Welcome Aboard is a quarterly publication by the Port of Beaumont for the community of Southeast Texas. You can obtain the expanded, print version of this publication by writing to the Port, or you can download the PDF version of the expanded publication (574k).

A piece of cargo so big it took two ships to unload was recently handled at the Port of Beaumont.

The cargo was a propylene fractionator - a huge steel pressure vessel 321 feet long weighing 665 tons. It and two other similar pieces of cargo made the trip from Korea to Beaumont on the deck of a Dutch heavy-lift ship. After spending some time at the port, the huge tank will be loaded on board a barge to be shipped to a refinery construction project in South Jefferson County.

The Port of Beaumont has been selected by ABB Lummus Global, a construction company based in New Jersey and Houston, to import more than 150 pressure vessels of all sizes and dimensions that will be used in the construction of the world’s largest liquids steam cracker. The facility, which represents an investment of about $800 million, is being built by ABB Lummus Global at Fina’s Port Arthur refinery and will be operated by BASF Corporation.

The unit will be the largest single-train olefins production facility ever built, with a capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of ethylene and propylene. The cracker is scheduled for startup at the end of the year 2000. A steam cracker is a petrochemical plant that turns naphtha and light hydrocarbons into ethylene, propylene and other chemical raw materials. These chemicals can be trans-ported via pipeline or other means to chemical and polymer facilities and converted into olefin-based products.

The port began receiving heavy cargo for the cracker construction project in early September. The largest piece was a 960 ton gasoline fractionator 193 feet long, 36 feet wide and 41 feet tall. The largest vessels, such as the gasoline and propylene fractionators, are too big to be transported overland to the job site.

They will be driven onto a barge and moved by water to their destination. The propylene fractionator was only one foot shorter than the ship that it was riding on. The M.V. Fairlift, a specialized heavy lift ship operated by

Jumbo Shipping Co., arrived in the port from Changwon, Korea, to join her sister ship, the M.V. Fairmast. The two ships were “double-banked” - or moored alongside one-another - to perform the unusual unloading operation.

In a meticulous process, the Fairmast lifted the mammoth pressure vessel slowly while the Fairlift was shifted downstream out of the way. The Fairmast was then moved alongside the port’s wharf to slowly lower the huge fractionator onto a 54-axle self propelled modular vehicle furnished by Davenport-Mammoet. After the ship’s cranes released the cargo, it was painstakingly moved to a temporary place of rest on one of the port’s all-weather open storage areas. The process of slinging, lifting and transporting was repeated the next day for a similar vessel. A third piece, shorter than the two fractionators but weighing 674 tons, was discharged by the Fairlift’s own heavy-lift cranes. Tandem lifts of this nature are unusual, according to a spokesman for Jumbo Shipping, noting the company performs operations like this every few years.

The Port of Beaumont has been active in handling project cargo since the mid-1970’s, and has a variety of facilities suited to its special needs, including wharves with wide aprons and extremely heavy deck strength, plenty of open area for cargo staging, access to cranes and special handling equipment, good rail and highway access, and skilled longshore labor. The port’s $27 million Port Improvements Program will include construction of a 680-foot extension of its primary project wharf, Harbor Island Marine Terminal.

The Port of Beaumont’s importance to our nation’s defense has been recognized by another branch of the military. In August, the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command Atlantic officially opened a branch office in Southeast Texas, shifting its base of operations from New Orleans to Beaumont.

“The Navy’s move shows its confidence in the professionalism and initiative of the Port of Beaumont,” noted U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont.

The Military Sealift Command office will support the U.S. Army’s Transportation Terminal Group, which moves military and foreign aid cargo for the Gulf coast, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Field representatives in Houston, New Orleans and Puerto Rico now report to the Beaumont branch.

The move created six new jobs and brings an annual $250,000 payroll to the Golden Triangle area. The new Military Sealift Command office is leasing 13,000 square feet in Edison Plaza.

The branch office is under the command of Lieutenant Commander Chris Arias. LCDR Arias, who holds a Masters of Science in Information Technology Management from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, served a tour of duty with the Military Sealift Command in Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Storm.

In June, the U.S. Army’s Military Traffic Management Command, 596th Transportation Group conducted a Change of Command Ceremony at the Port of Beaumont. The ceremony is a time-honored tradition, symbolizing the passing of honor and responsibility to a new commander.

The 596th Transportation Group’s new commander is Colonel Jonathan White. Col. White earned his commission through the ROTC program at Murray State University in Kentucky where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. He also holds master’s degrees in secondary education and National Resource Strategy.

Before his current assignment as Commander of the 596th, Colonel White served in a variety of command and staff positions.

Colonel White succeeds Colonel Robert Garcia, who became Commander of the 596th Transportation Group in Beaumont last year when it was upgraded by the U.S. Army to brigade status. Colonel Garcia has relocated to Ft. Eustis, Virginia, where he was assigned to the Deployment Process Modernization Office.

The port’s newest commissioner made history her first day on the job. When Nell Clark was appointed this summer to serve the remainder of her late husband’s unexpired term, she became the first female to ever serve on the governing body of the port.

A native of Arkansas, Mrs. Clark retired with 30 years of service from Sun Oil Company. She is active in civic and community affairs, serving on the board of directors of the Best Years Center, board of directors of Seniors in Beaumont, the advisory council of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and Woman’s Club of Beaumont. Mrs. Clark previously served as secretary to the board of directors of Nutrition and Services for the Elderly and was a member of Beaumont’s Community Development Block Grant Committee.

Her late husband, Le Roy, died in May after a lengthy illness. He served as commissioner for 14 years, and was last re-elected in 1997. A retiree of Mobil Oil Corp. Beaumont Refinery and a World War II veteran of the Merchant Marine, Le Roy Clark played a significant role in the growth and development of the port.

A public-private partnership between the port and Trans-Global Solutions Inc. (TGS/BBT), places Beaumont in the forefront of the expanding bulk export market.

In August, TGS/BBT completed installation of a unique rail-to-ship bulk cargo transfer facility capable of unloading two railcars at a time. This ability will enable the port to discharge 116 average railcars per day, each containing an estimated 90 tons of cargo. This discharge rate will allow 10,000 tons of material to be loaded into a typical bulk carrier vessel. Port Director Bill Masters noted that the rail-to-ship facility is equipped with a state-of-the art dust suppressor system for an environmentally sound operation.

“This new business and new facility were made possible through the cooperation of TGS/BBT, our customer, and the railroads that serve both the supplier of the cargo and the port,” noted Masters.

Leaders of the North America port industry re-elected Beaumont Port Director Bill Masters to the board of directors of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA). Board members were elected at the AAPA Annual Membership Meeting during the Association’s recent 88th annual convention in New York City.

Masters will also continue to serve on the AAPA’s National Defense Committee.

AAPA was founded in 1912 and today represents more than 160 public port authorities in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hundreds of Southeast Texans packed the Port of Beaumont, Saturday, September 18, to join festivities celebrating the port’s 50th anniversary. The Ozen High School marching band spear-headed a Sail-A-Bration parade. Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oil popped up in horse-drawn carriage as a special treat for visitors, young and young-at-heart.

Pictured below, in the photograph to the far right, are U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont, left, and former U.S. Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Beaumont. Congressman Brooks was a member of the Texas legislature that sponsored legislation creating the Port of Beaumont Navigation District.

For the fourth year, the Port of Beaumont was the gateway for the world’s largest joint tactical air operations exercise. In May, more than 900 pieces of cargo for the German Armed Forces and Royal Netherlands Air Force were unloaded from three vessels and later reloaded after participating in joint training exercises at bases in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Operation Roving Sands provides training under desert conditions for about 20,000 American and European troops, including soldiers, sailors and aviators.

The 7,767 tons of cargo handled by the port in May were transferred by rail car and highway convoy to Fort Bliss, Texas and the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Re-deployment took place at the port in July when three German and Dutch vessels were reloaded with 6,722 tons of cargo, including containers and vehicles.

Operation Roving Sands has selected Beaumont as its transportation hub because of the area’s excellent port facilities, rail and highway connections, and skilled and efficient long-shore labor force.

The U.S. Maritime Administration (Marad) honored the port’s 50th anniversary with a magnificent piece of maritime history. At a September ceremony, John Carnes, Central Region Director of Marad, presented the port with a ship’s wheel, which once steered the course for the Liberty Ship Jefferson Davis. The ship’s wheel now rests in a place of honor inside the port administration building.

The presentation took place alongside the M.V. Cape Knox, one of the latest additions to the Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Fleet. Port Director Bill Masters noted that the ship’s wheel commemorates the countless men and women whose hard work and dedication over five decades has made the Port of Beaumont successful.

The Maritime Administration is an important partner in the port’s history. Two ships of the Ready Reserve Fleet, berthed at the port, continue to play a major role in national security and peacekeeping efforts.

In September, the M.V. Cape Knox supplied a stately back-drop for the Maritime Administration’s anniversary presentation, (see story above.)

Five hundred forty-six pieces of cargo were loaded aboard the Cape Knox for shipment to South Korea as part of an annual training exercise (Foal Eagle) that moves equipment to the Republic of South Korea. This mission also tested the commercial industry’s capabilities of delivering cargo and moving units by containerizing equipment. The cargo bound for South Korea was staged at the port’s lot 7, which was recently expanded to 14 acres.

A second mission involved the unloading of Nuevos Horizontes Nicaragua equipment from the MV Strong American, a combination barge-tug vessel. That cargo belonged to the Ohio National Guard and consisted of more than 300 pieces of equipment.

If I had to sum up our business philosophy around the Port of Beaumont in one word, it would be DIVERSIFICATION.

The port’s diversification efforts throughout the 1980’s and early part of this decade resulted in expansion into new commodities like wood chips, plywood, steel scrap substitutes, aggre-gate, imported woodpulp, hardboard and a variety of steel products. Increases were also seen in military cargo as the U.S. Army relied more heavily on the port before finally locating a major headquarters here in 1994.

As a further example of the strategic importance of the Port of Beaumont, this summer the U.S. Navy selected Beaumont as the site for its new Military Sealift Command office, which is responsible for all operations in the Gulf of Mexico and Central and South America. Foreign military cargo has also moved through the port, most notably three shipments of equip-ment for the German and Dutch air forces.

In recent years, growth has continued in imported forest products, bulk materials and agri-culture products.

The port handled its first shipment of imported sugar in 1998, and that commodity has helped attract a wide variety of other bagged foodstuffs.

Another commodity that has shown growth in recent months is project cargo. The port is currently handling major components of an $800 million olefins cracking plant being built at a refinery in Port Arthur.

The first shipment of another new commodity - bulk soda ash - was recently handled over a unique facility designed to transfer free-flowing bulk material from railcars to ocean-going ships and barges.

As another indication of our on-going diversification program, the port is also working steadily on projects funded by the $27 million Port Improvements Program approved by voters in 1997. Construction began in 1998 on several of the projects, including major renovation of the port’s grain elevator, completion of two new sets of railroad tracks serving the grain elevator and bulk terminals, and roadway, drainage and utility improvements. Construction has begun on access and initial development of the port’s property on the east bank of the Neches River, and is expected to begin soon on expansion of Harbor Island Marine Terminal.

As the Port of Beaumont enters the new millennium, we will continue to diversify our facilities and cargo base to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing world economy.