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Positioning port for leading role

Three months into the job of Tampa Port Authority director, Richard Wainio discusses cargo, cruises, containers and Cuba.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published June 6, 2005

In March, an outsider took over the helm of the agency that oversees one of the area's biggest economic powerhouses.

Richard Wainio arrived as Tampa Port Authority director not knowing much more about the landscape than what he had read about management turmoil that rocked the agency for much of last year.

Three months later, the former director at the Port of Palm Beach says he has been surprised by what he found - in a good way. His board of directors is supportive, Wainio says, and tenants aren't the angry bunch who last year assailed the agency as slow and unresponsive.

Tampa is taking a calculated gamble to become a player in the fast-growing container cargo trade. Cruise traffic is leveling off. And the port has to keep an eye on Cuba, should political winds shift and the island nation open to the world.

In an interview last week with the St. Petersburg Times , Wainio mapped where he sees the port is headed in a quick-shifting maritime industry.

* * *

What is your initial take on the port's business lines, starting with the traditional bulk cargo trade dominated by phosphate and phosphate-based products?

The bulk side of the business, which this port has depended on for so long, is not growing. It's a new world. Things get processed into pellets and fertilizer. You don't ship these massive quantities of waste material.

If your port has an infrastructure to support that massive tonnage, it's not a good thing unless you change. The Port of Tampa has been a little slow in doing that and now we're ... more aggressive in going after container trade, general cargo, neobulk-type products - iron and steel, lumber and all these products that have higher value.

You have three huge cranes en route to finish the first phase of a container cargo berth that cost in the neighborhood of $40-million. Why are you so bullish on that business?

It appears there are many opportunities that didn't exist a few years ago. With China and other things going on, the international container business has just mushroomed. Ships are all utilized. The major entry ports are congested. So, Tampa can move into that breach and say we have a service to offer.

How big a risk does a port like Tampa, with a fraction of the business of a Miami or Savannah, face investing in such a competitive business?

(Shippers) are in the driver's seat. These big guys go up the East Coast, they visit every port and they just say, "You want our business? Build us a facility." It's driven by these container carriers who say, "If you don't build it, we won't come and if you build it, we might come."

In the end, it is a risk. In our case, we think that risk is acceptable. We didn't build a $100-million or $200-million facility. We built a facility that's designed to handle a regional market, a feeder operation (for the) Caribbean, Latin America.

The cruise business in Tampa boomed in recent years but recently leveled off. What are the prospects for more growth?

A few other cruise lines are talking about bringing in a vessel or two. So, we (are) looking at those numbers jumping up, but not at the growth rate you've seen. We're looking at 800,000 to a million passengers a year (passengers are counted twice, getting on and off ship).

Getting beyond that in Tampa is very difficult because of the limitations the port has, starting with the (Sunshine Skyway). That bridge has a height restriction and with very few exceptions, most of the larger cruise ships being built cannot come into this port.

From most of the cruise lines' perspectives, we're a second-tier port. That means when they build a big, new ship they bring it to a Miami or (Port) Everglades or one of these big cruise ports without any limitations - and then that big vessel will displace one of the slightly older, slightly smaller vessels that gets repositioned to Tampa.

And the biggest ship, Carnival's Miracl e , has been forced to dock at a cargo area when harbor pilots say conditions are too dangerous in a channel leading to its terminal at Channelside. How soon can the channel be widened to fix that?

In terms of speed (moving) passengers, it's as fast as off-loading them at Terminal 2. It's just that ... Carnival is paying to use that terminal (and) passengers are sold a ticket expecting to go through a modern facility. They are committed to Tampa ... but obviously, Carnival won't put up with this forever. They know that it's going to take a year or so before we get a channel design that everybody agrees to in place.

Where does Cuba fit in with the port's future trade plans?

Drop a pendulum from Tampa to Havana and you land right on top of it. We're better positioned to serve the major population center in Cuba - western Cuba - than any port in the state of Florida, any port in the United States. So, clearly there are opportunities there.

It's a question of when it opens and changes. I don't think you're talking 15 to 20 years from now. I think you're talking in the next decade. We are a port that has very significant capability to move the kind of cargos - the aggregates, all of the construction-type materials ... to serve Cuba right out of the box.

When the infrastructure develops ... you'll start to see that northbound flow. We'll be positioned because we'll already be a player in the reconstruction of Cuba. I definitely see Tampa playing a major role.

--Steve Huettel can be reached at 813 226-3384 or huettel@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 6, 2005, 01:34:12]