Port Of Baltimore

Salary: : $30/hour Age: : 49 Years on the job: : 31 How he got started: : Knowing he didn't want to go into the military or on to college, Tony Revels began working at the port of Baltimore as a longshoreman before he graduated from high school. His father also worked at the port as a longshoreman, and the two had a chance to work side by side until his father, Jesse, who has since passed away, retired in 1993. Revels calls that experience "awesome." The job is a union position, and Revels belongs to the International Longshoremen's Association Local 333. Typical day: : "Every day is different," Revels said about his job. He usually works 50 to 60 hours a week, but his days and hours vary and are determined by the number of vessels that come in and out of Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal or Dundalk Marine Terminal.

Donald A. Krach, former general counsel for the Maryland Port Administration who was an advocate and goodwill ambassador for the port of Baltimore, died May 4 of complications from pancreatic cancer at his Timonium home. He was 80. "Don was a real cheerleader for our port, and he really worked hard with our clients to put more business through here," said James J. White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration. "He had such a big personality. " "Don was one of those attorneys who came up through the state system, and he was absolutely enthusiastic about the port.

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.

The Port of Baltimore led the nation in vehicle and roll on/roll off traffic in 2012 and surpassed previous marks for general cargo handling, state officials announced Wednesday. The port's public and private terminals moved 652,000 vehicles last year, up 18 percent from 2011. Roll on/roll off cargo, consisting of farm and construction machinery, was up 16 percent to 1.09 million tons. General cargo at the public terminals was 9.59 million tons, an increase of eight percent over 2011 and beating the old mark of 8.96 million tons set in 2008.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS won't like aspects of the Glendening administration's plan to dispose of dredged material from Chesapeake Bay harbor channels. Neither will penny-pinching conservatives. Or some watermen. Yet implementing the program is key to keeping the Port of Baltimore competitive in a cutthroat maritime industry.This is no small matter. The port accounts for over $2 billion a year in economic activity. It creates employment for 62,500 Marylanders. It generates $141 million in state and local taxes.

Walter F. Kropp, a second-generation Port of Baltimore worker who hired workers to load and unload ships, and invented a horn to improve longshoremen's safety, died of pneumonia Wednesday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Baltimore resident was 86. "As a kid I never saw my father because he worked around the clock, especially during the Vietnam War" when he ran the Army's contracts at Dundalk Marine Terminal, said his son, Gary Kropp of Monkton, who followed in his father's footsteps and handles billing for P&O Ports.

Hobelmann Port Services Inc. and its sister company, Crown Auto Processing Inc., which handle the majority of cars shipped through the port of Baltimore, are being sold to a British firm for $33 million.The acquisition by Benicia Ports PLC includes Hobelmann's Fairfield and Atlantic marine terminals -- two private facilities encompassing more than 100 acres in Southeast Baltimore. Crown Auto leases space at the state-owned Dundalk Marine Terminal. The sale next month is not expected to change Hobelmann's 225-person work force, said William A. Kroh, president and part owner of the privately held companies.

President Clinton's 2000 budget will include about $25 million for dredging in Maryland, financing that will allow construction to begin on three of the port of Baltimore's main channel-access projects, U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes said yesterday.If approved by Congress, the money would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to widen one channel leading to the port, straighten another, and begin the second phase of the Poplar Island disposal project -- essentially the building up of an island to hold dredged material.

President Bush came to the port of Baltimore yesterday to deliver a forceful defense of the USA Patriot Act and to demand that Congress extend 16 expiring provisions without modification. Standing before several uniformed law enforcement officers at the Dundalk Marine Terminal's cruise ship terminal, Bush described the Patriot Act as a vital tool for fighting terrorism. The act gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies broad new investigative powers while letting them work more closely together.

Mediterranean Shipping Co., a global steamship line based in Geneva, will add a weekly stop in the port of Baltimore next month, giving a boost to the container cargo business that local officials have struggled to maintain in recent years.The Swiss company will add Baltimore to its service connecting the U.S. East Coast with the west coast of South America. The first ship is to call here Nov. 26."This is really very good news for us," said Jim White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, which manages the state's public marine terminals.

About two weeks from now, a cargo ship 21/2 football fields long will squeeze under the Key Bridge and deliver the future of the port of Baltimore. On its deck are four massive cranes built in China that state officials and the maritime industry hope will turn the already bustling Seagirt Marine Terminal into a conduit for mountains of goods delivered by the world's largest ships. Baltimore will join Norfolk, Va., as the only East Coast ports with 50-foot-deep berths and cranes able to accommodate vessels up to 1,200 feet long, which will begin using a widened Panama Canal in 2014.

Cargo volume at the port of Baltimore grew 15 percent last year, the largest increase of any major U.S. port, state officials announced Monday. The port's public and private terminals moved 37.8 million tons of goods from cars to coal in 2011. It all was valued at more than $51.4 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2010. "The port is leading the pack," said James White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration. Longshoremen at the six public terminals managed by the administration set volume records in processing autos, wood pulp and containers.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Port of Baltimore's six public terminals received an "excellent" security assessment from the Coast Guard. The annual review grades security operations at the Dundalk, Seagirt, North Locust Point, South Locust Point, Fairfield and Masonville terminals managed by the Maryland Port Administration. Captain of the Port Mark O'Malley said the continued excellent rating was due to continued training for security and law enforcement officers and upgrades in facilities, including better credentials for workers, a state-of-the-art entry system for trucks and tighter perimeter controls.

As we talk to business leaders about ways to grow the Baltimore region's economy and ask where they see the greatest opportunities, the Port of Baltimore is mentioned at the top of everyone's list. Throughout the nation's recent economic challenges, the port has remained one of our core strengths. Along with areas such as health care and research, the port has proven to be a source of much-needed growth for our region - from a 40 percent increase in the value of cargo shipped through the port during the first six months of 2011, to another record year for cruise passengers.

Dr. John Butler MacGibbon, an internal medicine specialist who treated port of Baltimore mariners, died Dec. 24 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson of complications of a stroke and a fall. He was 90 and lived in Original Northwood. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, he was the oldest of four siblings. His late brother, Tony, was a well-known New Zealand cricketer, and his late sister, Jean, was a New Zealand tennis champion. He attended Christ's College in Christchurch, New Zealand, and then graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1948.

When you're still being dragged along in the gnarly wake of the Great Recession, bristling with the splinters of the housing bust and other flotsam of the financial meltdown, it's hard to see much of a future, much less big ships on the horizon. But they are out there, or on their way - big ships, wider than ever, carrying cargo up the coast, up the Chesapeake to the Port of Baltimore. In a couple of years, a wider Panama Canal will open for business. The wider canal will mean larger ships - new megaships - making the run from Asia to the East Coast, instead of always stopping in Pacific ports.

BALTIMORE had the best offer on the table -- by far. But when it came time for a decision, it was the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that secured a 30-year contract for a container terminal that could ultimately handle $10 billion a year in maritime cargo.It should not have come as a surprise. The deck was stacked against Baltimore by CSX Corp., which owns a half-interest in the Maersk/Sea-Land Services steamship combine that was seeking a hub terminal capable of handling the next generation of container ships.

Much the way the dredging issue dominated the port of Baltimore last year, the battle between CSX and Norfolk Southern over Conrail has taken center stage this year as port officials struggle to attract new cargo."

Jaime Arbona, former customs agent for the ports of entry to Baltimore, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Oct. 20 at his Cedarcroft home. He was 88. Born in Utuado, Puerto Rico, where he attended the University of Puerto Rico, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He was stationed in Honolulu. He moved to Baltimore in 1945 and studied at the Johns Hopkins University. He taught Spanish at the Berlitz School and in the Baltimore County public schools system.