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Port Traffic Trends: Santa Marta, Virginia

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Santa Marta Reports Positive Results for 2014

The Port of Santa Marta completed a year serving Colombia’s foreign trade with positive indicators with respect to cargo movement through its terminal, environmental recognition, the generation of employments and income for the city, and service to the community.

Especially noteworthy were record auto imports, up 37 percent from 2013 to more than 60,000, principally from Brazil and Mexico. According to the port, low salinity and humidity and the operational efficiency of the ro/ro operations managed since last summer by Fast Terminal International (Advisory, August 12, 2014) have been major factors in making the Santa Marta the leading auto import center on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

During the year as well, dry bulk imports (corn, wheat, soy beans, gluten, kidney beans) originating in Argentina and the United States grew by 5 percent. Other data for 2014 show year-on-year increases of 23 percent for bulk liquids and 5 percent for bananas.

Last June, the Organization of American States recognized Port of Santa Marta for best practices in corporate social responsibility and innovation. The award was presented to Santa Marta Port General Manager Mauricio Suárez, PPM®, in Washington (DC) by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza.

The port, through its subsidiary Barranquilla International Terminal Company (BITCO) continues to consolidate operations at its River Magdalena terminal in Barranquilla. The BITCO complex, a joint venture with Seattle-based terminal operator SSA Marine, opened for business in November 2013, and is served by two docks – one with multi-purpose cargo functions and the other specializing in containers (Advisory, February 11, 2014).

Virginia: 2014 Container Volume Sets Record: Consistent Delivery of Service Remains the Focus

Container throughput at the Port of Virginia hit a record high in 2014 of 2.3 million TEUs, beating the prior record, set in 2013, by 7.6 percent.

"The growth is significant, but it has created significant challenges as well, especially in service levels for our motor carriers," said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. "The focus is to continue to grow, within reason and within our capabilities, strive for consistency at our gates and operations, maintain profitability and do these things with a sense urgency and responsibility."

The port will release its financial results for December at the January 27 meeting of the Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners.

The year ended on a decidedly positive note, with December container volumes up 12.3 percent from a year ago to 203,276 TEUs, giving the port its eighth month since April with a container count exceeding 200,000 TEUs.

In other calendar-year comparisons, the port reports record volumes of containers handled by rail ( 4 percent), barge ( 18.4 percent), truck ( 9.1 percent), and via the Virginia Inland Port ( 14.5 percent).  Proportional movement of cargo by inland mode in 2014 was: rail – 33 percent, truck – 63 percent; barge – 4 percent. Details are provided by the attachment.
 
"This," said Mr. Reinhart, "is a tribute to our team and our port partners, but our enthusiasm is tempered, as we are cognizant of the fact that we have much work to do on building infrastructure and developing processes to maintain the business and grow the port."
 

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