Maryland Port Administration

Tay Yoshitani, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, announced yesterday that he will resign to become deputy executive director of the port of Oakland, Calif.Although he's stepping down from the top post for a number two spot, he will assume vastly broader responsibilities. The port of Oakland encompasses not only maritime operations but also the Oakland International Airport and substantial commercial real estate holdings."I got an offer that was very attractive, and it's a good opportunity to expand my horizons," Yoshitani said.

Port of Baltimore needs cruise terminalIn the past few weeks the Maryland Port Administration has unveiled its ''strategic'' plan for the Port of Baltimore. While I agree with Tay Yoshitani, the executive director of MPA, on cargo plans, nowhere does he address the lack of port facilities for cruise liners.Recently, my wife and I flew to Miami to take a cruise from the cruise line facilities and observed the great port accommodations and professional manner of their port people.Yes, I know we have the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore, but why are we not enticing more cruise lines to utilize our port?

Gov. Parris N. Glendening and a few deputies are in Taiwan en route to South Korea for his second international trade trip, focusing on building business for Baltimore's ports and boosting exports to the Far East."

To: Paul Farragut, executive director of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council. From: Headquarters of UBOR (Undaunted Boosters of Regionalism).Good day, Mr. Farragut. Are you ready for your next mission? As the new head of the BMC, you have the task of helping the mayor of Baltimore, the executives of Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties and the three Carroll County commissioners forge cooperative solutions to regional problems. Given the repeated failures of local executives to find such solutions, some would call your task a thankless one with little chance of significant results.

Whoever is elected mayor of Baltimore must deal with a city declining in population, wealth and political power in absolute terms and relative to the rest of Maryland. Managing resources -- playing the hand dealt -- is the greatest challenge. The citypayroll must go down as population and resources diminish. Otherwise, services will suffer.This is what the elections for all city offices this year are about. Today and on coming weekends, the editorial column will examine the conundrum facing Baltimore, in hopes of helping city voters evaluate candidates.

The trade sanctions threatened by the Clinton administration against Japan would hurt the port of Baltimore, but the severity of the impact here would depend on where punitive measures are targeted, port officials said yesterday.Baltimore is one of the largest automobile ports in the country, with cars and trucks accounting for more than a third of all the longshoremen's work. But the port handles relatively few Japanese luxury cars, such as the Lexus, and only a fraction of the estimated 2 million tons of automobile parts imported from Japan last year.

Adrian G. Teel was viewed as an unorthodox choice for executive director of the Maryland Port Administration when his appointment was announced two-and-a-half years ago. Mr. Teel had no background in maritime matters. He knew nothing about the Port of Baltimore. His claim to fame: he had been the longtime chief operating officer of Anne Arundel County. His ex-boss in Arundel, O. James Lighthizer, became state transportation secretary and chose Mr. Teel for the port job. It turned out to be a superb selection.

While the trade agreement hammered out last week between the United States and Japan establishes a framework for possible progress, it holds the potential of boosting Maryland exports to Japan, according to state officials and business executives."

Could it be that officials at the Port of Baltimore have finally learned from hard experience what it takes to get this city's maritime business back on its feet? There are encouraging indications that this is happening.Take, for instance, the return of McCrory Stores to the local port. Six years ago, the York, Pa., five-and-dime chain abandoned Baltimore for California, expressing concerns about U.S. Customs delays and chronic labor problems. It was not alone. LTC Baltimore suffered numerous body blows as its market share dwindled and shipping lines as well as old customers moved their business elsewhere.

ANNAPOLIS -- Adrian Teel, the executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, told a legislative panel yesterday that the port agency would like to buy the Seagirt Marine Terminal from the Maryland Transportation Authority, which provided more than $200 million to build it.That suggestion had members of a Senate Budget and Taxation subcommittee bristling at the thought, however, that motorists might end up paying for the purchase through an increase...

Business in the port of Baltimore held up reasonably well in 2008 despite declines in certain sectors of cargo during the second half of the year, according to the Maryland Port Administration. Even as the economy sank into an ever-deepening recession, the port posted gains of 9 percent in pulp products and 4 percent in roll-on/roll-off, or ro/ro, cargo from July to November, compared with the corresponding period of 2007. Ro/ro cargo largely is made up of construction and farm equipment.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government will more than triple its grant funding this year for port security in Maryland, providing money for a state-of-the-art video surveillance system and technology to help monitor the thousands of trucks that enter the port of Baltimore each day. Additional money to protect regional transit is also getting a big boost in the annual grants announced yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security. Nationwide, federal spending on what the department calls infrastructure protection is increasing 29 percent to $884 million.

Two General Assembly leaders are seeking a review of the state of security at the port of Baltimore, questioning whether state officials have made improvements since The Sun reported a series of lapses in July last year. In a letter this week, Sen. Thomas M. Middleton and Del. Maggie McIntosh ask chief legislative auditor Bruce A. Myers to conduct a performance audit of port security as well as a financial audit of Maryland's use of state and federal homeland security funds. Middleton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is a Charles County Democrat.

On Air TV and Radio Outdoors Maryland Tomorrow, 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. MPT "Island Reborn." Erosion has caused huge problems for the port of Baltimore as it tries to keep its busy shipping channels open. Each year, the Maryland Port Administration dredges several million cubic yards of mud from the Chesapeake Bay. Until recently, there was controversy about what to do with this dredged material. Now the port believes it has found the answer. It's bringing back to life Poplar Island, which shrank from 1,200 acres in 1847 to five tiny islands in the early 1990s.

The chairman of a key legislative panel said yesterday that he will conduct a hearing into security shortcomings at the port of Baltimore, while a top Maryland transportation official said the state would tighten some procedures at the terminals it owns. Del. Peter Franchot, who chairs a House subcommittee that oversees transportation spending, said he was prompted to schedule the Sept. 13 hearing after a report in The Sun on Sunday outlined a number of security lapses at the port's state-owned marine terminals.

A former top manager of Miami's port is expected to be named today as the chief executive of the port of Baltimore, according to government and industry sources. The appointment of F. Brooks Royster III, who until recently was chief executive of the company that runs the largest terminal operation at the Port of Miami-Dade, is scheduled to be announced this afternoon, the sources said. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is expected to introduce Royster at a news conference at the Dundalk Marine Terminal.

Hurricane Isabel deluged the port of Baltimore yesterday, but the state's center of marine commerce still had more luck than water. Billions of dollars in cargo and equipment mostly escaped harm from floodwaters that lapped over the piers, more than eight feet above normal. BalTerm, which handles most of the port's paper and forest products, reported that several rolls of paper were ruined, but the rising waters barely missed tons more. The firm had more than 100,000 tons of inventory, including 60,000 tons of paper.

Baltimore will get $4.3 million in federal financing to help protect the city's state-owned marine terminals from terrorists as part of a roughly $300 million package of port security initiatives announced yesterday by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. While the money is welcome relief in the midst of a state budget crisis, lawmakers and some trade officials say the Bush administration is still not providing enough money to pay for critical security upgrades at the nation's 350 seaports.

New contracts that will bring additional automobiles, forest products and other niche cargo to the port of Baltimore will help the city's waterfront weather a world-wide recession that has slashed East Coast trade in recent months, business leaders said. However, most segments of the port's business will feel some pain in the months ahead as demand for consumer goods remains weak. Ships are still arriving in near-typical numbers, but state pilots and other sources say there is less cargo aboard when they reach Baltimore, resulting in less demand for dock workers.

A major shipping company has agreed to a 10-year contract with the state that will more than double the amount of cargo it brings to Maryland and help the port of Baltimore solidify its tenuous position in the lucrative containerized cargo trade. The deal with Mediterranean Shipping Co. is the latest in a series of wins for Baltimore as it strives to rebuild its reputation as a major East Coast port by aggressively pursuing forest products, automobiles, tractors and other niche cargo. The additional container business will bring the port a minimum of $75 million in revenue over the 10-year deal and significantly boost union man-hours.