Fernandina’s Southbound Steel Exports on the Increase

The Port of Fernandina, Fla., handled 244,000 tons of breakbulk steel in 2009, a whopping 197 percent jump from 2008’s 82,000 tons, and should see at least 280,000 tons in 2010, said Val Schwec, commercial director of the southeast region for Kinder Morgan Terminals, which operates the port.

The niche port’s strategy has been to target north-south trade including South America, Central America and the Caribbean basin. Fernandina’s steel exports are moving to all those locations, Schwec said, including to the Panama Canal to support the canal expansion and to Brazil. In spite of its large steel production capacity, Brazil must import in order to meet all of its needs because the country is developing rapidly and investing in major infrastructure projects including those to support the upcoming Olympics and the next soccer World Cup..

One steel manufacturer, Gerdau Ameristeel, is about 40 miles from the port, Schwec said. Otherwise, steel exports arrive by rail and truck from mills throughout the southeast and as far away as Texas.

Fernandina is a traditional breakbulk port known in the past for handling forest products, and rolled paper exports are on the upswing in 2010, too. “We could be exporting more paper rolls, but the mills can’t keep up with demand,” Schwec said. “They cut capacity in 2009 and it hasn’t come back online. (Also) it was a wet winter and they couldn’t harvest enough to produce their paper.”

Fernandina also handles some containers, including a regular Seaboard Marine service, Schwec said. The port was one of the few that grew in 2009 and he is optimistic about 2010: “We are moving along at a pretty good pace.” The port is on Florida’s Atlantic Coast about 35 miles north of Jacksonville.