Last month, I generally discussed the Delta’s bustling inland ports...
Aerial view of the Port of West Sacramento. The Port has set the ambitious goal of increasing total cargo tonnage by 400 percent. Photo courtesy of Port of West Sacramento
By Jah Mackey
Published: November, 2010
Last month, I generally discussed the Delta’s bustling inland ports. In this installment, I will take a deeper look into several organizations that call the Ports of Stockton and West Sacramento home.
The Port of Stockton:
Pacific Ethanol’s Reversal of Fortune
In 2008, Pacific Ethanol started operations of their $100 million ethanol facility, only to close its doors six months later as the ethanol market collapsed. Last month, the company announced plans to reopen two of their four closed facilities: The Port of Stockton facility will be the first to resume production by December 2010, while the Madera facility will come online as market conditions improve.
“Resuming production at the Stockton facility allows us to meet the growing demand for ethanol,” said Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and chief executive officer.
The decision to reopen the facilities came in the wake of California’s 2010-2011 budget ratification, which provides funding to the California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program (CEPIP), for which the Stockton and Madera facilities are eligible. Further, the federal government recently approved a waiver allowing broader use of E15 fuel, which contains 15 percent ethanol. Fuel blends to this point have been limited to 10 percent ethanol.
The state funded CEPIP program provides subsidies to eligible ethanol producers in the state under certain market conditions. Pacific Ethanol is banking on the subsidies and increased ethanol demand to fuel its reversal of fortune. In an earlier statement, Pacific Ethanol announced a financial plan that would allow them to buy back a stake in the production facilities.
The Port of West Sacramento:
The Little Port Lands Some Big Fish
The Port of West Sacramento (PWS) has an ambitious goal to increase total cargo tonnage from its current level of 1 millions metric tons to 4 millions metric tons of cargo per year. To help the port achieve its lofty goals, the PWS signed a 20-year agreement with port operations contractors SSA Marine.
“With the acquisition of the port from the City of Sacramento completed, the Port Commission decided to pursue a more diverse, economically and environmentally sustainable cargo,” said Port Manager Mike Luken. “Historically, all of our cargo has been agricultural and subsequently, our fiscal planning has been directly tied to the cyclical nature of the agri-business.”
To achieve the goals, the Port of West Sacramento has transitioned from an operations port to a landlord port, and devised a plan to attract new and different businesses to its shores. The port’s first order of was business was to address the depth-limiting channel access and outdated infrastructure of Sacramento’s Deep Water Channel.
The port collaborated with the Army Corp of Engineers, the Port of Oakland and the Port of Stockton to develop a cost-effective solution as an alternative to existing truck and rail infrastructure. The solution was the California Green Trade Corridor. The program will provide freight services via barge, primarily for consumer goods moving by ocean vessel and agricultural products grown in Central California. Approximately 30 million dollars of the required funding comes directly from the federal government’s stimulus package through the Tiger Grant Funding Program.
Once complete, the California Green Trade Corridor will not only divert large trucks from congested highways, but also enable the port to accommodate deeper draft vessels and entice new business with updated infrastructure.
Cemex and Pan Pacific
In 2007, Cemex and Pan Pacific joined the port’s tenant roster. The cement giants invested a combined $74 million into the infrastructure and facility development to bring two cement-processing plants to the Port of West Sacramento. Pan Pacific is importing raw cement from overseas as raw material supplies dwindle. Cemex has relocated and increased the size of its local operation and added 60 million metric tons of additional capacity.
Enligna
Enligna, a Canadian company, completed the permitting process to develop a wood pellet manufacturing and a cogeneration power plant to power its manufacturing facility in 2009. The extra power will be sold back to other Port tenants or to the grid.
Once completed, the plant will produce an estimated 170,000 tons of pellets from agricultural and construction waste. The pellets will be used as a green fuel alternative to coal in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas for heating and power generation. The pellets will then be exported to its worldwide customer base.
West Coast Recycling
West Coast Recycling Group, LLC is proposing to construct and operate a metal recycling plant at the Port of West Sacramento. This state-of-the-art facility is one of the latest projects in the port’s push toward a new, innovative “green” business and operations model. The facility, representing a private investment of more than $25 million, will provide an immediate and significant economic boost to the greater Sacramento region.
The Stockton and West Sacramento ports are relatively small in stature when compared to the likes of the Port of Oakland, but they are big on new and creative ideas. We have only touched upon a few of the businesses that call these ports home, but keep in mind that business is alive and well in the Delta, which helps local communities thrive.
Jah Mackey, is President of Oceanus Marine Group (OMG), which provides outsourced marina management services to public and private marinas. Mackey is the current commodore of California’s first internet-based yacht club, OMG’s Delta Yacht Registry, and is an avid boater with over 20 years of boating experience on the San Francisco Bay and Delta Regions.
