The Port of Portland commissioners are considering a programme to spend up to US$4 million in subsidies to revive the ports sluggish performance and keep container vessels calling.
To induce carriers to maintain and return to regular calls, the port adopted a short-term, carrier-support programme in 2012 that paid $175,000 to carriers. It also joined a cost-sharing scheme with Manila's International Container Terminal Inc (ICTSI) in which the shared half of increased operating costs incurred by ICTSI.
According to Shipping Gazette, the new project, a one-year "Weighted Volume Container Carrier Incentive Programme", aims to "support the continuation of container carrier services to the Port of Portland, as well as create an attractive environment for growing container volume and services calling ICTSI's Terminal 6."
The Puget Sound port is proposing a per-container incentive payment available to calling shipping lines that is weighted by the proportion of the throughput volume they carry, with a minimum set at $20 per container and a maximum of $45 per container. The port has established a not-to-exceed programme budget of $4 million.
The port said the second component of the programme, "to increase the long-term viability of the container franchise in Portland," involves the current initiative by the governor of Oregon "to bring parties together to address the labour jurisdictional issues as well as to seek remedies to ensure sustained productivity gains."
"Hanjin, the largest carrier calling Portland, omitted the Portland call for a five-to-six-week period at great cost to local shippers, the CKYH carrier alliance and to ICTSI," said ICTSI. The port also noted that a Hapag-Lloyd service passed several calls.
The 2012 ICTSI cost-sharing programme expired at the end of the calendar year. Over the term of this programme, the port paid out $2.7 million to ICTSI.
"The funds for these two programmes came from revenue that the port received from ICTSI under the Terminal 6 long-term lease. ICTSI's annual rent under the lease is currently $4.7 million (with annual Consumer Price Index increases).
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