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Port's Marine Business Picks Up by Staff Portland Business Journal, May 17, 2010

Through four months this year, the Port of Portland's marine terminals have handled 45 percent more cargo than a year earlier.

The port is experiencing a surge in growth in every category except one: container cargo, which has fallen nearly 28 percent so far this year.

The port commission last week approved a deal to hand over the management of Terminal 6, its lone container terminal, to Phillippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc., the world's fourth-largest independent container terminal operator.

The number of vessels calling the port is up 6.3 percent to 187. Those ships have carried 4.6 million tons of cargo, a 45 percent increase. Grain exports are up nearly 25 percent from Columbia Grain, which operates at the port's Terminal 5.

Mineral bulk is up nearly 123 percent so far this year to 1.8 million tons, while breakbulk cargo has jumped 162 percent to more than 376,000 tons.

Auto imports are showing signs of recovery, climbing nearly 10 percent so far this year.