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dredges simultaneously,? said Chris Gossage, International Sales Manager. ?Depending on the customer?s needs, we can build a new custom dredge in ve months. A major- ity of our sales stem from custom equipment orders. We design our dredges to meet a customer?s requirements and do business wherever we?re needed.? Gossage said ?Because of continued steady sales, we?ve grown and we just expanded our facility to 100,000 square feet. We aim to keep lead time down by keeping wear parts fully stocked. Based on our supply system and our predic- tions of customer needs, we stock accordingly and we sup- ply products across the globe.? The company?s dredging projects are diverse. ?Some of them are large government contracts, and others are for local sand and gravel companies,? he said. ?We have a few dozen dredges overseas. We have pretty good representation in Canada and South America.? Gossage adds with con dence, ?Because of our strategic project scheduling, lean process and quality sys- tems, we?re poised for substantial growth in the future.? POST-PANAMAX PRESSURE U.S. Gulf and Atlantic seaports plan to dig harbors deeper to serve post-Panamax ships following the Panama Canal?s expansion and widening, which should be nished in 2015. Last month, the Army Corps awarded a $122 million contract to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. in Illinois to deepen PortMiami in Florida. Miami?s shipping channels will go from 44 feet deep to between 50 and 52 feet, and part of a channel will be widened so mega-ships can load and discharge cargo. GLDD has dredged Balti- more and other U.S. ports. By 2030, post-Panamax vessels should account for 62 percent of the world?s container eet, according to an Army Corps report on ports and waterways, submitted to Congress a year ago. In its report, the Corps said that ex- pansion of Gulf and Southeast ports appears to be justi ed but the viability of speci c projects will depend on current port capacities, trade forecasts and population growth. Ac- cess the report on modernizing ports and inland waterways at: http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/portandwaterways .OUTLOOK : MORE MONEY , MAYBE Sean Duffy sees considerable interest within Congress this year to increase allocations from what he described as ?the broken, Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund mecha- nism.? The HMTF will collect more than $1.7 billion in FY 2014, running from Oct. 2013 to Sept. 2014. WRDA would increase authorized spending for harbor mainte- nance projects to $1 billion in FY 2014 versus a recent $850 million to $900 million, and would raise authoriza-tions by $100 million every year until a $1.5 billion total is reached. Separately, AAPA itself has a number of recommenda- tions. AAPA?s U.S. Legislative Policy Council would like to see, among other things, a process to study and construct deep-draft projects; and an updated cost-sharing formula for dredging channels. One of the issues surrounding HMTF is revenue distri- bution among ports. HMT money is generally transferred from ports with naturally deep channels to those requir- ing frequent dredging to maintain channel depths and widths. Louisiana receives a large share of HMTF spend- ing. Mobile, Ala. and Portland, Ore. are fairly expensive to maintain. Meanwhile, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle and Tacoma, and to a lesser extent New York, Boston and Houston are net generators of HMT revenue. These and other issues remain unanswered. Together, stakeholders ? both brown water and deep draft players ? need to work together towards a common goal. That?s because the one thing everyone can agree upon is that the elusive prize rep- resented by a fully integrated intermodal system hangs in the balance.www.marinelink.com MN 25MN June2013 Layout 18-31.indd 25MN June2013 Layout 18-31.indd 255/30/2013 11:08:31 AM5/30/2013 11:08:31 AM
