| A 43 year-old shipping line with a new name has ushered in the 21st century with not only a name change, but a big shift in focus and direction. CSX Lines, formerly Sea-Land, watched its international liner division get sold off to A.P. Moller/Maersk in December to the tune of $800 million. The domestic service‹sixteen vessels strong‹is what remains, as well as its parent company, Charlotte, N.C.-based CSX corporation, which has holdings in rail, trucking and international terminal operations.
Marine Digest spoke with Charles "Chuck" Raymond, CSX Line¹s president and CEO, about the newly streamlined company's domestic future and what it's like to concentrate on being a 100 percent "Jones Act" carrier.
"It's hard to disengage from being an international business," said Raymond. "It's a re-vision, especially now that all of our personnel shifting is complete."
Raymond said CSX Lines views its overall domestic market in 2000 as generally stable, growing 2 to 2.5 percent. "Hawaii and Guam might be 1 percent, due to their dependence on the Asia economies, but there may be some growth in Alaska."
In Alaska, CSX operates three 1332 TEU, diesel ships capable of 19.5 knots. Raymond said, "Seafood, as always, is still a very strong focus of ours. With the asset purchase [by A.P Moller], we kept 7,000 reefer boxes out of the total 27,000 containers we retained. This allows us to meet all of the peak demands."
As for specific seafood commodities on CSX's radar, Raymond said, "Pollack looks stronger than last year, although many of the other harvests are under stress. Opilio crab went from a quota of 196 million pounds last season to the current quota of 28.5 million pounds. So we're not sure where crab is going to go beyond 2002-2003. We also participate in Pacific cod and herring, and in May, king and silver salmon."
In terms of preparation for a sudden upturn in any of the catches, "We have the equipment if there's a sudden spike in the market. We have connections with major container leasing companies due to Sea-Land's longtime involvement up there. If there's a big jump, we know who to go to."
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