A 680-foot ship was expected to arrive Tuesday. Why didn’t the Port commission vote on it?
Update: The ship did not arrive Tuesday morning and has now been delayed, a spokeswoman for the port said. An updated arrival time was not immediately known.
The Port of Olympia commission was briefed on a layberth agreement during its work session on Monday, an agreement that apparently is already a done deal.
Although the layberth item on the work session agenda was identified as “information only” and not an action item, the 680-foot ship is now expected to arrive at 7 a.m. Tuesday, said Afsin Yilmaz, the marine terminal senior manager.
Immediately after the meeting, The Olympian reached out to the port through a spokeswoman about whether the agreement needed approval of the commission. It does not, said Joy Johnston.
“It is a shorter term operation and therefore within staff’s authority (to approve),” she said.
The ship that’s set to arrive Tuesday is the “Maunalei,” which is operated by the shipping company Matson.
The vessel typically is used for Matson’s shipping business to Hawaii and Alaska, but here the ship will do very little except be on emergency reserve status for the Alaska fleet. The ship will be “cold-stacked,” meaning it will have no crew and no on-board operations.
Commissioner Joe Downing was overjoyed about the news.
“I’m thrilled beyond belief,” said Downing, pointing out the port tried twice before to strike similar layberth agreements. He called it wonderful income for the port and congratulated the marine terminal senior manager and Executive Director Sam Gibboney.
“It’s just a great piece of business for the marine terminal,” he said.
Although Matson has agreed to a six-month commitment at the port, the actual term of the layberth agreement is longer than that at just under one year. The first 180 days of the deal will pay the port about $800,000, followed by about $400,000 for the remaining term.
If the ship departs in the first six months, the ship will be replaced by another of similar size from the Matson fleet and still pay the same daily rate of $4,500 per day to the port, marine terminal senior manager Yilmaz said. If the ship can’t be replaced, Matson will still pay the same rate, he said.
In order to fulfill the agreement from the port’s point of view, the port plans to spend $250,000 to bring shore power to the marine terminal, which will require a budget adjustment and a vote of the commission on May 22.
The electrical infrastructure won’t be installed right away, so the port plans to use generators to deliver power to the ship, Yilmaz said.
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 8:50 PM.
