Navigating around port's ice, tides

DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

After a week-and-a-half stay in Homer, waiting for more favorable ice conditions and safer tides in Knik Arm, the South Korean ship Keoyang Majesty returned last Wednesday to Port MacKenzie, where its wood-chip on-loading process was quickly completed before the bulk commodities carrier returned to South Korea.

Icy conditions and swift tidal currents - which occurred earlier this month when the ship was first docked at Port MacKenzie - not only delayed the loading process by 10 days, but prompted port director Marc Van Dongen and an NPI (formerly called Northern Pacific Inc.) financier to examine ways to avoid such problems in the future.

Discovering ways to work around the maritime problems that wintertime conditions bring is vital to the port becoming a viable money-maker, especially since the Keoyang Majesty is expected to return five more times this year.

Van Dongen said he talked with Dale Rich, the financier behind NPI, the company that is harvesting and exporting Mat-Su wood chips. They came up with a solution that works with, not against, Alaska's long, temperamental winters.

Essentially, ships would come into Port MacKenzie from April through December.

"Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? That way we can still work year-round," Van Dongen said.

Harvesting and hauling wood chips would be done during the first three months of the year - taking a hiatus during spring breakup.

"We would stockpile wood chips January through March. That's the best time to harvest timber," Van Dongen said.

It's easier to get access into timber-harvest areas during the winter and trucks don't do as much damage to tundra as summer driving does, Van Dongen said.

The wood-chip-hauling trucks would take a break during April and May, when road restrictions are in place, Van Dongen said. During spring breakup, the weight restrictions on commercial trucks become more strict.

Also, a second loading pad would be built above the dock on the cliff, where the first pad was constructed. Two loading pads would allow NPI to stockpile both birch and spruce wood chips.

The Keoyang Majesty was transporting 100-percent birch wood chips to a South Korean paper-making mill. Birch creates the highest quality paper, Van Dongen said. The spruce chips would be exported to Japan by another ship, expected to arrive in mid-March this year.

State Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-District H, during a phone interview last weekend, expressed the importance of promoting Port MacKenzie.

"We need to push it as a port of entry. [Port MacKenzie can become] logistical support for a future rail spur," Huggins said.

He said he hadn't thought about a solution for navigating around icy waters, saying that wasn't his area of expertise.

"Mother Nature is a tough force. Mother Nature has some will. So we need to focus on what can be controlled," he said.

A season-based plan skirts its way around Mother Nature and allows the port to benefit financially, rather than lose money due to weather-related delays.

"Port MacKenzie generates enough revenue that if the state one of these years denied bond payment to reimburse the borough, we wouldn't have to tax Mat-Su residents," Van Dongen said.

The port would pay for itself in docking and wharfage fees, he said.

A wharfage fee is based on the weight of the load, and is charged according to what kind of ship it is. For example, the wharfage fee for a bulk commodities carrier is $1.25 a ton. The ship exported 43,000 tons of wood chips. In wharfage fees alone, the port brought in $53,750.

The 725-foot Keoyang Majesty was charged $1.20 per foot each day it was docked at the port. During its two trips to Knik Arm, the commodities carrier spent a total of eight days at the port. So, the docking fees totaled $7,000.

The deep-water dock, conveyor system and loading pad - all of which were under construction from late summer 2004 until late January - were funded by a $10-million bond authorization, which was first approved by the state Legislature and then by Mat-Su voters passing Proposition 9.

The bond will be repaid to the borough at 100 percent, but that is subject to annual review by the state.

The first money-maker for the port, the Keoyang Majesty, which first arrived at the port Jan. 31 and left the port half-loaded Feb. 4, is a six-hold ship, among the largest wood-chip carriers in the world.

The round-the-clock operation of loading birch wood chips onto the ship via conveyor had been resulting in filling a hold a day. However, this past week's warmer weather and a better understanding of how the newly constructed equipment handles helped workers finish half a day sooner than expected.

"When it was colder (in early February) the conveyor belt was real stiff. With the warmer weather, everything went faster than we thought it would," Von Dongen said.

Port officials and NPI personnel expressed their gratitude to the South Korean ship's captain. NPI presented an Alaskan gold pan to the sea captain. It was inscribed with the words, "First Vessel to arrive at Port MacKenzie."

On the horizon, Port MacKenzie will be the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony when a second ship arrives from Japan. That event is slated for March 20.

A proposed project related to the port - the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority - will be discussed during a presentation on Valley growth Saturday from 10 - 11:30 a.m., at the Mat-Su Legislative Information Office in Wasilla.