Thursday, July 12, 2012

Virginia International Terminals, Inc. challenged by state D.O.T. chief to prove itself

The private company operating container terminals at the Virginia Port Authority's Hampton Roads cargo-handling location has reportedly been challenged by that state's Department of Transportation chief to prove it can do a better job than other potential operators.

Amid an evaluation process that the state of Virginia is going through after receiving an unsolicited proposal by Denmark's APM Terminals in May, the D.O.T. there has also asked current, and longtime operator Virginia International Terminals to submit its own proposal.

"VIT has never had to compete for its current arrangement with the Virginia Port Authority and this is an opportunity for VIT to demonstrate why it should remain the sole container terminal operator in the Port of Virginia," wrote Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton this week in an email to the Virginian-Pilot.

Connaughton said VIT would not be subject to the exact same proposal process as others because they don't "require additional capital or funding since they are already on and operating the terminals."

The transportation secretary said he would like to see a long-term plan and budget submitted.

The state D.O.T. extended the deadline another 30-days to August 13 for other terminal operations proposals.

Meanwhile, V.I.T. claims that after meeting with its legal counsel, the company has decided not to submit a proposal along the lines of APM Terminals but would provide the state volume and revenue projections "so they can compare that against any other proposals they have," said Joe Dorto, CEO of the V.I.T.

Three years ago, industrial real estate developer CenterPoint Properties and two other companies submitted proposals to operate the VPA's container terminals but the port ended up sticking with V.I.T. at that time.

The APM Terminals proposals include a $540 million container terminal in Portsmouth as part of its overall $4 billion plan.

For the full Virginian-Pilot story: hamptonroads.com

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