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Alabama Posts Record Revenues; Steel, Container, Coal Volumes Up

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The Alabama State Port Authority collected a record $144.6 million in revenues during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2012. “The increased revenue along with expenses which were $4 million below budget dramatically improved the authority’s liquidity position at the end of the year,” said Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons.

The port authority says the record revenues resulted principally from increased steel, export coal and container traffic throughput at its facilities in the Port of Mobile. The general cargo division ended the fiscal year with $34.2 million in revenues stemming from iron, steel and forest products.  Steel, the port’s top general cargo, accounted for 3.9 million tons overall, a 26 percent increase from fiscal year 2011. Container volumes also increased, by 31 percent to 196,965 TEUs from 149,769.  Automotive components, refrigerated cargoes, and forest products were the principal containerized commodities.  


M/V Magsenger 8 discharges carbon steel slab at the Alabama State Port Authority’s Pinto Island terminal using electromagnetic lift technology. The Port Authority handled a record 3.9 million tons of steel in FY2012, a 26 percent increase from FY2011.
Photo/Alabama State Port Authority

The port authority’s McDuffie Terminal earned $67.8 million from handling 9.9 million tons of export coal, a 5 percent increase spurred by increased demand globally for metallurgical coal. Alabama is a metallurgical coal producing state. To accommodate this growing business, the port authority in 2012 spent nearly $10 million for a new ship loader and associated improvements at McDuffie, converting an import-only berth to allow the handling of both exports and imports.

The port authority-owned Terminal Railway ended the fiscal year with just over $21.5 million in revenue from the handling of 133,105 revenue rail cars through the short-line’s switching operations and terminal yards, an 11 percent volume increase from FY 2011.  

“The port authority’s $700 million investments in new warehouses, post-Panamax cranes, intermodal and rail, along with expanding manufacturing in the region, have transformed the port authority’s business,” said Lyons. “With continued investment in intermodal and transportation infrastructure, I can see these figures only getting bigger.” 


Alabama State Port Authority’s (ASPA) new McDuffie Berth 1 Ship Loader loads export metallurgical coal to the vessel M/V SERENATA. The $10 million capital improvement project included the new ship loader that delivers a load rate of 4,500 tons of coal per hour. The improvement project took an existing import-only berth and converted it to an import/export berth to accommodate increased demand in export services. ASPA officials estimate the project will increase export capacity by about 50 percent.  
Photo/Alabama State Port Authority
 

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