Tide still slack for water carriers.

• Author: Richardson, Jeffrey
• Position: Industry Overview

Drawing their sustenance from a modest state economy, Alaska's water carriers posted only modest performance in 1992. Market shares of Sea-Land Service Inc., Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE), the rail barge companies and small carriers comprising the so-called mosquito fleet remained virtually unchanged. Competition was intense but unmarked by dramatic developments. It was the practiced rhythm of well-matched adversaries facing a long contest.

Industry spokesmen forecast more of the same for this year.

But in business, as in athletics, the sort of equilibrium that prevails in Alaska marine shipping is a transitory phenomenon. Just as boxers testing their opponents know that the circling and probing will come to an end, so in shipping it is inevitable that the current calm will come to a clamoring end when someone makes a move.

Company representatives are reticent about when or what the next major initiative in the market might be. But reading between the lines of equivocal statements and the general prayers for more economic prosperity, it appears some things have already begun to shift.

A Repeat of 1991

Last year marked the beginning of Sea-Land's new service to the Orient via Dutch Harbor. This allows fish processors to ship fish and fish by-products, mainly crab and bottomfish, directly from Kodiak and the Aleutians without first going through Seattle-Tacoma, a substantial economic boon.

"That has done real well," says Dan Ramsay, Sea-Land spokesman. Otherwise, he says, 1992 saw performance very similar to the year before.

"It's basically the same. What we have is a two-horse race. It's been real good. There's been pretty tough competition. And it's probably going to stay that way."

Jim McKenna, Sea-Land's general manager for Alaska, is even more effusive about the company's new service.

"We saw tremendous movement in our westward traffic from Dutch," says McKenna. "It was very, very strong."

McKenna says southbound traffic, which also consists primarily of fish products, remained steady. He characterized northbound cargo volumes as "real flat, no surges, no increases" over 1991.

At TOTE, operations vice president Ev Trout notes some gain for his company last year.

"The basic market was up right at 3 percent," he says. However, he adds that market shares among the major carriers remained constant. In terms of cargo brought to the Railbelt, TOTE and Sea-Land remain dead even.

"The predominant aspect of growth was a reflection of...