Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Longshoremen unload a 148-foot windmill blade at the Port of Longview Tuesday. The 66 blades and other parts below deck are destined for a wind farm in Oregon. |
Port windfall: Wind farm imports buoy economy
Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:23 PM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
Printable version
E-mail this articleAt the Port of Longview, acres of white blades, turbines and steel tubes are arranged in orderly rows in a storage yard near the Columbia River.
The parts, imported from South Korea, China and Denmark, are destined for wind energy farms in the Northwest and represent a significant shift in port commerce that is helping drive up longshore employment, port officials say.
In just a few years, a port that once banked on exporting raw logs is now earning its keep by importing bulk commodities, including wind energy components.
The port imported about 272,600 metric tons of goods last year, 38 percent more than 2005. Export tonnage dropped to 1.1 million tons in 2006 from 1.4 million tons in 2005.
Rising wind power import business is big reason more than 50 new longshoremen have registered to work in Longview in the last three years, said John Philbrook, president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21.
"These products amount to a high number of man-hours on ship side and dock side," Philbrook said. "These are family-wage jobs. These are the type of jobs that are a shot-in-the-arm for the community on many different levels."
Longview had historically been an export port, sending logs, bulk goods and other materials to Pacific Rim countries.
Log business began to fade away in 2002 when Weyerhaeuser Co. bought Willamette Industries, which shipped logs through the port. Weyerhaeuser shifted that business to its own Longview dock on the Columbia. In 2001, the port exported 144.5 million board feet of logs; in 2006, that dropped to 5.2 million board feet.
"Overall, 2006 was a huge year for imports," port Marketing Director Gary Lindstrom said this week. "Imports were 13 percent of our total book of business and 40 percent of our total revenue."
"The tide is turning," said Valerie Harris, business development manager with the port. "Because of increase of imports from Asia, we're seeing more things like break bulk cargo."
Break bulk cargo is generally stowed, as opposed to containerized.
The port has seen increases in imports such as salt, steel and calcined coke. Wind power business, which were 14 percent of the port's imports last year, is accelerating quickly.
Between 2003 and 2006, longshoremen unloaded about 1,600 windmill parts --- mostly tower sections from South Korea and China. This year alone, the port projects it will unload about 1,220 parts --- a mix of tower sections and turbines.
In April and May, wind generation parts for the Cowlitz PUD's White Creek wind farm in Klickitat County are scheduled to start arriving at the port. Those wind power shipments are significant because those windmills will eventually power local homes when the project comes on line later this year.
In addition, a ballot measure voters passed last year will likely encourage more wind energy investment in Washington, and the port is poised to take advantage of its experience handling wind energy parts.
"Wind energy ... is a cutting edge market. A lot of people want to be in the business," Lindstrom said.
Recently, 110 Siemens windmill parts were off-loaded from the vessel BBC India . They're visible on port grounds from the Lewis and Clark Bridge. They include 87-ton nacelles -- the fuselage-shaped structures that house generating components --- and 148-foot wind blades. They will be trucked one-by-one to the Klondike wind farm in Sherman County, Ore.
"We chose the Port of Longview for its location and also because they had experience in handling. They have specialty equipment other ports do not have," said Clare Bertel, wind transportation coordinator for Siemens. "This is the first time we've dealt with the port for wind business, and we're very pleased with the handling and looking forward to get these on the road."
On Tuesday, teams of longshoremen began unloading blades onto special dollies made in-house. Crews smoothly unloaded blade after blade in about seven-minute intervals.
"There is a learning curve to handling this cargo," Philbrook said.
Even though longshoreman have only unloaded a handful of blades in the past, "we are pretty proud of the way we're handling these projects."
Philbrook attributes the increase in business to recently extended federal tax credits promoting wind energy construction.
"We're expecting to be in this business for the long haul," said Harris, the port's business manager. "We've positioned ourselves to be a major player in this market."
Harris said the port's available space to store parts, the qualified labor and proximity to the wind farms helped customers choose Longview.
"This has been quite a change for us over the years," said Lindstrom about the transition from logs to steel. "It's so different from what I remember seeing here at the port just 15 years ago."
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