Cruise, Cargo Operations: Indiana, New Orleans, San Diego

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The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor on April 17 welcomed its first ocean-going vessels of the 2014 Great Lakes Seaway Navigation Season. Carnival Dream, the largest cruise ship to operate year-round from the Port of New Orleans, set sail April 16 on its inaugural cruise from the port’s newly refurbished Erato Street Cruise Terminal. The Port of San Diego demonstrated its prowess as a project cargo handler with the transshipment earlier this month of a massive generator and associated equipment bound for the Agua Prieta power plant in Sonora, Mexico.

Carnival Dream Begins Year Round Cruises from New Orleans

The 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream, the largest ship to operate year-round from the Port of New Orleans, departed April 16 on its inaugural six-day cruise from the port’s newly refurbished Erato Street Cruise Terminal.

The Carnival Dream joins Carnival’s other New Orleans homeported ship, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation. Together, the two ships will be able to carry more than 400,000 passengers annually from New Orleans. Carnival is the only cruise line that sails two cruise ships year-round from the Crescent City.

Carnival Dream berthed ahead of Carnival Ecstasy at Erato Street Cruise Terminal on April 16, 2014.
Photo/Port of New Orleans

The port earlier this month completed a $2.3 million upgrade of Erato Street Cruise Terminal to accommodate ships as large as the 130,000-ton, 1,040-foot-long Carnival Dream (Advisory, April 8, 2014).

Beginning April 20, Carnival Dream will launch year-round, seven-day service from New Orleans offering three distinctly different itineraries – two western Caribbean cruises, one to Montego Bay, Cozumel and Grand Cayman and the other to Mahogany Bay (Isla Roatán), Belize and Cozumel, plus a Bahamas/Florida route calling at Key West, Freeport and Nassau.

"New Orleans is one of our most popular homeports and Carnival Dream provides vacationers with a spectacular ‘Fun Ship’ cruise option from the Big Easy offering an incredible array of on-board innovations," said Gerry Cahill, Carnival’s president and CEO. "Further, the arrival of Carnival Dream significantly expands our capacity in New Orleans, which is a direct result of the combined efforts of port and local officials and our valued travel agent partners who have been instrumental in supporting our New Orleans cruise program."

Plaque exchange in the Carnival Dream’s Burgundy Lounge commemorating the ship’s inaugural sailing from New Orleans. From Left: Port Commissioner William Bergeron, Port Commissioner Robert Barkerding Jr., Carnival Dream Capt. Rocco Lubrano, Port Commissioner Joseph Toomy and Port CEO Gary LaGrange, PPM®.
Photo/Port of New Orleans

Indiana: Burns Harbor Welcomes First Ocean Ships Of 2014 Season

The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor opened the 2014 international shipping season with the April 17 arrival of the M/V Isolda and the M/V Federal Nakagawa.

Both ships carried steel from Ijmuiden, Holland, destined for Midwest manufacturers and were unloaded by port stevedore Federal Marine Terminals with local workers from the International Longshoremen's Association and International Union of Operating Engineers.

"Our port is open year-round to river barges and lake vessels depending upon ice conditions, but the arrival of the first ocean vessel signifies the start of the international shipping season," said Burns Harbor Port Director Rick Heimannr. "The first ships not only bring important cargoes for local businesses and jobs for dockworkers, but also symbolize that Northwest Indiana's gateway to the world is once again open for business."

The Cyprus-flagged Isolda, a 653-foot bulk carrier built in 1999, stopped in Cleveland before coming to the Port of Indiana. The Isolda was also Burns Harbor’s first ship of the 2007 season.

The Federal Nakagawa was built in 2005. The Hong Kong-flagged vesselhad previously stopped in Cleveland; its next scheduled port of call was Milwaukee.

The vessels sailed together in a three-vessel flotilla through the Straits of Mackinac, maneuvering through still-icy conditions behind the Coast Guard Ice Cutter Hollyhock.The St. Lawrence Seaway opened for the 56th international shipping season on March 28 after closing in late December.

Each year, officials from the Port of Indiana present the captain of the first ship with "The Steel Stein," underscoring the importance of the steel industry in Northwest Indiana.

The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor handled 2.5 million tons of cargo in 2013, an increase of 17 percent from 2012, and its highest annual tonnage since 2006. Maritime operations at Burns Harbor generate $4.3 billion per year in economic activity and support 33,000 total jobs.

Burns Harbor on Lake Michigan is one of three public ports owned and managed by the state port authority, The Ports of Indiana, from its headquarters in Indianapolis. The others are the Ohio River ports of Mount Vernon and Jeffersonville.

Burns Harbor’s first salties of 2014, M/V Isolda(foreground) and M/V Federal Kakagawa.
Photo Copyright © Ports of Indiana

 San Diego Handles Massive Shipment for Power Plant in Mexico

A massive generator and associated equipment were offloaded April 5 at the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal by SSA Marine and local longshore workers and then trucked across the border for development of the Agua Prieta power plant in Sonora, Mexico.

The generator – which at 300 metric tons was the port's heaviest shipment in 10 years – and more than 200 wooden pallets and ancillary equipment shipped by Mitsubishi Htiachi Power Systems Americas arrived from Dunkerque, France, aboard the heavy lift vessel M/V Palabora.

The port has aggressively pursued the specialty cargo business. In August 2013, it completed a $3 million Capital Improvement Project at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal to provide more flexible berthing and to improve its ability to handle specialty cargo that requires large space for storage and staging. The project included the demolition of transit sheds and warehouses. The demolition provided an additional 58,000 square feet of open space at Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.

Other recent large and heavy project cargo shipments handled at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal include 100-megawatt generators, each weighing 160 tons, for a Southern California power plant, and a large shipment of steel shipbuilding materials for local employer General Dynamics NASSCO for the construction of two commercial container vessels.

Along with the generator – which at 300 metric tons was the Port's heaviest shipment in 10 years – more than 200 wooden pallets and ancillary equipment were offloaded from the heavy lift vessel M/V Palabora.
Photo/Dale Frost