toledoblade.com --

The Port of Toledo ships out grain and ships in iron ore, but it is not, and never has been, anything more than a bit player in the containerized shipping industry that dominates the U.S. and world economies.

Nor has any other Great Lakes port except Toronto.

But ever-growing demand for container shipping, resulting in bigger ships and port congestion, could breathe new life into Great Lakes ports like Toledo, with what is now being called ''short-sea'' shipping.

No massive, costly enlargement of locks and channels on either the St. Lawrence River or the Welland Canal linking lakes Ontario and Erie is planned.

The freighter Canadian Ranger hauls grain after fi lling up at the Port of Toledo, which may expand container shipments.
( THE BLADE )

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Instead, short-sea shipping proponents advocate the use of seaway-sized vessels between Great Lakes ports and larger coastal harbors where freight containers would be transferred to or from ocean-going container ships.

For now, at least, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's attention is focused on Melford International Terminal, a proposed deepwater port on the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia that could accommodate the largest container ships now envisioned - ships so big they wouldn't even fit into many existing coastal ports.

While Melford's planners expect that a vast majority of cargo handled there will make its inland journey by train, the potential exists for Toledo and other Great Lakes ports to carve out a share of the business, especially as fuel costs rise, said Richie Mann, Melford's vice president for marketing.

"Our location is attractive. We're right at the mouth of the seaway," he said. "The longer you keep cargo on the water, the cheaper it is to move."

"Is it futuristic? It is until it happens," said Warren McCrimmon, seaport director for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

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Melford planners believe their port could handle 500,000 annual container units to and from Ohio once they reach full operation in 2015. Even if only 5 percent to 7 percent of that travels inland by water, Mr. McCrimmon said, that could be enough to sustain a weekly ship service.

"Once container traffic is coming to Ohio," he continued, "economics will dictate the mode. Rising fuel prices give the advantage to ships. We have the same advantage over rail that they have over trucks."

"This is all about Toledo's taking advantage of its position at a crossroads," said Steve Fought, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) after the congressman and state officials met last month with Melford representatives. "It's been talked about for decades. It's time that we acted on it. Creative minds in economic development have to scramble now and put together a package that meets their [Melford's] needs."

If short-sea shipping comes to pass, the port authority has the site for a local terminal: the former Gulf Oil refinery site on Front Street in East Toledo.

The port authority has scheduled a news conference today to announce the purchase of 181 acres of the former refinery property, now belonging to Chevron Corp., to expand the Port of Toledo's wharf and warehouse operations.

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The port authority's board of directors already had approved bond issues of up to $4.75 million to finance the purchase. The agency plans to lease the site to Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, the authority's stevedore at its existing International Cargo Dock, for development.

Cleared long ago of any refinery remnants, the vacant tract could be redeveloped easily for container handling, said James Hartung, the port authority's president.

And besides being a few miles down Front from I-280, he said, it is accessible by at least two, if not three, railroads: CSX and Norfolk Southern, which both have adjoining tracks, and Wheeling & Lake Erie, which has operating rights on the Norfolk Southern line.

Wheeling's operating rights don't include the right to make any customer-service stops along the way, Mr. Hartung conceded, but there's always the potential of a deal being struck with Norfolk Southern.

Toledo could become a gateway for Norfolk Southern to transfer containers to its Rickenbacker Intermodal Terminal in Columbus, Mr. Hartung said, and could also feed freight into the network CSX is basing on its planned container terminal in North Baltimore, Ohio.

Though she wouldn't rule it out, Lisa Mancini, CSX's vice president for infrastructure development, said her railroad has no current plan to involve inland water transportation with the North Baltimore terminal.

"We don't think of that as a large potential development," she said following a May 7 project briefing for local officials in Bowling Green.

Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, called short-sea shipping "an interesting concept" but was similarly noncommittal about whether Norfolk Southern would transfer any containers through Toledo's port.

"If there's business out there, I'm sure we would take a look at it," he said.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

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