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The Port of San Diego is a working waterfront
12 miles long and up to two miles wide. This twenty-two square mile harbor
is home to not one, but two marine terminals.
San Diego's deep water port has been a cargo gateway for generations,
but the Port of San Diego is quite different from the mega ports of the
west coast.
Here at San Diego we are not a big
port like Long Beach or
Los Angeles.
So, we are going to be able to tailor things much more
creatively to the types of customers that we have.
San Diego is a niche port
specializing in breakbulk and roll-on, roll-off cargo:
items that can't easily fit into a storage container.
The Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal
housed on 96 acres of land, the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal is home to
the largest cold storage facility on the west coast.
300,000 square feet of on-dock space is dedicated to frozen and
refrigerated storage.
We got great facilities. We got one of the largest cold storage facilities in
Southern California.
We work with our partner here, Dole,
to fit out this whole area so they can work with it to
move their bananas for the western United States right out here in
San Diego.
Tenth Avenue has eight berths
with forty-six hundred linear feet of dock space and a maximum channel depth
of forty-three feet.
The terminal features open and covered storage areas,
a U.S. customs facility and USDA inspection service.
Tenth Avenue's bulk loader
has a capacity of 2,000 tons per hour and is connected to a completely
automated 31,000 metric ton silo complex automated for the storage
and handling of bulk products.
My name is Bill Christ. I am the chief operating officer for Eastern Car Liner.
We are a Japanese-based steam ship line that
that runs and operates a breakbulk and multipurpose cargo ships.
We have been calling the Port of San Diego for maybe at least 10 years.
We look at various ports on the west coast and after evaluating them,
Port of San Diego is chosen as the best location.
Having available
storage areas for the wind tower equipment is one of the key factors
and the Port here has ample land and space.
Plus, also the land-based equipment to handle these.
Tenth Avenue's mobile harbor crane with the capacity of 100 metric tons
is in constant use:
offloading break bulk cargo,
windmill parts and mega yachts.
I am Jeff Uecker with REpower USA. I am the logistics manager.
We specialize in
building and selling wind turbine components to
various customers and
developers within the wind energy sector.
REpower USA did evaluate all the ports up on the west coast.
We basically chose San Diego based on the experience.
With this kind of breakbulk freight,
we look for capacity. We look for having enough space so when do truck load-out,
our towers, for instance, are serialized so they have to fit together as a set.
If we import blades, it's the same thing. We need to make sure there enough room. You want to make
sure that you have safe handling in that your cargo
goes out damage-free.
San Diego and the Port of San Diego has done an outstanding job helping to support the needs of
REpower USA.
They have been great to work, both the stevedores and the Port itself.
flexibility
schedules
Its been great.
The U.S. military also trusts their precious cargo to the Port of San Diego.
San Diego was one of 17 strategic ports designated by the Maritime
Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
San Diego is the number one strategic seaport in California that supports
deploying and re-deploying forces
for the Department of Defense.
Both marine cargo terminal facilities can accommodate loading, unloading,
storage, retrofitting and repair of U.S. military cargo and equipment.
National City Marine Terminal
with maximum channel depth of thirty-five feet,
the 140-acre National City Marine Terminal is resourcefully
designed for the import and export of cars,
trucks and lumber
and it continues to generate new business.
We had ports up and down the California coast that we looked at
and we chose San Diego.
The primary reason that we chose San Diego was the strong work force this
year.
The rail service out of here is very strong and
these vehicles will be going to Texas.
A key feature of the terminal is its $30 million dockside rail
facility that accommodates 120 rail cars.
It provides for rapid building of trains for the trans-shipment of vehicles.
This is the only marine terminal
with this auto rail facility on the west coast.
There is definitely a lot of competition for this type of business. It's very
good business for ports; because, the vehicles come in and they immediately
ship out, so we are not storing vehicles here.
They will be shipped out immediately and
there are a lot of ports that want that business.
From here there is easy access to Los Angeles, the major metropolitan areas up
there to Mexico,
to Imperial County;
So, it's a very convenient place from which to do business, from which to move the
kind of bulk cargo that we are looking for here.
Lumber and building materials are also imported and exported here
and National City is home port for Pasha, Hawaii's Jean Anne:
A roll-on and roll-off carrier connecting the mainland to Hawaii imports.
With its 4,275 feet of deck space, the Jean
Anne can handle cargoes that range from rental cars to military cargo
such as black hawk helicopters, even amusement park roller coasters.
Basically, it's a
very well orchestrated plan
of getting labor to the ship and getting the equipment on and off the ship.
At any given time in this facility, about 200 people are contributing to the off-loading and loading of the vessel.
We're part of our work; It's a unique job.
Any time the ships decide to come here is because
we have done a good job and thats our pride
is doing the job.
As a leading automobile importer and exporter,
the terminal's largest customer is Pasha Automotive:
a diversified transportation and logistics company.
Pasha is a one-stop shop for automotive dealers.
I'm Frank Cerrito. I am the general manager and vice president
of Pasha Automotive Services here in National City, California.
Other than the unloading and loading of the cargo off of the ships, we also have
our processing to operate. It could be taking a car apart and putting it back together
in our body shop, repairing dents and dings.
It could be loading of rail cars, its preparation of vehicles to go to the
dealerships. What we can do for most of our customers is
a series of accessory installations. Electronics, tow hitches or whatever the
dealer wants to put on the car. We personalize the car for the dealership.
With our 30-year agreement that we just renewed with the Port of San Diego,
we are looking at expanding our footprint and hopefully attracting much more cargo.
we are gonna work with you to make sure that
our Port
serves your needs.
A lot of big ports aren't going to be able to bend
their operations
like we can. We are going to make sure it works for you.