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DO YOU NEEDA CUSTOMIZED ORA PROVEN DESIGN?Wärtsilä now offers the marine industry totalsolutions that cover everything from designto lifecycle service. This makes our solutionsuniquely efficient and environmentally sound.Read more about what we can do for you,wherever you are: wartsila.com.WÄRTSILÄ® is a registered trademark.volumes this year. NewOrleans reported morethan 40 arriving containervessels at its Port of NewOrleans facilities for eachof the first few months ofthis year, after containervolume set a record of427,000 TEUs in 2010.On the East Coast thePort of Baltimore reportedrecord volume (by a slightmargin) of 632,500 TEUsfor all of 2010. Officialsattributed the recoveringlevel of container trafficto improved economicconditions in that region.Materials exportedfrom U.S. ports in thefirst quarter occupiedmore than three millioncontainers, according tocommerce reports. That’s alot of containers.West Coast ports of theUnited States and Canadareported sharply increasedvolumes of containertraffic for both 2010 andthe first quarter of thisyear. Canadian ports likeVancouver also reportedsurging export shipmentsof bulk commodities,particularly coal and grain.Of course not all tugoperators are involved withmovements of containervessels. An increasingnumber of North Americantugs are involved withmovements of LNG tankersin and out of specializedCompanies with the meansto do so have continued toinvest in new equipmentsuch as this 60,000-bblclean oil barge, B. No. 264,being delivered recentlyfrom Bollinger MarineFabricators in Louisiana toBouchard Transportationof New York. The manned,350-foot barge is beingpushed by the Bouchardtug Evening Tide.Courtesy Bollinger Shipyardreceiving terminals. Withseveral new terminalsopened in the past fewyears, and with moredue to open in the nearfuture, this is certainlya potentially lucrativegrowth area for companieswith the right equipment.Another big sector of theindustry is movements ofpetroleum products wherethe outlook may not be souniversally optimistic.While the United Statesis still a vast oil-consumingmachine, the overall levelof refined oil consumptionin America has beenstable or trending slightlydownward in the last fiveto 10 years. The recentrecession combined withthe more-recent surge inoil prices has also limitedrecovery levels in someaspects of the business.“I don’t see volumes ofoil movements increasinghere in the New Yorkarea,” said Gary Cutler, coownerof Poling & CutlerMarine Transportation,which recently introduceda new 1,500-hp tug with6 American Tugboat Review 2011