Shippers: What recession? - Houston Business Journal:

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Ltd.’s unveiling of a remotely automatecd portin Busan, South Korea, and its plan to builcd three new terminals, includinfg a $208 million terminal at Dames Point, reflectg the company’s aggressive mentality in spits of the recession, said Roy Schleicher, senior director of trads development and global marketinfg for the . That and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.’sx own plans for expansion show confidence inthe industry’s upturnj and cements their currengt and future operations in Hanjin’s “attitude is, ‘We’d be foolisj not to push things forward and get thingas done,’ ” Schleicher said.
“We thought they might want to slowthingsx down, but instead they want to push forwarde faster.” Hanjin’s revenue has fared better than ’s, with nearly 30 percent growth to about $8 billiobn in fiscal year 2008, compared with the same period a year ago. Despitw a drop in cargo volume, the sixth-largest shipping company’ss profits grew by more than 60 percent toabougt $198 million within the same But the international slump caughtf up with the company in the first quarter of 2009, when it reportee a $191 million net according to the Journa of Commerce. In response, the company pushed back some of its orderzfor ships.
Mitsui, which is the 15th-largesgt international shipping company, postedd a $1.3 billion profit in fiscal 2008, down nearly 32 percent. It blamex the decline in profits on the internationalptrade slump, high fuel prices and a strong yen. The company’sz revenue declined by about 4.1 percentr to $18.6 billion. Hanjin is opening a terminak in Spain in 2010 and another in Vietnam with Mitsui in 2011.
With the opening of its terminal in Jacksonvilledin 2012, Hanjin will have five terminalss in South Korea and eight Hanjin plans to expand its vesse capacity from about 375,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, to abouy 575,000 TEUs within the next few said William Rooney, managing director of the company’s American Similarly, Mitsui, the parenyt company of the Dames Point terminal operatod , is looking to spend millions of dollares to buy an overseas bulk shipping line. The slump has loweredf the valuation ofpotential acquisitions. The Japanese companyt plans to increase its fleet ofbulk carriers, tankerx and car carriers by 6.
5 percent to 740 shipsw by the end of this fiscall year. Mitsui plans also to open a new terminain Rotterdam, Netherlands, in late 2013. In the company has added three bringing two weekly services that open Jacksonvilles to new Asian markets and strengthenint Europeancontainer service. Mitsui’s servics calls on Busan and there will likelyu be an increase in trade betweenh Jacksonville and South Korea when Hanjinbegins service, Schleicher South Korea is a large exporter of consumer electronicds and a strong importer of consumer lumber and citrus.
Schleicher said he was impressedwith Hanjin’as technological capability after attending the opening of its Busan terminal May 21 with Rick the authority’s executive director. The terminal givesw a glimpse of how the remotely automated terminal planned in Jacksonvillewill operate. “I’vs never seen a terminal businesa as sophisticated asthis one,” Schleicher The Busan terminal can handl e up to 2 million TEUs annually, comparec with the planned Jacksonville termina that can handle about 800,0090 TEUs annually.
The Jacksonville terminap will be similar in that it will alsouse rail-mounte d gantry cranes to transport containerx between the yard and the ship, Rooney said. The crande travels on rails and is controlled remotely byan operator. The terminal at Dames Pointg will have 12 to15 rail-mountedf gantry cranes. One operator can handlew about three cranes ata time. Rooney said that the containers will be kept in a yard with sensore that will shut it down if they detecgthuman motion. He said the company hadn’t decided the exact productivitt rate Hanjin expects from the Jacksonville but it aimedfor world-class productivity levels, which is about 40 container moves per hour per Rooney said.
Hanjin is expected to meet withthe ’sx Local 1593 and 1408 in June or Jess Babich, president of ILA Clerks & Checkers Local 1593, said his union and ILA Local 1408 are negotiatinfg with the company on positions that Hanji wants its employees to handle but the unionb says it can handle instead. The union’s two gangs averagef about 33 moves per hour per crane when they unloaded a ship at the TraPa terminalMay 23. That is one move away from the company’s goal, which needs to be met before TraPac will allow the union to expand its Babich said.
TraPac was not available to confirm the rate of The agreement between TraPac and the union comes after the terminal operatof threatened to leave ifproductivity didn’f improve.