WASHINGTON: Operating the Port of Georgetown has become a money-losing venture for the State Ports Authority, which notched a six-figure loss for the first half of fiscal 2017 at the breakbulk facility, which hasn’t had any measurable cargo in months. Costs outstripped revenues at the port from July 1 through Dec. 31, with the Port of Georgetown recording a $182,741 loss for the period, according to financial figures the SPA released on Tuesday. That compares with a slight profit of $20,754 for the same period a year earlier. The port’s cargo totals have been non-existent in recent months. While the Georgetown facility moved a combined 1,517 tons of cargo in July and August, the facility did not record any tonnage over the next four months. By comparison, the Port of Georgetown moved 196,981 tons of cargo through its two piers during the first half of the last fiscal year.
The drop is due to a single port customer having “a change in its business landscape,” a SPA spokeswoman previously said. The dwindling Georgetown numbers – well below the SPA’s goal of 10,000 tons per month – make it unlikely the port would qualify for federal funds needed for maintenance dredging. Such funds typically are reserved for facilities with at least 1 million tons of cargo per year. A separate effort to dredge the port’s channel to its maximum 27-foot depth also appears in doubt. Georgetown County voters approved a local-option sales tax in 2014 to pay for infrastructure projects including dredging. The cost to deepen the harbor doubled since then, to $66 million, and county officials now say the tax-generated dredging dollars likely will be spent on other projects.
