NORTH KINGSTOWN – The Port of Davisville, one of the nation’s top ports for automobile imports, has added an export side to its trade equation with the shipment yesterday of a load of used tractor-trailer cabs to Emden, Germany, the Quonset Development Corporation said.
“Strategically, this is a major achievement for the Quonset Business Park, since it signals the creation of committed export activity at the Port of Davisville,” Steven J. King, the QDC’s chief operating officer, said in an after-market statement.
The shipment – of about 100 truck chassis – was the first in a K-line pilot program that is bringing in used truck cabs from across the United States.
The truck tractors are being processed by North Atlantic Distribution, which is providing damage inspection, customs clearance and storage. The shipper for the pilot project is Automotive Transport Inc., which is loading the chassis on K-line ships, the QDC said. ATI, which already runs exports through the ports of Jacksonville, Fla., and New York, had not previously run exports through North Kingstown.
“The addition of a dedicated export cargo moves the Port of Davisville at Quonset into a higher activity level,” the QDC said.
The change will mean increases in dockage and wharfage fees paid to the quasi-public port management agency. For each additional day a vessel must stay in port to take on cargo, the QDC estimates it will bring in $1,600 in dock fees, plus $12 per truck in wharf fees.
The program is expected to create the need for 12 more longshoremen – a 40-percent increase from the 30 now on the port staff – at an estimated wage of $56,000 per year plus benefits, the QDC said. NORAD also plans to increase its local staff, hiring another two to three workers.
For the K-line vessels that now bring in cars from Germany, the export business will provide “dedicated backhaul for those ships – meaning, they will now have cargo to transport on the return trip,” the QDC added. Vessels importing cars from the Japanese port of Kawasaki and the Mexican port of Veracruz will continue to return empty – at least for now.
“Currently, the pilot is only open to the truck-tractor export,” the agency said. “However, given the robust export business, there may be future growth opportunities.”
The Quonset Development Corporation – a special-purpose subsidiary of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation – is a quasi-public company responsible for the development and management of the Port of Davisville and the 3,000-plus acre Quonset Business Park, both in North Kingstown. Additional information is available at quonsetpointri.com.
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