Maersk

The port of Baltimore stands a good chance of retaining its most important customer, Maersk Line, Maryland Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer said yesterday."

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - APM Terminals, a sister company of the Maersk Sealand shipping line, said yesterday that it will spend more than $450 million to build a 300-acre container terminal in Hampton Roads that could increase by 50 percent the port of Hampton Roads' capacity to handle shipments. Gov. Mark R. Warner, speaking to business and government leaders at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal against the backdrop of the McKinney-Maersk container ship, said the investment is the single biggest private investment in Hampton Roads' history and one of the largest ever in Virginia.

The Port of Baltimore has had its share of blows over the past few years but now the momentum is swinging the other way, with Baltimore on the offensive. Maersk Line, the port's most important customer, gave Baltimore a huge vote of confidence this week when it signed a 10-year lease to continue doing business here. The port's long-term strategy seems to be working.Key to the port's success is the state of the art Seagirt Marine Terminal. Already, one of the world's largest steamship companies, Orient Overseas Container Line, has decided to return to Baltimore to take advantage of Seagirt's ultra-modern facilities speeding cargo handling.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The parent of the Maersk Sealand steamship line has signed off on a deal worth up to $400 million to build a privately owned marine terminal in Portsmouth, a local official with knowledge of the deal said yesterday. The move, expected to increase by nearly a third the capacity of the port of Hampton Roads to handle container cargo, is to be announced the week of April 19. The Maersk terminal, which will have more than 3,500 feet of berthing area and nearly 300 acres of terminal space, will have the ability to handle more than 500,000 additional container units a year at the port.

Maersk Line of Denmark, already one of the biggest shipping lines in the port of Baltimore, plans to increase calls here by 25 percent as a result of the company's decision to expand service to South America.Starting in January, Maersk will route three containerships through Baltimore on their trips from New York to the West Coast of South America and back.That will add 24 more regular calls a year -- roughly one every two weeks -- at the port of Baltimore."It means new ships coming into the port, and that provides hours of labor for the bay pilots and the longshoremen in the port, plus business for truckers and rails," said Adrian G. Teel, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration.

With less than two months left before the expiration of Maersk Line's lease in the port of Baltimore, the Maryland Port Administration is trying to persuade Maersk to stay by offering the line something it probably can't get in Virginia -- its own custom-built terminal from which it could offer terminal services to other steamship lines.MPA Executive Director Brendan W. O'Malley said in an interview last week that the state is offering Maersk, the port's most important customer, a deal that would allow Maersk to take advantage of the fact that it operates a stevedoring company as well as a steamship line.

Maersk Line will resume its South American service out of Baltimore, meaning the return of a container ship a week that had been shifted to Hampton Roads, Va., Baltimore's primary competitor in the mid-Atlantic region.The resumption of the weekly service stems from Maersk's decision to enter a vessel-sharing agreement with Transroll/Sea-Land to provide more frequent service to South America.The new service, which begins in mid-June, will feature two weekly departures from the United States to the East Coast of South America, with one service calling at Baltimore and the other calling at Hampton Roads.

It's a winner-take-all game for high stakes, as the ports of Baltimore and Hampton Roads, Va., vie for the business of Maersk Line.Maersk handles more cargo than any other container line in Baltimore's port -- about 500,000 tons a year, more than 12 percent of the containerized traffic handled here.If Maersk chooses Baltimore, it would return to Baltimore the weekly ship now calling on Hampton Roads. That would mean an additional 250,000 tons of cargo coming here annually.But much more than cargo hangs in the balance.

ANNAPOLIS -- It was a rare day for Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday -- the chance to bask in the warm glow of the success of the port of Baltimore."

The Maryland Port Administration and Maersk Inc. have renegotiated a contract that reflects the Danish steamship line's significantly reduced service at the port of Baltimore.The latest contract replaces an unprecedented 10-year deal that Maersk signed in 1991, agreeing to bring 30,000 containers and 50 ships a year to the port, in exchange for highly favorable terms for using services at the state-owned Dundalk Marine Terminal.Last year, however, Maersk broke that contract after it formed an alliance with Sea-Land Service Inc., another steamship line, and shifted much of its service from Baltimore to Norfolk, Va., where Sea-Land is dominant.

The nominees ought to announce their ticket mates now and then just cancel those stuperfluous conventions. The New York Senate race shapes up as an ethnic struggle: Lawyers for Clinton vs. Stockbrokers for Giuliani. If N.Y. and N. J. won't dredge, Maersk may move its super tubs to Baltimore, if Md. and Va. do dredge. Crime is getting so violent in Baltimore county, people may start fleeing to the city.

Just when officials at the port of Baltimore had gotten over their failed courtship of the world's largest shipping line, it seems that industry giant Maersk Sealand is flirting with them again. The head of the Danish shipping conglomerate, which rejected Baltimore as the site for a new East Coast cargo hub last year, says the company might reconsider that decision because of foundering contract negotiations with its first choice, the port of New York and New Jersey. Maersk Sealand Chief Executive Officer Tommy Thomsen says he is "frustrated" by the politics in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where a feud between two governors has stalled his company's plans.

LABOR PEACE. A new railroad. Upgraded dockside facilities.Perhaps never before have so many factors been working in favor of Baltimore's port.Here's another to complement the list: Changes in the shipping world are swinging Baltimore's way.A new era of jumbo ships could bring more containers here after a decline. The surprising near-victory of Baltimore in a bidding contest for a huge container-ship contract alerted international maritime executives to the port's potential.Baltimore's great advantage, its 50-foot shipping channel, nearly proved decisive last spring in the Maersk-Sea/Land consortium's search for an East Coast base for its new super-sized container ships.

An $800 million business deal cut the heart out of the American merchant marine yesterday, as a foreign shipping conglomerate carved up the last global ocean carrier based in the United States.It was a paper transaction only. No American merchant seamen lost their jobs, and no U.S.-flagged ships were handed over to foreign crews.But the sale of Sea-Land Service Inc.'s international shipping division to the Danish A. P. Moller Group was the latest, and perhaps strongest, blow to a merchant fleet that once circled the globe and dominated international commerce.

For the fourth time in his 4 1/2 years in office, Gov. Parris N. Glendening will travel overseas on a trade mission. His seven-day trip to Europe, which starts tomorrow, will focus on bringing airline and shipping business, as well as cultural offerings, to the state.Glendening, his wife and seven state employees will visit Denmark, Italy and England -- at a cost of up to $48,000 to Maryland taxpayers, according to Michael Morrill, the governor's spokesman. After the trade mission ends, the Glendenings will tack on a family vacation at their own expense, Morrill said.

Maryland officials yesterday gave the world's largest shipping alliance what is likely to be the state's final offer to lure them to the port of Baltimore. Then they moved back into a well-rehearsed mode of the negotiations: waiting.Shipping giants Sea-Land Service Inc. and Maersk Line are considering leaving their home port in Elizabeth, N.J., and set a deadline of 5 p.m. yesterday for an offer from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to keep them there.The governors of those two states continued quarreling over the matter yesterday, and no formal offer was made.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The parent of the Maersk Sealand steamship line has signed off on a deal worth up to $400 million to build a privately owned marine terminal in Portsmouth, a local official with knowledge of the deal said yesterday. The move, expected to increase by nearly a third the capacity of the port of Hampton Roads to handle container cargo, is to be announced the week of April 19. The Maersk terminal, which will have more than 3,500 feet of berthing area and nearly 300 acres of terminal space, will have the ability to handle more than 500,000 additional container units a year at the port.

The Port of Baltimore has won the latest round in its struggle for mid-Atlantic shipping business, but Virginia officials say the contest is far from over.Baltimore scored yesterday with the signing by Maersk Inc. of a 10-year lease at the Dundalk Marine Terminal.Although the Maersk agreement does not immediately represent new business, the contract-signing means a psychological boost to the Maryland port, which has watched its business erode over the years."We've been doing a lot of hard work, and it's paying off," Gov. William Donald Schaefer said at the lease-signing yesterday.

With one day to spare before two giant shipping lines said they would flee New York harbor for Baltimore, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman reached into her state's budget yesterday for a package of incentives designed to persuade them to stay.With Whitman's offer, shipping lines Maersk Inc. and Sea-Land Service Inc. said yesterday that they have entered the final evaluation process of deciding whether to move to the port of Baltimore or stay in Elizabeth, N.J.Port officials in Baltimore, meanwhile, said they plan to "sweeten" their offer to the two shipping giants today, hoping to lure them south with further incentives.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening has offered to discuss whatever "reasonable action" the state can take to cut rail-shipping costs at the port of Baltimore, saying he doesn't want the city's railroads to stymie efforts to lure a large new marine terminal to Baltimore.Glendening did not specify what might be considered reasonable, but a spokesman said he is willing to offer financial assistance from the state for "specific, realizable, affordable" projects that would help Baltimore win the new port facility.