ALBANY - Larger cargo volumes shipped to the United States are making 2021 the Port of Albany’s busiest year since 2018, activity that comes despite a volatile market and record-setting bottleneck stagnation at larger American ports.
Supply chain disruptions that have forced a historic number of cargo ships to become stuck, awaiting entry to the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, don’t appear to be having as severe an impact on the much smaller Albany entryway.
Richard Hendrick, Port of Albany chief executive officer, is happy about the year's performance so far and said it looks like it will have a “strong finish,” and strong activity for next year.
At this time last year, the port moved about 183,000 tons of cargo. Now, two-thirds into 2021, Hendrick estimates that about 239,000 tons have come through.
Hendrick believes the supply chain disruptions haven’t hindered the port’s operations as much as those in California because of its size. Although the Port of Albany is expanding to take on more, its operations don’t scale up to other ports such as those in California and the New York Port Authority.
Steve Rossetti, president of the American Logistics Association, said ports such as those in California are suffering tremendous backlog because of the “massive volume, limited capacity and a pretty tight funnel for all of this volume to run through.”
As demand “skyrocketed” and converged for at-home and away-from-home products during different waves of the pandemic, companies became overwhelmed with the need to meet consumers’ fluctuating desires, according to Rossetti. It produced a disruption in the demand cycle and fostered congestion at large-scale entries.
Yet, ports’ problems only begin there. Even when companies can get products through, they’re facing trucking issues with a limited supply that can move the goods out of the port, further prolonging the process.
The BBC reported that the New York Port Authority was up against transit complications beyond the port. Amanda Kwan, senior public information officer for the authority, said it was related to moving cargo out of the port via freight rail and trucks because of the high volume.
Kwan also told the Times Union the port authority is working to keep operations “fluid” even as it has endured “13 consecutive months of record cargo activity driven partly by the COVID-19 pandemic, changing consumer spending habits and trends, and the ongoing economic recovery both regionally and nationally.”
Rossetti believes there will be a “ripple effect” from the backup.
“The receiving companies and shipping companies are very creative, so they will gravitate toward the port that can give them the quickest entry,” he said, noting it’s possible they’ll divert shipments to smaller ports.
The Port of Albany experienced commodity shifts in the pandemic that made up for materials that lagged. Usually heavy lifting and project cargo – oversized parts for onshore windmills – account for a heavy portion of the port’s tonnage, but those supplies’ transport slowed last year as fewer contracts were arranged.
Molasses and fertilizer, also popular stock, came over in weaker amounts. Last year, the port raked in about 14,000 tons of it through one terminal, up from the 11,026 tons handled in 2018. Hendrick said that starkly changed in 2021 since little to no fertilizer or molasses has been shipped. He believes international firms are finding it more cost-effective to ship their products to different ports farther away and complete the move via trains and trucks.
Hendrick said lease safeguards obligating companies to pay for the terminal’s use regardless of the amount of tonnage shipped stabilized the port’s revenue against the decline.
Two commodities that lifted the port with high demand were lumber and wood pulp. A company that typically moved its lumber to big box stores through a port in South Philadelphia switched over to moving about 60,000 tons of cargo through Albany for a short time in early 2021, which contributed to the local boost.
Approximately four months later, the company course-corrected again and pivoted back to the Pennsylvania port, according to Hendrick. Lumber arrived in an abbreviated stint, but the Port of Albany was able to take advantage of the gap.
The pulp, imported from Switzerland, was processed through the port to mills where it was used to make toilet paper and paper towels. Demand for these two items was incredibly high as consumers bought large amounts amid panic-buying sprees and shortages at pandemic peaks.
And since the lull in heavy lifting cargo, activity for onshore windmill projects has picked back up, more than doubling what it was in 2020, according to Hendrick. The Port of Albany is also managing an 80-acre expansion into Bethlehem, where it hopes to manufacture and store offshore wind turbine parts that would help develop wind energy off of Long Island’s coast.
Port of Albany officials have gauged their success in handling the elevated activity by measuring longshore hours logged and budgeted wharfage fees collected. Longshore hours pertain to the time put in by personnel working and loading cargo onto trains, trucks and ships.
Last year the port documented 32,000 hours worked for the year. The 2021 longshore hours have already surpassed that total reaching 33,900 hours. Part of Albany’s wharfage fees – their tariff for cargo coming across and using the facilities – was projected at $320,000 in September 2020.
Looking at next year’s budget, port officials are predicting $400,000 in wharfage income against the $288,000 it originally planned for this year, or about $112,000 more, Hendrick said.
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September 26, 2021 at 08:06PM
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Port of Albany on upswing despite global supply chain interruptions at larger US gateways - Times Union
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