Transammonia Inc. has new storage capacity at both the Port of West Memphis in Arkansas and in Fairless Hills Terminal in Pennsylvania. In both cases, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners runs the ports and built the storage. Opening ceremonies were held at both earlier this month.
The $5 million West Memphis facility includes a 30,000 square foot, 9,000 st warehouse. Product will be shipped in by barge, offloaded by boom crane, and transferred to truck for shipment. In particular, the facility is expected to supply urea-hungry rice country in eastern Arkansas. John McDowell is the facility manager.
In 2012, the Port of West Memphis received a $10.9 million Department of Transportation Tiger IV grant (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery). The money is being used to increase the industrial and bulk shipping capabilities and will strengthen the current rail to allow for heavier cargo loads and extend existing rail spur by approximately 13,500 feet to the base of the St. Francis Levee. The grant opens up some 2,000 acres for rail-served development.
West Memphis is keen on development and is looking to make the port a logistics hub for imports and exports. It is particularly eyeing China as a potential customer. It is a deep water port on the main channel and has never closed due to lower water conditions, giving its tenants an advantage versus other ports in the region, including Memphis.
West Memphis uses a floating dock which consists of a heavy work barge permanently moored along the river, but it is free to rise and fall with the changing river level. Port officials say this can significantly cut the time for the offloading process, and that a barge that would require eight hours to off-load on a fixed dock can potentially off-load in less than three hours.
Kinder Morgan recently invested approximately $15 million to expand its Fairless Hills Terminal in Pennsylvania by adding two domes to handle dry fertilizers (phosphates and urea) and refurbished a 25,000 st tank to store liquid UAN for Transammonia.