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28 MN May 2011 Southeast Louisiana hopes to attract big container ships, stimulate supply-chain activities and create jobs when the Panama Canal's widening and deepening is complete in four years or so. The Louisiana International Gulf Transfer Terminal Authority or LIGTT is interviewing candidates now to run a planned, public-private port east of the Southwest Pass in the Gulf at the entrance to the Mississippi River. Captain Mike Lorino, president of the Associated Branch Pilots in New Orleans, said “the terminal would be for offshore unloading of containers because once the Panama Canal work is complete, ships coming through it from Asia will be too big to get into most U.S. ports.” Under the plan, “ships would discharge south of the river at a terminal in the Gulf, and would head back with another load or empty containers, or the containers could be distributed in other Gulf ports or up the Mississippi River.” Lorino noted that southeast Louisiana is already a major hub. “We ship 72% of the nation's grain from the lower Mississippi River, mostly to the Far East,” he said. Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe and Plaquemines Parish businessman Lloyd Balliviero led an advisory com- mittee in 2008 to consider the feasibility of a transfer ter- minal. “We consulted and vetted ideas with local shipping industry members and other experts, like top port-con- New Louisiana Terminal Capitalizing On Canal Improvements By Susan Buchanan
