Rail Related Development in Northern New England

[Cowford]

Meanwhile, back in Eastport, wood chip exports are still two months away... as they have been for the last 2-3 years.

"Phyto-Charter...is optimistic that the first trial wood chip shipment to Europe from the port will be made in November....Where the cargo will end up, though, has not yet been finalized."

So a buyer has to be found and a vessel chartered. Details.

I'll bet a nickle Eastport Port Authority (deservedly) gets stuck holding the bag on this loan. Poor sods.

http://quoddytides.com/port-authority-a ... -2015.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cowford]

Lincoln P+T declared bankruptcy today. Not promising that they are auctioning the mill.

"Company co-owner Keith Van Scotter said he expects the mill will be auctioned in 45 days, with a stalking horse bidder setting the price to beat. He said he did not know whether the potential buyers would operate or scrap the mill, the town’s second-largest taxpayer and third-largest employer."

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/09/28/n ... ankruptcy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eustis22]

>“We are reasonably comfortable that the assets will be sold in the coming weeks and we are hopeful that, through reinvestment and changes in the physical plant, the Lincoln mill will get a new lease on life,”

As per the usual Circle of Life for Maine paper mills.

How do they get away with blaming energy prices, which are at their lowest in quite a while????

[FLRailFan1]

Eastport would be a good port, however, freight would be going to Canada before going to the US, unless the old MEC route got reused, which will never happen, so Eastport will never be used, either.

[Cowford]

The Quoddy TIdes is full of good stuff this edition. Despite their comments to the contrary, it looks like Eastport is throwing in the towel on biomass.

The $9 million bulk conveyor system at the Port of Eastport... will finally have its baptism by fire not with wood chips but with salt. New England Salt Company, based in Winterport, plans to import its first shipment of 35,000 metric tons of rock salt... the first week of July.

...Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority... notes that the first shipment will be the beginning of more to come, not only with salt but with wood chips. Although the export of wood chips to overseas markets has been the port authority's focus and a deal is reportedly close at hand, Gardner notes that the port authority has been marketing the conveyor system for other uses for some time.

Putting aside the cross contamination issues switching a conveyor back and forth between materials, It also says NESC uses an eight-acre pad to store salt in Searsport. The pad in Eastport is about 3 acres. Not sure how the Port thinks they can have their cake and eat it, too.

Not sure of any rail impact. This is share shift rather than new business for Eastport, coming at the expense of Searsport. Then again, start-up is three months off. We've heard such claims many times.

http://quoddytides.com/salt-shipments-t ... -2016.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cowford]

Eastport received its first load of salt two weeks ago. Earlier than expected, but also only 40% of what was initially reported. Consider the reality against all the blather justifying the $10 million conveyor investment: The product had to be dumped on the pier prior to being bucket loaded onto the conveyor. They were able to offload 425 tons per hour. True, this was a first go for them... but Searsport offloaded its 27,000 tons at the rate 465 tons/hr... and that's from time of docking to time of departure from pier, so actual is probably 500+/hr. In other words, Eastport could have done a better job using three dump trucks (that can afterwards be redeployed in another service) in lieu of the conveyor (that will now sit idle for another X months).

http://quoddytides.com/ports-conveyor-s ... -2016.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;