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J. Robert Bray: The man behind
Virginia's ports speaks out
by Virginia Business staff
May 2003
The Port of Hampton Roads has
become evermore important with the war with Iraq and
a massive strike last year by longshoremen on the West
Coast. Not only is the port’s strategic significance
underscored by the Navy’s massive base, but the
Virginia Port Authority is seeing gains as shippers
switch to its facilities and others on the East Coast
because of their more peaceful labor relations. Thanks
to its Mid-Atlantic location, Virginia has become a
major locus of distribution centers operated by mass
retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Dollar Tree, which
are taking advantage of a huge new wave of trade with
Asia. The VPA plans a $3 billion expansion of its facilities
over the next 20 years.
The man behind much of this
is J. Robert Bray, who has been VPA executive director
since 1978. A graduate of Hampton-Sydney College and
the Wythe School of Law at the College of William and
Mary, Bray has been a major figure in global trade affairs
for decades. On April 1, he shared his views with Virginia
Business Publisher Douglas Forshey and Executive Editor
Peter Galuszka.
What’s going on with the
port?
“We’ve had of course some increase in tonnage,
although it’s difficult to judge because of the
West Coast strike. A lot of cargo that used to go to
the West Coast is now coming to the East Coast and is
going to stay. ... The number is that we are more than
20 percent ahead of where we were at this time last
year and about 20 percent of that is due to the West
Coast strike.”
Where’s the other 80 percent
from?
“It’s just an increase in business. It’s
primarily Far East business. We would have gotten it
anyhow, but a lot of it is directly attributable to
the large increase in the distribution centers we have
in Virginia.”
How much of an increase can be attributed to Target,
which will soon open a distribution center in Suffolk?
“Their marketing people have
said that they expect about 30,000 additional containers
— spread out over a 12-month period from whenever
they open. That’s huge. Home Depot (in Warren County)
will start out from 8 to 15,000 boxes. Really good news
for us.”
On the economy:
“I’ve been here for a long, long time, and
I’ve never experienced any economy like this. It
doesn’t make any sense. The stock market keeps
going down, down, down, and everybody says that’s
because of the war. Yet we’re all buying refrigerators,
TV sets and automobiles. It just doesn’t make any
sense.”
Any ideas or predictions?
“You’ve got to understand I am absolutely
as far away from an economist as you can possibly get.
If the war ends and settles by early summer, is there
going to be any euphoria sweeping the country? Well,
how many TV sets and dishwashers can you sell? It seems
that everybody has bought one. Interest rates are dramatically
low. ... That’s why I am absolutely, totally mystified
by our economy. Every ship line we talk to is very bullish.
All of our marketing people talk to the customers. All
of our marketing people talk to the ship lines. And
everybody is very bullish of what they’re going
to send to America. ... I keep hearing it is a consumer-driven
economy right now. Experience always tells me that after
a while the consumer gets exhausted.”
Regarding the failed road referendum,
if you look at the projects that could have been funded,
one is the third crossing near Craney Island (which
is a key part of the VPA’s planned $3 billion port
expansion). How does the defeat affect the VPA and its
plans for the big port expansion?
“It doesn’t from a standpoint of the initial
construction at Craney Island. We had always envisioned
and planned Craney Island such that it would be served
from a spur off of State 640 known as the Western Freeway.
... When you get to 2030, you’ll need a third crossing.
... We need to start finding ways to fund the third
crossing as soon as possible.
How will China’s acceptance
in the World Trade Organization boost trade in Virginia?
“One of the things that’s very, very interesting
is the increase in China trade. Our percentage of trade
with China is way up and the percent of worldwide trade
with the Chinese is absolutely incredible. ... All that
goes back to the distribution centers we have in Virginia.
We have some of the biggest, fastest most technically
advanced cranes in the world.”
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