EVERETT — The Port of Everett finished loading its first log ship in four years Tuesday, providing longshoremen with some welcome but potentially dangerous work,
The Korea-bound ship, the Port Phillip, provided jobs for six days for about 35 people, said Ken Hudson of Local 32 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehouseman’s Union.
It’s something that’s happening all along the West Coast these days.
“There are logs in areas from Northern California up to Washington in places that haven’t had a lot of work for years and years,” Hudson said.
Growing economies in Asia combined with the low dollar have revived interest in U.S. log exports, said the port’s Carl Wollebek.
“The demand in China is strong and so is Korea,” he said.
China imported a record number of logs last year — 34.347 million cubic meters valued at $6.07 billion, according to China customs.
Wollebek said the port is hoping to cash in on that demand.
“The big thing in China is that you can’t leave bark on the logs,” Wollebek said. “You have to take it off. It’s a fumigation rule to protect their forests.”
The Port of Everett is working to set up the infrastructure to remove bark from the logs and it’s looking to send more wood to Korea and to Japan, which doesn’t require the bark to be removed.
Everett used to be a major log port, but it shifted to containers and bulk cargo as the log business diminished in the ’80s and ’90s. The last log ship left Everett in 2007.
“There really wasn’t any market then,” Wollebek said. “The market went way down. “But all of a sudden, things have picked up.”
He said many of the logs going to China were coming from Russia, but that the country is looking for other sources.
Hudson said the one log ship this week didn’t mean he could hire new people, but he will if the work becomes steady.
“My hope is that we’d be able to hire another 20 or 30 people, but we need consistent work,” he said. “I’d love for it to be something more. I don’t think we’ll see five or six log ships in the Port of Everett like we used to, but it would be nice to see three or four.”
Hudson said working logs is more difficult than loading or unloading containers, which he said follows a “regimented routine that doesn’t require a big thought process.”
Logs have a lot of variables — lengths and weights — and need to be loaded in a specific way aboard a ship. There’s also the likelihood that you’ll fall into the bay if you don’t watch out because you’re standing on rafts of logs that can slip or roll.
During the past several days, the longshoremen also worked in a lot of rain, Hudson said.
“It’s been dumping rain,” he added. “Logs sink. They slip. They move. The next thing you know, you’re taking a swim in Port Gardner Bay.”
Hudson was a little cagey when asked if anyone fell into the bay in the last few days, suggesting that at the least, the number of body parts that got wet certainly did add up to a whole person.
“Our biggest concern with the logs coming back is safety,” he said. “We have people who are willing and eager. But they’re not experienced on logs (any more) and we worry about all the slips and stuff that’s inherent with logs.”
He noted that some of the older longshoremen have been trying to educate the younger members about how to handle the logs and remain safe.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459, benbow@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
