Friday, June 13, 2014

Eagle Marine Services Files Layoff Notice

By Mark Edward Nero

Eagle Marine Services plans to lay off 94 of its employees within Washington State by the end of July, according to a notice the company has filed with the state Employment Security Department.

Eagle Marine, a subsidiary of American President Lines (APL) operates two West Coast terminals, one at the Port of Los Angeles and another at Port of Seattle. The Seattle terminal, which handles about 350,000 lifts annually, has the capacity for nearly 600,000 TEUs, according to Eagle Marine. It also contains a 190-acre container yard and 30 acres of on-dock rail.

Thus far, neither Eagle Marine nor APL has publicly commented on the reason for the layoffs, but on May 16, the port and Eagle Marine announced a plan to relocate Eagle Marine’s cargo and break bulk activities to another terminal so that the company’s current home at Terminal 5 can be modernized in order to handle larger vessels.

Under the agreement’s terms, which haven’t yet been approved by the Port Commission but may be considered at its June 24 meeting, Eagle Marine would shift operations this summer to Terminal 18, which already houses SSA Terminals. The port, however, has said that the proposal would allow Eagle Marine to preserve both container volume and ship calls.