Project cargo is big business, literally and figuratively, and ports in Texas and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast are among the best suited in the U.S. to handle energy related cargoes such as giant wind turbines and blades, as well as equipment for refineries, LNG terminals, and nuclear plants.

The Texas State Energy Conservation Office, a division of the state comptroller’s office, reports that the U.S. wind industry grew by 45 percent in 2007, with half of that growth coming from Texas projects.

Freeport

At Port Freeport, Texas, wind energy equipment has emerged as one of the port’s leading imports. Last year, the port handled 28,000 tons of wind energy equipment. Twenty-one vessels called the port with wind energy equipment and that number will likely double this year.

India’s Suzlon Energy, the fifth leading supplier of wind turbines in the world, is the port’s current long-term customer. The port has also handled wind energy equipment for GE, Vestas, and Clipper. Officials say the next three to five years continue to look good for business.

Port Freeport definitely has the room to handle the huge equipment with 186 acres of developed land and 7,723 acres of undeveloped land, 14 operating berths (public and private docks), a 45-foot deep Freeport Harbor Channel and a 70-foot-deep berthing area. Future expansion includes building a 1,300-acre multi-modal facility, two multi-purpose 1,200-foot berths on 50 feet of water and two dockside 120,000 square-foot transit sheds.

In the meantime, the port is expanding to accommodate more containerized business too. Last month, McCarthy Building Companies announced that it had reached the mid-way point of construction on the Velasco Terminal Phase I Berth 7 project at the port—an 800-foot by 109-foot wharf that will be used for box ships. The project will allow the port to unload one to two container ships per day, which will add up to about 730 additional container ships over the course of a year.

Also in March, the port was granted a permit by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to widen the shipping channel. The $37 million project will allow two-way traffic and some nighttime transits along with 1,000-foot long vessels (current maximum vessel length is 900 feet). Dredging is expected to start later this year and the project should be completed in two years.

Galveston

The Port of Galveston last year signed a two-year deal with Mitsubishi Power Systems for preferential use of port space to handle wind energy equipment, and remaining space is filling up fast.

A number of high-profile wind projects are underway near the port, including the recently opened Gulf Wind project at Kenedy Ranch, where 100 wind turbines on 8,000 acres have been operational since January. The first phase of the project has a generating capacity of 200-plus megawatts—enough to power roughly 80,000 homes. Additional turbines will be added to the wind farms this spring. Combined with a second wind farm on Kenedy Ranch, the project will eventually rank as the largest in the world.

“There’s a tremendous amount of value (in the wind farm),” said a spokesman for Australia-based investment firm Babcock & Brown, which developed the project. “This is one of the premier wind farms in America, in one of the windiest areas on the Gulf Coast, and that has value.”

 At the same time, Galveston Offshore Wind, a division of Louisiana-based W.E.S.T. (Wind Energy Systems Technology) is making progress on what’s likely to be the nation’s first offshore wind farm about 8 miles out to sea from Galveston. Construction on 62 turbines providing 150 megawatts is expected to start this spring.

Aside from having the necessary climate and geography to support wind farms, Texas is also one of only a few states that have jurisdiction over the outer continental shelf stretching 9 miles from its shoreline, which makes for quicker approval and development not only for offshore petroleum exploration and production, but for wind energy projects as well, as decision-making is mostly confined to within the state.

Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi

The Port of Corpus Christi is seeing a lot of business related to wind energy equipment, and officials there have been working on various infrastructure upgrades to keep pace with demand. Last year, the port paved an additional 25 acres to accommodate wind turbines, military cargo, and other cargoes destined for nearby power plants, and another 20 acres are to be paved this year.

In the meantime, the recent opening of the Joe Fulton International Trade Corridor is also facilitating increased wind energy equipment. The project bolsters the port’s road and rail links, and significantly improves access to over 2,000 acres of land along the north side of the channel for existing and future development.

The port has already handled equipment for the Papalote Creek Wind Farm near the small community of Taft. The developer, E.On Climate & Renewables, is erecting 109 wind tubines (standing 400-feet tall) on 15,000 acres of farmland. Operations are expected to be up and running later this year.

According to the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Port of Corpus Christi benefits from these types of projects through fees charged to companies that import the parts needed to construct these farms. The port itself plans to get in on the action with help from Revolution Energy LLC, a Colorado company that plans to erect 17 wind turbines along the port’s inner harbor. The Harbor Sunrise Industrial Wind Power project is expected to produce 35 megawatts of electricity per year.

Houston

The Port of Houston is in the enviable position of having maintained healthy volumes for most types of cargo during 2008. General cargo grew 20 percent last year from 6.6 million tons to 8 tons with steel imports for the oil and gas industries the primary driver, while containerized freight also managed a slight 1 percent increase to 1,794,309 TEUs last year. Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM are the top carriers for containerized freight at the port

Sixty-nine percent of the Gulf region’s containerized traffic passes through Houston, and ongoing construction of the $1.4 billion Bayport Container Terminal will assure that the port can facilitate the growth in box business, especially once the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2014.

At its March 31 meeting, the Port Commission of The Port of Houston Authority (PHA) approved the award of a $35.9 million construction contract to McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., for the Phase I - Stage 2 container yard for Bayport Container Terminal.

The Stage 2 design provides for 48 acres of roller-compacted concrete pavement with a 30-year service life, in a configuration that will enable flexible container operations during successive phases of the Bayport projects. Other features of the project include a storm water collection system, water and sanitary sewer mains, site electrical distribution, and high mast lighting.

Also in March, project cargo carrier Intermarine’s newest heavy lift ship, the M/V Industrial Egret, celebrated the first call of the vessel at Industrial Terminals in Houston. The vessel called the Port of Houston to discharge wind energy components from Brazil and join the South America services fleet.

Intermarine’s Industrial Terminals is the largest privately-owned project cargo facility in the U.S. Approximately 20 percent of the company’s capacity is being used for wind energy equipment, primarily blades imported from Europe, India, and Brazil, which are then moved from Houston by truck.

Brownsville

The Port of Brownsville is investing in its project cargo business this year with approximately $15 million that will be put towards road and dock improvements. Steel remains the top breakbulk commodity for the port, with 1,508,773 tons imported on oceangoing vessels in 2008 with an additional 405,709 tons brought in on coastwise vessels.

Mexico is the biggest partner in the port’s steel trade—about 75 percent of it goes to Mexico for further processing, while roughly 25 percent is shipped from Mexico to Brownsville for re-exporting.

In December, the port launched a new service with Florida-based SeaBridge Freight for a container operation between the Port of Brownsville and Port Manatee in Tampa Bay, Florida that will capitalize on the growing Texas-Mexico market.

“These are two great markets we’re connecting,” said Hank Hoffman, president and CEO of SeaBridge Freight, in an interview with The Brownsville Herald.

Juice concentrate and other agricultural products have moved on the container barge service, along with 263 steel-reinforced concrete power transmission poles used to hold high voltage power lines from wind farms in West Texas.

Currently, the service departs every 11 days, but that schedule is likely to be increased as demand grows.

Beaumont

The Port of Beaumont’s new $5.3 million Liebherr harbor mobile crane has already been put to use for wind energy equipment. In February, the crane assisted longshoremen with removing nacelles (the housing for the turbine and parts) from the M/V BBC Rhine.

The crane has a maximum boom reach of 167 feet and can lift objects weighing as much as 95,000 pounds at full boom extension, therefore eliminating the need for a vessel to make a turn in order to have heavy cargo removed from the offshore side of the vessel.

The harbor mobile crane is one of several projects included in the port’s $58 million capital improvement program. Other projects include a 650-foot cargo wharf with new rail and improved road access on the east side of the Sabine-Neches Waterway; a new $5.4 million office building to serve as headquarters for the U.S. Surface Deployment and Distribution Command’s 842nd Transportation Battalion; a $16 million rail storage yard expansion, and surface improvements at various locations around the port.

On average, the port has handled about 24 vessel shipments of wind energy equipment for the past three years, and port officials estimate that the number will hold steady or even increase during 2009. wt

Sidebar: Activity Surges at Inland Ports

Trade activity in Texas remains strong not only in the import/export sector, but in logistics and distribution as well at industrial parks and facilities such as Alliance Global Logistics Hub, the Dallas Logistics Hub, and other locations throughout the state.

Q-Edge, a growing company in the North American electronics assembly and distribution industry, has selected Alliance Global Logistics Hub in Fort Worth as the site for a new 365,440 square foot assembly and distribution center.

The company’s investment in Fort Worth is expected to bring up to 500 jobs and result in an economic impact of more than $700 million for the region. The company will join more than 60 other major companies, including Motorola, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, and Bell Helicopter in the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development.

“Hillwood is pleased to welcome Q-Edge’s assembly and distribution center to Alliance,” said Tony Crème, vice president of Hillwood Properties, the developer of AllianceTexas. “As the top ranked foreign trade zone in the country, Alliance offers tremendous value-added amenities for companies involved in national and international logistics and distribution. We expect that the recent capital improvements to Forth Worth Alliance Airport, the BNSF Intermodal Facility, and the network of interstate freeways will serve Q-Edge’s needs well and contribute to the company’s export success and longevity in our community.”

Recently, the industrial park added the Alliance Heavy-Load Container Area to its offerings in order to accommodate heavy container transfers along private roads to the nearby BNSF Intermodal Facility. The new service allows companies to put more of their product in one container, which will save approximately 20 to 30 percent on transportation costs and add efficiencies by using fewer containers.

Meanwhile, The Allen Group, developers of the Dallas Logistics Hub, a 6,000-acre multimodal logistics park in southern Dallas County, announced recently that Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, a regulated electric distribution and transmission company, acquired a 9.3-acre land parcel for an electric transmission substation within the Dallas Logistics Hub.

Construction of the new electric transmission substation is scheduled to begin this spring and is being constructed, in part, to support the more than 60 million square feet of planned industrial growth within the Dallas Logistics Hub. The site will become the third substation within the boundaries of the Dallas Logistics Hub and the fourth within the service area of the Dallas Logistics Hub.

Oncor is responsible for planning and building the electric transmission system, from the generator to the distribution substations, in portions of northern, western, and central Texas. The company is also responsible for operating its transmission system and maintaining the structures, wires, and associated facilities necessary for the reliable transmission of electricity.

“The infrastructure within the Dallas Logistics Hub continues to grow,” said The Allen Group’s Texas Division President Daniel J. McAuliffe. “This electric transmission substation, along with the existing facilities, will enable users within the Dallas Logistics Hub to receive redundant electrical power from a very high quality and reliable service provider.”