulfport, the upstart cargo hub fewer than 100 miles from New Orleans. The Mississippi port is poised to undergo a massive expansion bankrolled with $600 million from the federal aid package Mississippi received after Hurricane Katrina. ..

The Port of New Orleans wants to enlarge its Uptown container terminal, a $500 million venture meant to capitalize on the surge of commerce through the canal. But with just $24.5 million from Gov. Bobby Jindal, port officials are scouring the private market for potential investors. Meanwhile, The Port of New Orleans has already lost market share s to its counterparts along the Gulf. The shipping industry favors ports closer to open water, and the long trek up the Mississippi to New Orleans puts it at a disadvantage.

Gulfport runs a much smaller operation than the Port of New Orleans, handling about 2 million tons of cargo per year compared to New Orleans’ 27.3 million tons. But when it comes to containers, the ports are not far apart. Last year, Gulfport moved 207,000 TEUs, a term used to express the equivalent of a 20-foot long box. That comes close to the Port of New Orleans, which handled 250,000 TEUs last year.

Gulfport has some advantages that could position it for future container growth, such as a position directly on the Gulf coastline. The port also has three regular shipping services to Central America, said John Hyatt, a freight forwarder at the Irwin Brown Company, which has two offices in Louisiana and one in Gulfport. Although the Port of New Orleans also has three direct services to Central America, many of Hyatt’sclients have chosen to route shipments through Gulfport…

Despite its relatively small size, the Mississippi port has managed to take some business from the Crescent City in the past. In a famous instance in the 1960s, Gulfport stole New Orleans’ lucrative deal to handle banana shipments from the company that is now Chiquita.

“Gulfport is some competition,” Hyatt said. “Whether it’s formidable enough remains to be seen.”