PANAMA CITY — With 652,000 tons of goods moved through Port Panama City so far this fiscal year, port officials are expecting a record-breaking 2015 if the trend continues.
"I think it's going to be a record year by a pretty good step, and it's starting to show up on our statistics and our financials four months into the year," Port Director Wayne Stubbs said during a board meeting Thursday, citing big numbers for steel plate and copper imports, and wood pellet exports. "We're really starting to see some numbers we haven't seen before."
If the growth continues, the port is on pace to break a tonnage record set back in 2006, when the facility handled a total of 1.8 million tons of cargo.
Last year, tonnage clocked in at 1.57 million tons after a slow year for copper, one of the port's largest imports. In 2013, the facility handled 1.7 million tons of goods.
"We were off by a bit last year and that shows up in the financial report, but that's not going to be the case this year," Stubbs said. "We're going to be really, really up this year compared to the year before."
The discussion came on the heels of a clean 2014 audit report approved by board members. The audit outlined $97 million in assets for the port, a growth of $3 million over the past year.
Although revenues were down about $700,000 for the year, the port garnered $1.2 million more in grant funding than it did the previous year. Overall, the additional grants pushed the facility's net income up from $2.6 million in 2013 to $3.2 million.
The port's auditor also pointed out strong growth over the last decade, with operating revenues growing from $5.6 million in 2005 to $12.9 million last year.
During Thursday's meeting, the Port Authority also approved a pair of bids that will kick off improvement projects for the port's rail system and west berth apron.
For the west berth project, which will increase berth's weight capacity, the board approved a $1.57 million bid with low bidder Gulf Coast Utility Contractors. The second approved bid was a $53,650 contract with Alabama Railroad for improvements to the port's main rail yard.