A warning for New York-New Jersey.(productivity management of container ports)

BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL

With Brian Maher selling his family terminal company last year and stepping back from day-to-day operations, James Devine is now the leading private-sector voice in New York-New Jersey, the third-largest U.S. container port. In accepting a 2007 Connie award in December from the Containerization and Inter-modal Institute, the head of the New York and Global container terminals took the opportunity to issue a blunt warning about the future of the port. "There is a lot of concern about the harbor and its future," Devine said.

Devine's concerns can be summed up in one word: productivity. New York is lacking in a critical measurement of a port or terminal's attractiveness to the carrier. That is crane productivity - the average number of containers loaded or unloaded by a single crane over the course of an hour. It essentially translates into how fast a ship on a tight schedule can be worked and sent on its way. Referring to the New York-New Jersey terminals as a group, Devine said, "We are all five, six, seven moves per hour below the harbors to our south, starting in Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah. New Orleans does an outstanding job, as does Houston."

By various estimates, crane moves per hour at New York-New Jersey terminals are averaging in the low to mid-20s. Virginia says it has been averaging 30 moves in 2007, while Charleston, regarded as the most productive East Coast port, says it is was exceeding 40 through November. For a ship visit requiring 4,000 total moves using four cranes, the difference between 25 and 32 moves per hour is nine hours less stevedoring time. That amounts to more than $28,000 in stevedoring cost savings to the carrier.

Just as important, the time saved means the ship does not have to race to its next port of call to stay on schedule, a key consideration with bunker fuel near $500 per ton. Carriers facing huge inland cost pressures and sometimes sagging freight rates will naturally gravitate to the most productive ports.

A population of 33 million exists within an hour's drive from the port, so New York-New Jersey will always see a healthy flow of locally bound cargo. What is of particular concern to Devine, however, is the discretionary cargo - those containers that are bound for points far enough inland or between major ports ...