Forecast looks 'good but not great,' New Orleans port executive says.

BYLINE: Janet Nodar

The state of the Port of New Orleans is "good but not great," Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive, said in his annual address at the end of last month. Poultry exporter New Orleans Cold Storage is not leaving the city, container traffic is up and a tenant has been found for the, France Road terminal on the beleaguered Industrial Canal.

Funding for the port, however, is "woefully short," LaGrange said. And while 20-foot containers were up 56.4 percent for the first five months of the year, general cargo was down 17.7 percent for the same period.

Steel imports, the breakbulk cargo that roared ahead 66 percent from 2005 to …