SSA expands again, buys Alabama stevedore firm. (Stevedoring Services of America; Ryan-Walsh Inc.)

Stevedoring Services of America, already the country's largest stevedoring firm, has expanded again by buying a large stevedore firm located in Mobile, Ala.

The purchase of Ryan-Walsh Inc. gives Seattle-based Stevedoring Services (commonly referred to as SSA) access to ports around the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf is one of the few areas in the Southeastern United States it hasn't yet penetrated.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, follows a series of SSA purchases of other competing firms in recent years. In 1989 it acquired the stevedoring operations of Carolina Shipping Co., and then bought Southeast Atlantic Stevedoring Co. in 1992. In the process it has …