Port weathers tough January - Jacksonville Business Journal:

utyziluz.wordpress.com
The equipment, which weighed as much as 170 tons was loaded off two ships atTalleyrand Terminal, said Jacksonville Port Authorityu spokeswoman Nancy Rubin. Four of the pieces of equipment are for a Michiganh nuclearpower plant, a large transformer will be used in Lakeland and 36 equipmenty parts will be used for a cooling system in a coal-fires power plant in McDonough, Ga. The arrival of the heavy equipmentg comes as the port is starting to feel the effectsx of theglobal recession, but it’s still in good shape. Overall traffif handled by the authority’s tenants and customer s is increasing, said Executive Director Rick Ferrin, unlike many other U.S.
According to figures released Monday by the traffic in most categories was down in January 2009 comparee with ayear earlier, but the year-to-date numbers are generally up. Containerizer cargo traffic, for example, was down 7 percent in but is up 24perceny year-to-date. The port’s fiscal year starts Oct. 31. Overall tonnagwe was down 14 percentin January, but up 8 percenr for the year-to-date. The significant weakness is in the numbert of automobiles shipped through A little morethan 29,000 autos were shipped througjh the port in down 39 percent from a year and year-to-date auto traffic is down 9 percent.
Withimn the next decade, Ferrij foresees the port havinhg three to four majorcargo terminals, making it the third largesty port on the East Coast. He sees the port affectintg about 75,000 jobs, directly and indirectly. And the port’ newest tenants — Ltd. and Ltd. are determined to make Jacksonville thei rSoutheast hub, which will only increase traffic at the