New Orleans Dock Board Trims Budget

Shrinking cargo tonnage led the seven-member board that oversees the Port of New Orleans to cut expenses and adopt a conservative 2010 budget during the monthly meeting June 18. Earnings for fiscal year 2009, which ends June 30, are expected to fall short of projections by an estimated 40 percent. 2009 income was budgeted at $5 million but the port earned only about $3 million before depreciation, according to local news sources.

The Dock Board approved a $35.8 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year and estimates that $27 million of that will come from cargo operations. The fiscal year 2009 budget assumed $30.2 million from cargo operations, news sources reported.

To help control costs, the port will cut marketing and travel expenses and will not fill several empty positions. However layoffs are not expected and income from cruise operations is expected to grow, Jim Ruckert, the port’s finance director, told the Times Picayune. The port earned roughly $4 million from cruise operations during the current fiscal year, a number expected to increase to $5.6 million during 2010.

TEUs slid 25 percent during the first three months of 2009, to 44,898 from 59,844 the previous year, according to the port. From 2007 to 2008 TEUs fell 6 percent, to 235,324 from 250,649.

Calendar year breakbulk was off 23 percent from 2007 to 2008, sliding from 3.7 million tons to 2.8 million tons. However, it was up 27 percent for the first three months of 2009, to 873,238 tons from 689,498 tons. Iron, steel and other breakbulk metals saw the largest increases: iron and steel was up 19 percent, aluminum was up 153 percent, zinc was up some 200 percent and copper imports hit 109,085 tons from zero tons during the same period a year ago.

Forest products slid 46 percent during the first quarter, from 83,203 tons to 45,124. From 2007 to 2008 forest products were off 15 percent, or from 291,748 tons to 247,047. Frozen poultry exports, down 3 percent from 2007 to 2008, picked up almost 27 percent during the first quarter, to 59,448 tons from 47,078 last year.

Contact Janet Nodar at jcnodar@bellsouth.net.