Seagirt

Following an expensive and largely unsuccessful attempt to upgrade the Baltimore port's computer systems a few years ago, the Maryland Port Administration and the shipping industry are again looking at ways to improve port computer communications.MPA Director Adrian Teel said that, despite recent budget cuts and layoffs, he probably will increase resources in the Information Systems Department in an effort to improve computer services at the new Seagirt Marine Terminal and elsewhere.Meanwhile, a private sector port committee has been established to explore new ways to integrate existing computer systems in the offices of stevedoring companies, freight forwarders, shipping lines and terminal operators.

After a string of bad-news announcements, the Port of Baltimore finally received some uplifting news last month: A giant corporation in the shipping world has decided to reestablish ties to Baltimore. If the Hong Kong line, Orient Overseas Container Line, likes what it sees (and it should) Baltimore could wind up with oodles of new containership business.Cargo at the ultra-modern Seagirt Marine Terminal should rise 20 percent because of OOCL's weekly ship arrival. And discussions with longshoremen's unions and officials of the bay pilots association could ensure a remarkably smooth -- and cost-effective -- stay in Baltimore.

Looming over the waterfront like a small herd of giraffes browsing in the tops of a stand of acacia trees, the 20-story cranes hoist bus-sized boxes from the ship berthed below, then lower them gently onto the backs of trucks called yard hustlers.Container after container rises to the whirling winches, lightening the ship at a rate of 25 an hour, as the diesel trucks roar and whisk deposited boxes from the dock.The $250 million Seagirt Marine Terminal, designed to lead Baltimore back to prominence among East Coast ports, is up and running after a very slow start.

A new joint venture of two established shipping firms will begin service between South America and the port of Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal Oct. 7, the Maryland Port Administration said yesterday.Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Geneva, Switzerland, and Empremar S.A., the national steamship line of Chile, will team up in a venture that will call at Seagirt once every three weeks initially, and then every two weeks after the service is established.The port administration says the venture will handle 6,000 containers of cargo per year.

A new joint service to South America will boost cargo through NTC the new Seagirt Marine Terminal by 6,000 containers a year, the Maryland Port Administration announced.Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Geneva, Switzerland, and Empremar S.A., the national shipping line of Chile will begin the joint service on Oct. 7 with the departure of the MV Presidente Aguirre Cerda from New York. The joint service will provide service to ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts and ports in Peru and Chile.The joint operation is expected to handle about 6,000 containers annually through Seagirt, according to Maryland Port Administration press release.

A decision by one of the world's largest steamship lines to return to the Port of Baltimore will increase business at the Seagirt Marine Terminal by 20 percent and give a much-needed boost to the year-old facility.Maryland Port Administration Director Adrian Teel said that, with the signing of Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. (OOCL), the $250 million container cargo facility will be about 70 percent filled.OOCL will be the fourth line to enter the high-tech facility, but the first new business Seagirt has garnered since it opened last September.

Orient Overseas Container Line, which seven years ago initiated an exodus of steamship lines from the port, announced yesterday that it will resume direct service to Baltimore.Maritime executives welcomed the decision as a big economic and psychological boost for the port and as evidence that Baltimore may have begun to regain its competitive edge."I believe it's a milestone. It's a clear indication of what we can accomplish when we work together," Maurice C. Byan, president of the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore Inc., said yesterday.

Isaac Shafran, who presided over the port of Baltimore's massive capital expansion program for the last five years, has resigned as director of development for the Maryland Port Administration.He becomes the second of the port agency's five directors to resign since Adrian G. Teel took over the helm of the MPA in late June with orders to revitalize the troubled port agency. The director of personnel, Tracy V. Drake, left July 5."Isaac's been an extremely hard worker for the port," Mr. Teel said yesterday.

The $250 million Seagirt Marine Terminal will not be filled as quickly as Baltimore port officials had promised because the port's new administration has decided to become more selective in the tenants it chooses.Atlantic Container Line, one of the largest shipping lines at the port, was informed this week that the state will not allow it to lease space at Seagirt, says Michael Fox, ACL's general sales manager. The decision disappointed ACL and has prompted the line to reevaluate its business in Baltimore and other ports.

The Maryland Port Administration has told Atlantic Container Line -- one of the port's most important steamship lines -- that it cannot use the port of Baltimore's new high-tech Seagirt Marine Terminal, an ACL official who asked not to be identified said yesterday."