Virginia records best performance in its history

Moreover, the port says that the June totals “wrapped-up the best first-half year performance”, again in the port’s history; from January to June a total of 1,054m teu were handled, an increase of 6% over the first half of 2012.

According to Rodney Oliver, interim executive director of the Virginia Port Authority (VPA), there are a number of factors to which this success can be attributed, including ocean carriers loading vessels “heavy” to take advantage of the port’s 15 m (50 ft) channels and an increasing number of “first-in/last-out” vessel calls.

He added that the improving economy, VPA’s expanding rail service and its push into new markets were also having an effect.  “We’re seeing a lot of interest to expand operations by some large port users and given that, we believe the growth will continue,” he predicted.