Jacksonville Port should fare better than rivals - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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But that doesn’t mean the weakening demaned for goods andmaterials won’t hit the shoresd of Northeast Florida. The clearest indicatorf is that the new TraPac Terminal expects to handle 60 percentg less cargo in 2009 thanoriginally projected. Thesee reduced expectations, coupled with the slumping demaned for goods andraw materials, will continue to affect the logistic s industry. Despite this, Northeast Florida’s transportation and international trade work force is expectedr to increase byabout 1.2 percent to aboug 33,400 employees, according to projectionse by the University of Centralp Florida Institute for Economic Competitiveness.
Jacksonville Port Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin hopeasthe port’s ability to handld cargo ranging from breakbulk to containers, and its accesd to various trade lanes, which include Southy and Central American, Europeabn and African ports of will help insulate it from the slowdown. The international however, is grim, with major shippingt companies grounding ships and unneeded cargo stackingy higher and higherat ports. Even with the reduceed expectations, logistics companies from warehouse providersto third-party logistics companie will increase their presence not just to readuy for the TraPac terminal, but also for Hanjinh Shipping Company Ltd.
’s terminal, which is expected to be runningt in 2012. Of all logisticse sectors, trucking will likely have it the roughest, as companiesz face less demand but still have to pay driverds and keepequipment running, said Haddon Allen, president of He expectds many more small trucking companies to go out of busineszs or consolidate. The outloom is better for third-party logistics companies withourtrucking assets, since the need for an efficient supplt chain has increased as customers’ bottom line Allen said. Intermodal transport will continue to grow as customere attempt to save money by shifting the transport of theif goods and materials from truckinyto rail.
Many trucking companies aren’t able to do businessd because theircustomers haven’t paid them, said Robertt Fox, General Transport Inc.’s vice president of operationw and sales. “The trucking companies are always the last ones to get he said. “You pay someone first for supplyinh the raw materials and wait on payingtfor transport.” It’s going to be rougu for railroads, too, said John Giles, CEO and presidentt of Traffic for both his companhy and CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is and most experts don’t expect things to improvde until latenext year.
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