706 Lane Street | Sandusky, Ohio 44870
419.625.4014 | WWW.LEWCOINC.COM
RETAILE-COMMERCEDISTRIBUTION
Freight optimization is driving the industry to ship smaller
packages at faster speeds. LEWCO RED conveying
technology is designed to support this challenge.
LEWCO RED Conveyor Technology facilitates:
• Dock Delivery,Smalls Sort,Edge Alignment,Sortation,
Singulation, Zone Accumulation, Gapping, Merging,
Splitting, Transport Belt Conveyors
Contact us today to discuss your RED equipment
requirements. Our knowledgeable staff of Application
Engineers will assess your application needs and
recommend a cost-effective solution, built to the
highest industry standards.
POLY-V DRIVEN FLOW
SPLITTING CONVEYOR
POLY-V DRIVEN EDGE
ALIGNINGCONVEYOR
POLY-V DRIVEN
MERGE CONVEYOR
LEWCO Patented Poly-V drive system can be supplied with
1. 38 inch diameter rollers on 1. 5 inch roller centers, up to
2. 5 inch diameter rollers on 2.75 inch centers. Capable of
reaching speeds of 1200 fpm.
VISITUSATMODEX2020BOOTH8602
imports rising 9 percent and loaded exports up 15 percent.
The port, which consists of 200 private and eight public
terminals, handles about 70 percent of the container cargo
moving through the Gulf of Mexico.
Its number-one priority is widening and deepening the
52-mile-long Houston Ship Channel. The Texas legislature
recently enacted a law restricting transit of ships over 1,100
feet in length to maximize the efficiency and safety of two-way transit in the channel. Even with the restriction that
prohibits 9,000-TEU-plus ships from navigating the channel
more than once a week, Houston expects to remain the largest breakbulk port in the country, notes Executive Director
Roger Guenther.
The port is nearing completion of a study with the Army
Corps of Engineers of a widening project, for which it hopes
to receive congressional approval in 2020. It would be the
11th deepening and widening of the waterway in its history.
“With the growing frequency and size of ships coming into
our port, Houston needs a wider and deeper channel, and we
are moving that effort forward right now,” Guenther says.
UNCERTAINTY AHEAD
Yet for U.S. ports, continued growth and prosperity are not
without challenges. According to the American Association
of Port Authorities (AAPA), issues today and in the foreseeable future include finding innovations and new methods to
develop and pay for landside and waterside infrastructure
improvements; ensuring resiliency and security of cargo and
passenger operations; protecting against adverse environmental impacts; addressing operational efficiency needs and
personnel shortages; and adapting to changing trade flows,
market volatility, changing shipping alliances, and accelerated technological disruption.
Perhaps the most important issue is local: getting port
communities more involved, engaged, and supportive of
ports and their mission, notes Kurt Nagle, the AAPA’s president and chief executive. “Because ports are in the spotlight
more than ever, they have both a need and a social responsibility to include communities in their planning, which in
turn helps improve stakeholder awareness and understanding,” he says.
Preparing for market shifts and technology disruption
means ports may need to “focus more on productivity and
less on growing capacity through capital investment,” adds
Nagle. While this doesn’t mean ports should stop investing,
“it does suggest they may need to focus more on maximizing
efficient [use of] land and equipment, and on controlling
costs,” he says.
Lastly, Nagle believes port operators, like other cargo
transportation-related businesses, need to up their game in
recruiting and developing the next-generation skilled work
force. “This includes reskilling of existing personnel and
offering training programs and internships to those just
entering the job market and those seeking to change professions,” he says.
