Port MacKenzie would freeze 2027 dock rates and add fees for guards and late ships

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough's Port Commission took up a plan Monday to hold dock rates at Port MacKenzie flat next year, while adding new charges for armed guards, late arrivals and vessels that want the port to themselves.

The borough-owned port sits across Knik Arm from Anchorage. "We have a problem with no traffic," Commissioner Fred Elvsaas said during the commission's review of the tariff. He said the port should stay "less expensive and easy to do business with."

The new price list, Tariff No. 4, would take effect Jan. 1. On the same date, the surcharge on cargo crossing the Port of Alaska in Anchorage rises to $22.76 a ton from $8.05 to pay for that port's rebuild, Alaska News reported in September.

Under the current tariff, Port MacKenzie's dockage, the daily per-foot charge a vessel pays at the dock, rose every year, from $2.25 in 2022 to $2.52 this year for vessels under 199 feet. Under the new tariff, 2027 rates would match 2026 in every length class. They would then rise in 2028, 2030 and 2032, reaching $2.64 for the smallest vessels. Wharfage, the charge on cargo crossing the dock, would follow the same pattern. The fuel charge would go from a penny a gallon to 2 cents by 2030. The tariff would set what barge lines, tankers and terminal operators pay for six years, through 2032.

Staffer Sandy Luckett said commissioners did not want a big increase in dockage and wharfage.

Exclusive use of the port would cost $3,000 for 12 hours or $5,000 for 24, on top of dockage, wharfage and compensation for displaced nearby owners. Port Director David Griffin cited a statewide barge and tug shortage and said the Army will need exclusive use for explosive ordnance for short periods, according to the clerk's draft minutes of a Sept. 1 meeting. Chairman Dane Crowley said LNG might also need it.

Armed guards would be a new $75-an-hour rate, and unarmed guards would rise from $40 to $50 an hour. Luckett said security rates reflect what the port actually pays. Vessels already must confirm their arrival at least 12 hours ahead, and the port could charge $150 per tide cycle when they miss that time.

This month, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a $250 million grant to finish the rail link between the Alaska Railroad and Port MacKenzie, In September, the borough lined up $12.1 million for a barge ramp at the port, and equipment for a planned antimony refinery came ashore there.

Griffin said staff hope to bring the new tariff to the Assembly in November or December.