Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Former wood-chipping and exporting company NPI LLC last week became an importing company when it offloaded a ship laden with 16,000 tons of cement at the Point MacKenzie port.

The Clipper Tivoli arrived from China on April 13. Workers over seven days unloaded supersacks, or 3,300-pound bags, of cement onto waiting flatbed trailers. The cement was trucked up a hill to a warehouse NPI LLC built two years ago in preparation for the importing business.

According to the Mat-Su Borough, the ship will pay $35,000 in wharfage and docking fees to the borough. Another ship full of cement is expected in the fall.

Mat-Su Borough Port Director Marc Van Dongen said the shipment represents about 8 percent of the total cement sold in Southcentral Alaska. NPI's venture makes it only the second company in the area selling bulk cement. The other, Alaska Basic Industries, ships cement in through the port of Anchorage.

NPI spokesman Ron Arvin on Monday said NPI employees had been working around the clock to unload the ship. He said he did not have time to answer questions about the cement operation.

The cement ship is the first to dock at the port this year, but it comes on the heels of one of the port's busiest years.

Last year Quality Asphalt and Paving hauled out 451,000 tons of sand and gravel on 183 barges which was used by the municipality of Anchorage to expand its port. Two more barges docked at the port to load up construction equipment, Van Dongen said.

Van Dongen said last year marked the first year the port's revenue exceeded operating expenses. The port budget is about $830,000, he said, which pays for two full-time employees, operations at the port and things like studies, surveys and attorney fees related to developing future projects. Van Dongen said he's expecting $900,000 in revenue by the end of June. Coupled with lower-than-budgeted expenses, he expects the port will generate between $200,000 and $250,000 in revenue by the end of June.

The projection does not include tens of millions in capital costs involved in building the port.

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