THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997              TAG: 9701100672
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   42 lines

HAMPTON ROADS PORT GAINS NEW CARGO SERVICE THE CONSORTIUM OF THREE MAJOR LINES WILL BRING IN 375,000 TONS OF CARGO YEARLY.

A consortium of three major shipping lines announced Thursday that it will begin a North Atlantic service calling in Hampton Roads beginning in March.

The new service will bring more than 375,000 additional tons of cargo through Norfolk International Terminals, Gov. F. George Allen's office said.

The port handled more than 9 million tons of cargo in 1996.

The increased tonnage will generate 173 jobs, $5.5 million in wages and $554,528 in state and local taxes, according to a formula developed by Old Dominion University, the governor's office said.

Starting March 5, the weekly service will operate between the U.S. East Coast and Europe.

The partners include Japan's Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., also known as K-Line; China's China Ocean Shipping Co., known as Cosco; and Yang Ming Marine Transport Co. of Taiwan.

``We've been working on Cosco for 10 years,'' said Joseph A. Dorto, general manager and chief executive of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which operates the state-owned marine terminals in Portsmouth, Newport News and Norfolk.

``We used to have K-Line and Yang Ming, but they both left several years ago,'' Dorto said. ``K-Line pulled out of the Atlantic and Yang Ming has been going to Wilmington (N.C.), but that's its Asian service.''

Dorto estimated the new service will bring about 30,000 containers a year through the Norfolk terminal. Containers are the truck-sized metal boxes in which most cargo is now shipped.

The new service will involve four container ships capable of carrying up to 2,300 of the 20-foot containers each.

Besides Norfolk, the service will call in New York and Charleston on the East Coast and at Antwerp, Belgium; Felixstowe, England; Bremerhaven, Germany; and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Allen, Virginia Transportation Secretary Robert Martinez and John Covaney, the Virginia Port Authority's marketing director, met with officials of the three lines during a May 1996 trade mission to Asia.