Shipping Terminals

Dismissing rumors of a sale of troubled American International Group Inc.'s cargo terminal operations at several U.S. seaports, the head of the group that manages those facilities said Thursday that they were insulated from AIG's financial troubles and wouldn't be put on the auction block. "We are legally and financially separate," said Stephen Edwards, chief executive of Iselin, N.J.-based Ports America Group, which is owned by the private equity firm AIG Highstar Capital.

Retreating from his own dismissal order, a federal judge has granted a harbor-area activist the chance to reopen a lawsuit alleging that the Port of Los Angeles misappropriated $1.2 billion in government funds to build a giant cargo terminal. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero ruled this month that Stanley D. Mosler of Rancho Palos Verdes can resume his false-claims case if he withdraws an appeal and hires an attorney for the rest of the litigation.

Insurance giant American International Group Inc. agreed to buy San Francisco-based MTC Holdings and its 32 seaport terminals. The deal includes facilities at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Terms weren't disclosed. MTC Holdings, one of the nation's largest independent terminal operators, will continue to manage the facilities, which are expected to handle about 8 million containers this year. In December, AIG agreed to buy the leases to Dubai Port World's terminals in Newark, N.J.

A terminal operator at the Port of Los Angeles will lose three customers that move about $40 million in cargo each year when those shipping lines shift their business to the neighboring Port of Long Beach in November, officials said Thursday. The decision represents a loss for TraPac terminal and the Port of Los Angeles. The three companies, all based in Asia, send 12,000 cargo containers a month through the terminal, and the ports gain $75 in income from each container.

To avoid a repeat of a strike that idled Canada's busiest port for five weeks last summer, officials in Vancouver have borrowed a strategy pioneered in Southern California: extending the hours that terminal gates are open. The idea is to keep truckers happy by reducing congestion so that drivers can make better money hauling even more steel containers crammed with imported goods. But so far, Vancouver has found the extended hours to be a tough sell.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a Canadian retirement fund manager, agreed to buy four marine container terminals in the New York area and in British Columbia from Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. for $2.4 billion. Combined annual sales of the operations total about $500 million. They are the New York Container Terminal on New York's Staten Island and Global Terminal and Container Systems Inc. at the Port of New Jersey.

CNF Inc.'s Con-Way Transportation, the biggest regional trucker in the U.S., said Wednesday that it would add six freight distribution terminals in Mexico, building on increased trade between the countries. The terminals, in Mexico City, Nuevo Laredo, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Monterrey and Guadalajara, will open July 4, Con-Way said. Con-Way has had sales offices in Mexico since 1992. CNF is expanding after U.S.-Mexico trade rose 10% in the first quarter and 5.

Plans to create what Los Angeles officials bill as the nation's first environmentally sensitive cargo terminal have hit a snag, with the prospective tenant still not committed to retrofitting ships to make the project work. One reason for the snag: City and port officials say they agreed to a landmark, $60-million court settlement with residents and environmental groups without first consulting with China Shipping, whose cooperation is a key piece of that deal.

The bankrupt Gdansk shipyard--birthplace of the Solidarity union movement that brought democracy to Poland and helped topple communism throughout Eastern Europe--has found a buyer, to the dismay of many Poles. A fierce debate is raging here over whether the expected sale of the shipyard's entire assets represents the ignominious death of the historic facility or its rebirth in a form fit to survive in the global market economy.

Los Angeles County's two sprawling ports will maintain their dominance over rival seaports in the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest over the next two decades when cargo volume is expected to more than double, according to a study released Thursday.