Port Response

I got this response about yesterday’s post from H. Thomas Kornegay, PE, PPM, Executive Director, Port of Houston Authority. (He uses PHA – and there are several more acronyms explained below.)

“The front page of Monday's edition of The Wall Street Journal featured an article on a port project in Savannah, Georgia, accompanied by a chart sourced from the AAPA that lists the busiest US ports in terms of container TEUs.”

The AAPA is the American Association of Port Authorities. TEU is twenty-foot equivalent units, container-wise, loaded and empty.

“In 2004, the Port of Houston Authority handled approximately 1.4 million TEUs. This was a high amount and yet another record for PHA; however, it was not high enough to place the PHA in the Top 10 of busy ports based strictly on containers.

“Houston's port – including all public PHA facilities and all private facilities – remains sixth largest in the world and ranks first in the US in foreign tonnage and second in total tonnage based on the combined total of all cargoes, not just containers. Cargoes handled at Houston's diverse port facilities include liquid bulk (e.g. petroleum and chemicals), breakbulk, project cargo, steel, automobiles, grains, and more.”

The Port of Houston is 53 miles long. Most of us don’t even notice it unless we’re visiting a client in Pasadena or some other part of the Houston Ship Channel. I’d like to see PHA get even more positive press, so consider this my bit for the Port.