Update: Mo. port links MW to Gulf

Key stakeholders behind efforts to launch innovative container-on-vessel (COV) service to the Midwest (MW) announced last week that Hawtex Development Corp. is signing on as lead developer for a new COV port facility in Herculaneum, Mo. The new port will be the link on the new, all-water, north-south trade lane connecting Saint Louis to the Lower Mississippi River, and on to worldwide destinations via the Plaquemines (La.) Port Harbor and Terminal in Belle Chasse, which provides water access to 33 states. American Patriot Container Transport (APCT) is developing the patented vessels that will carry cargo along the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers. APCT also issued a Dec. 14 solicitation to seven American shipyards for construction of four of the patented vessels with an option for four more. Proposals are due at the end of February. The partnerships, and advancements in construction, will represent a “huge step forward for this unique supply chain option that will reduce transportation costs for shippers” up to 40 percent, said APCT’s CEO Sal Litrico. The vessels will be built in two sizes with the larger traveling between the terminal the Gulf Coast (GC) in Louisiana and the Mississippi River ports in Memphis, Tenn., and the new Missouri port. The smaller hybrids are designed to move through locks and low-lying bridges on tributary rivers providing service Midwest ports to feeder ports from Fort Smith Ark., to Cairo, Ill. (Source: Maritime Professional 12/17/21) St. Louis Container On Barge Project Moves Forward (maritimeprofessional.com) Previously posted on this site Post: Edit (blogger.com) 

UPDATE 12/23/21: The first four vessels will initially be placed in service between the Louisiana Gulf Gateway Terminal at mile marker 52 in Plaquemines Parish, La., and a new planned container terminal in Memphis, Tenn., being developed by Hawtex Development Corp. Those first four APH vessels will enter service under a long-term contract that will begin on the startup dates for the ocean terminal in Plaquemines and the Memphis terminal, currently planned for April 1, 2024.