Local Industry News & Notes for Sunday — August 01, 2004

• New business: Cool running

• Port Labor needed

• Business Roundtable

New business: Cool running

Started in 1933 in Honolulu, Cosco Air Conditioning and Refrigeration has reached a landmark in 2004: statewide coverage. In mid April, Bobbie Cosco, president and daughter of founder Robert Cosco, announced the opening of the long-awaited Kauai location.

Located on Haleukana Street in the Puhi Industrial Area in Lihue, the 5,000-plus square-foot showroom and warehouse will house close to $500,000 of inventory. Robert Cosco started what was then called Refrigeration Service and Supply in 1933. When daughter Bobbie took over the company, she renamed it Cosco Supply. The retail wholesaler first took its operations to the outer islands when it opened its Maui location in 1978. That was quickly followed with the opening of a Kona branch in 1985. Len Atkins, previously of NuCalgon, will serve as the branch manager. Nardo Nacnac will help Atkins as assistant manager. Store times will operate from Monday through Saturday.

Port Labor needed

Thousands of additional dockworkers are needed at the nation’s largest port complex to cope with a crush of cargo traffic that has caused delays and threatens to undermine security inspections of cargo containers, labor leaders said last week.

Despite a tentative agreement between shipping operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, a final agreement on how to add more workers has not been reached. The union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, have yet to agree on terms of expanding the ports’ work force. So far, local union and shipping company officials have agreed to hire 2,000 so-called casual workers and establish a pool of more than 10,000 others. Any West Coast shipping agreement has a great impact on Hawaii, which depends on ocean transport more than any other state. The islands import about 90 percent of all goods through container ships from ports in California and Washington state. Hawaii longshoremen, also represented by the ILWU, negotiate their own contract During a conference call with reporters Thursday, the ILWU leadership said hiring thousands of workers would not help alleviate a logjam of cargo that has developed at the ports over the past month.

“The real problem is the infrastructure, the rails being backed up, lack of equipment, particularly chassis and trucks, limitations of land space, questions of security,” said David Arian, president of the ILWU Longshore Local 13. “Even if we fill all the jobs … we still have to look at all the questions if we really want to move cargo through the ports.” As of Thursday afternoon, there were nine ships at the outer anchorage awaiting access to the port. Normally, between three and four ships are forced to wait entry, but the average since the beginning of the month has been between 14 and 15, said Dick McKenna, deputy director of the Marine Exchange, which monitors ship movements at the ports. “We’ve had as many as 20 in the outer anchorage over the last several weeks,” McKenna said. “There are delays in offloading the ships and turning them around.” The cargo logjam stems from insufficient manpower at the ports, and problems with the rail lines and an increase in cargo from the Far East. The size of the ships and the number arriving, particularly from China, has also contributed to the cargo delays. The PMA had projected a cargo increase this year of 5 percent, but it’s turned out to be about double that, said PMA spokesman Steve Sugarman.

The normal amount of time it takes for crews to unload and reload a ship docked at the port is between one day and three-to-four days. This month, the ship turnaround has been between five and six days, McKenna said. Arian also charged that the shipping companies had not fully implemented federal port security measures required as of July 1, including adequately searching individuals entering the ports and checking cargo container seals. “You got truckers coming through the gate where security doesn’t check them at all,” Arian said. “There’s a real security breach in these ports.” PMA spokesman Steve Sugarman dismissed Arian’s account, and said all the PMA-member shipping companies were in compliance with the new federal security regulations.

“The union here is looking at issues that are on a very low priority when it comes to port security,” Sugarman said. Arian said he planned to meet with Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn to discuss forming a task force on the problems facing the port. The allegations of lax security come as negotiations over expanding the work force at the ports continue.

Business Roundtable

First Hawaiian Bank President Don Horner has moved up from Vice President to President of the Hawaii Business Roundtable for an 18-month term. He replaces H. Mitchell D’Olier, president and CEO of Kaneohe Ranch Company, as head of the nonprofit business leader organization. David Carey, president and CEO of Outrigger Enterprises, will move into the vice chair position. The roundtable also elected Allen Doane, president and CEO of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., and Mike Fisch, president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, to its executive committee. Other members of the executive committee are Robert Clarke, chairman, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries; Mitchl D’Olier; Harry Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke Hawaii; and Noni Toledo, vice president and general manager of Sprint Hawaii.

The Roundtable also named three new members: David McClain, acting president of the University of Hawaii; Tom Driskill, president and CEO of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation; and Charles Sted, president and CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health, which owns Wilcox Memorial Hospital.

The Roundtable is made up of the chief executives of 50 leading companies in the state, which employ 67,000 people in the islands.