North Dakota intermodal port accepts first containers

Written by jrood

Advocates for an intermodal facility to ship agricultural products from Minot, N.D., saw their vision realized August 23, reports the Minot Daily News. The Port of North Dakota began unloading containers from a BNSF train that morning with plans to fill them this week with commodities.

A number of supporters were
on hand to watch the launch of the Ag-in-a-Box program. Guests included
Congressman Earl Pomeroy, Gov. John Hoeven, city leaders, legislators, a
Chinese trade delegation and representatives of BNSF, BNSF Logistics and
Oriental Overseas Container Line.

"This is a very
exciting day," said Greg Johnson, president of North Dakota Port Services,
the port operator. "The train has arrived. We have been open for business
actually for about three years now but the moment North Dakota has been waiting
for has finally come"

Following a ceremony and
ribbon cutting, visitors watched as heavy equipment operators using a
specialized machine lifted the first of 90 containers from a train and loaded
it onto a truck.

In addition to the 90
containers on site, the port expects to receive 40 containers a week, he said.

OOCL is the first carrier
to make a commitment to providing containers.

"We are real proud to
be the first ones here," said Edward Zaninelli, a vice president at OOCL.
"You have the right idea. You have the right product. We have some
challenges ahead of us."

He explained that North
America faces shipping challenges, such as inland distances to the coast. In
Europe, agricultural commodities don’t need to move far to get to a coastal
port, he said. Minot also will need to draw interest from more carriers and
work hard on finding imports, he said.

Companies don’t like to
ship containers empty. Because there is limited demand in a small state like
North Dakota for imports, it is difficult to get the containers needed to ship
out ag products.

Zaninelli said OOCL, the
11th largest line in the world, decided to bring containers to Minot because of
its previous partnership with BNSF.

"We felt that it was a
place where we could probably work with each other in trying to get this off
the ground," he said.

Speakers at the ceremony
gave Greg Johnson much of the credit for getting containers to Minot.

Eric Wolfe with BNSF
Logistics suggested port officials still have work ahead. The can-do spirit of
North Dakota resulted in the launch of Ag-in-a-Box. Now the program must be
used to be sustained, he said.

Johnson was vocal, as was
Mayor Curt Zimbelman who spoke at the ceremony, about the need now to build an
overpass on 55th Street. That project has faced its own delays because of lack
of funding. The city would like a bridge over the railroad tracks on the street
that runs next to the Port of North Dakota and agricultural park to accommodate
the increased truck traffic to the port and businesses in the park.

Pomeroy indicated that he
got the message and would work to find funding in the federal transportation
budget.

"Having this facility
come on line couldn’t be a better match for our needs going forward,"
Pomeroy said, noting the state’s economic prosperity that’s being led by oil
and agriculture. The port has been shipping oil while waiting for ag
containers. At the time the port was conceived, no one could have known about
the boom in oil and changes in agriculture that were to come. It required
visionary leadership, Pomeroy said.

The Chinese trade
delegation at the ceremony happened to be in the area to accept an invitation
to attend. Peter Klaiber, marketing director for USA Dry Pea & Lentil
Council, said the council typically escorts a Chinese delegation to see the
size and quality of the crop at harvest time. The Chinese are interested in
getting commodities in the most cost-efficient and timely way possible, Klaiber
said.

"This is the kind of
facility that can provide both of those things," he said.

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