California firm
orders 2 container
ships for Hawaii service

Santa Rosa company says
they will begin operation in 2003

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

A California shipping company has ordered two new U.S.-built container ships that it says will begin operating in 2003 between California and Barbers Point.

Santa Maria Shipowning & Trading Co. of Santa Rosa, Calif., said each ship will be able to carry 367 45-foot containers and travel at 18 knots, according to information in an article published in the Journal of Commerce yesterday and on the company's own Web site, www.santamariashipping.com.

Matson Navigation Co., which offers four sailings a week between the West Coast and Hawaii, said it isn't worried.

"We offer more than port-to-port service," said Jeff Hull, a Matson spokesman in San Francisco.

Matson has well-established customer relations, intermodal service to carry goods across the mainland, online shipment monitoring and many other advantages over what a startup might have, Hull said. Matson's ships are also faster, running at 23 to 24 knots, he said.

"These are small ships, about half the size of ours," he said, and Santa Maria's one trip a week should not cut much into Matson's four a week.

Santa Maria, however, says its new vessels will bring economies and could cut shipping costs by as much as $20,000 a year for a customer shipping one 40-foot container a week from California to Hawaii.

Stas Magaronis, president of Santa Maria Shipowning, said in a Journal of Commerce online article that his company has awarded a contract to Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. of Mobile, Ala., to build the ships.

He did not disclose the cost of the ships but said his company is seeking federal loan guarantees for the project.

Magaronis and other officers of Santa Maria could not be reached for comment yesterday.