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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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The country's economic slowdown is playing out at the Port of Tacoma.
Container volume was down by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Tong Zhu, the port's commercial strategy director.
Zhu presented the first quarter results to the port commission Thursday as part of a cargo forecast and budget update.
The dip is driven by an expected decline of international imports as some of the region's main importers grapple with fallout from the national housing downturn and credit crunch.
"A lot of the decrease is because West Coast ports have seen a huge reduction in imports - the demand is not there," Zhu said.
Port Executive Director Tim Farrell said the Tacoma and other West Coast ports anticipated the cargo dip and he doesn't expect imports to pick up until next year.
The Tacoma port's decline was higher than West Coast average - a 3.9 percent decrease in container volume from Vancouver, B.C. to Southern California.
Seattle posted a decline of 2.5 percent, while the Port of Portland actually witnessed a 12 percent increase in its container volume.
Zhu credited the Seattle port's more modest dip to the strength of its domestic trade, mostly with Alaska. In Portland, a major retailer relocated its purchasing department near the Oregon port and a new potato processing plant opened for business.
Though total West Coast imports have declined, the Puget Sound ports' market share remains steady at about 16 percent.
Zhu anticipates the port's total container volume for 2008 will be about the same as last year - at 1.9 million containers.
"I think we will come in flat and that will be good for the port," Zhu said.
The port remains on track with its 2008 budget.
Income from the first four months of operations was on par with last year at $6.5 million. Revenue, which the port earns from its terminal leases and from moving cargo, increased, but so did expenses.
The port aims for at least 15 percent return on revenue.
Staff projects income for the year to be at $20.7 million, which is a 20 percent return on revenue.
The port's spending on capital projects will be less than the 2008 projected. The port anticipates spending $236 million on construction this year, down from the original forecast of $265 million.
It's already spent $87 million this year, including almost $36 million in land acquisitions, said Jeff Smith, the port's finance director.
Much of that property is on the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula, which the port is developing into shipping container terminals.
