Two empty terminals?
A decade ago, city officials argued that international ferry operations had to be moved out of the International Marine Terminal to make way for a projected doubling of container traffic by 2008. Instead, as we reported in our June and August issues [see “Chump Change,” our June cover story, and “All quiet on the Portland waterfront,” in the August issue], growth was modest — a fact that calls into question one of the primary rationales for construction of the city’s new $21 million Ocean Gateway terminal.
Maine Ports Authority director John Henshaw wrote a letter published in our September issue challenging the contention that Portland has seen only “modest growth” in container traffic over the last decade. Henshaw cited data suggesting impressive growth — 84 percent — since 2002.
So who was right?
With the help of Maine’s open-records law, we obtained figures for container traffic at the city-owned terminal from 1997 to the present. It turns out growth wasn’t modest — it was non-existent (see graph below). In fact, between 1997 and 2006, the trend was negative, falling by an average of 0.9 percent per year over the period. Even with 2007 included — a banner year, if one ignores an unusually high proportion of empty containers — the 11-year trend was still downward, falling by 0.4 percent overall.
Container operations were suspended in July, after a key client — Red Shield Environmental of Old Town — applied for bankruptcy, although a large shipment of wind turbines was unloaded at the IMT in August. Red Shield will not be back in business, as ports officials had hoped; the company announced last month that it will be putting itself up for auction.
Reached for comment, Henshaw noted that the 2007 growth was real — a doubling in volume from the previous year, according to the city’s figures — and that his office is working hard to sustain it.
— Colin Woodard
