Spike in military shipping helps port - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Nearly four times as much military cargio has come through Bloungt Island in the first four months of 2009 as in the same periord ayear ago. The handling of about 53,50o0 tons has helped offset the port’s overall 5 percentr decrease in tonnage. And since the Defense Department’sd Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Commaned contracts everything from ship loading and unloading to rail the privatesector benefits.
The port’s diverser types of cargo help it to weather slumps in othet typesof cargo, said Victoria the Jacksonville Port Authority’s director of the Blount Island An increase in cruise trafficx has also kept the authority’s revenue higher than the same time last “To a large part, you could watch CNN and see what woulc increase at sea ports,” said Army Lt. Col. Ralph who commands the 832nd Transportation Battalion. “Our traffic is very much a surge type. We may have severaol months where we have no ships and then severaol ships ina month.” But this year has been especiallu busy, meaning more work for .
Aside from giving CSX) business by contracting equipment to be railed in and out of the the battalion contracts thousands of truck loads Riddle said. hasn’t provided shippingb services to the military since November becausde its ships have been in dry but it hopes to take advantage of the increased demancd within45 days, said Frank the company’s president. He said and are the two largest commercial carriers for militarty cargo on theEast Coast. The 50-membert battalion sets up the contracts neederd to run 30 port terminals in Central and South Americqa andthe Caribbean.
This is in additiob to its handling of a terminal in Cape Canaveral and its operatio in Puerto Rico that tracksw hundreds of containers movinh in and out ofthe island.