The CEO of North Carolina State Ports Authority sees a prosperous voyage ahead for the state’s two ports. Paul Cozza, who has been at the ports’ helm for about a year, laid out plans for expansion of the ports’ capacity and shared his vision for the future at a luncheon Friday.

The event was hosted by the N.C. Foreign Trade Promotion Council and the N.C. World Trade Association, Cape Fear Chapter.

“Our goal is to be the best ports on the East Coast,” Cozza said, describing a “very competitive” landscape in which Wilmington and Morehead City can find competitive advantage.  Factors that work in North Carolina’s favor are congestion at many other North American ports and periodic labor disruptions at West Coast ports.

The state’s ports have minimal congestion and are working to continue streamlining operations, Cozza said. He noted also that each time there is a labor dispute on the West Coast, like the lengthy one that was resolved only recently, more shippers move their business to the East Coast.

“This is a great time for the ports to invest” here in North Carolina, he added. Immediate needs at the Port of Wilmington are new post-Panamax cranes and improvements to several berths.

“We’re looking to have two post-Panamax berths here,” he said.
Those improvements would cost roughly $75 million of a total of $114 million Cozza would like to see invested in the ports over the next five years.

“Our competitor ports invest a lot more than that,” he said, noting that much of the funds come from revenues generated by the ports. As North Carolina ports’ capacity grows, he explained, they will be able to fund an increasing percentage of improvements from their own revenues.

Cozza outlined the ambitious goals for the ports that are set forth in the ports authority’s new five-year strategic plan: to double the container business, to expand business at the general terminals by 4 million tons, to execute the above-mentioned investment plan with money from the state and from the ports themselves, to complete channel enhancement at both ports to accommodate post-Panamax vessels, and to achieve long-term stability so that the ports can fund their future capital needs with no money from the state.

The chief also touted two new improvements at the Port of Wilmington: the Enviva wood pellet storage facility which will enable significant export of pellets to Europe, and the cold storage facility.

“What [the cold storage facility] is going to do is enhance our ability to export chicken and pork; to enhance our competitiveness. We’re currently talking to cargo owners,” he said.

“We’re not as large as Norfolk, Savannah or Charleston,” he said. “If our service levels are the same as them, we aren’t going to grow. We have to be better than them. Our speed getting cargo in and out of the port is a huge thing, as is the fact that we are a low-cost port, with top-notch services.”

In response to a question from the audience, Cozza said that an international terminal in Southport is “not in our plan.” He also affirmed the need for continued improvements in infrastructure around the port, and said he would like to see a southern crossing of the Cape Fear River that would bring cargo directly to the Port of Wilmington rather than its having to travel through Wilmington.