DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket No. 1-80]
45 FR 2077
January 10, 1980
Proposed Foreign-Trade Zone-- Panama City, Fla.; Application and Public
Hearing
Notice is hereby given that an application has been submitted to the
Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board) by the Panama City Port Authority
(Port Authority), a Florida municipal corporation, requesting authority
to establish a general-purpose foreign-trade zone at the port complex and
industrial park of Port Panama City, within the Panama City Customs port
of entry. The application was submitted pursuant to the provisions of the
Foreign-Trade Zones Act of 1934, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the
regulations of the Board (15 CFR Part 400). It was formally filed on
January 4, 1980. The Port Authority is authorized to make this poroposal
under sections 288.35-288.38 of the Florida Statutes of 1977.
The proposal calls for the establishment of a foreign-trade zone of 15.9
acres within the 120-acre port facility adjacent to the west shipping
berth on St. Andrew Bay on the Gulf of Mexico intra-coastal waterway.
Consisting of contiguous tracts of 2.4 and 13.5 acres, the sites are
owned by the City of Panama Citty and are under a long-term lease to the
applicant which will also operate the zone.
The smaller tract is undeveloped land on which a general-purpose
storage/processing facility will be constructed as zone use materializes.
The applicant is actively soliciting users for this site.
A large diameter steel pipe plant is under construction by the Berg Steel
Pipe Corporation (BSPC), a Delaware corporation, on the 13.5 acre tract.
It is scheduled to be operational by Spring of 1980 to produce steel pipe
of 40 foot lengths, ranging in outer diameter from 20-64 inches and plate
thickness of .25 to 1.5 inches, by a rolling process from a mix of domestic
and imported steel plate.
BSPC indicates that the larger-sized pipe with outer diameters exceeding
48 inches and thickness greater than one inch is not available
domestically, and its use of zone procedures will enable an expansion in
production capacity because its process favors the production of pipe of
this size. It is estimated that approximately 122,000 metric tons of
large-diameter pipe could be produced per year at the facility, about
70 percent of which will be sold domestically and the remainder exported.
Up to 200 new jobs are expected to be created at the new facility.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, an Examiner's Committee has
been appointed to investigate the application and report to the Board.
The committee consists of: Hugh J. Dolan (Chairman), Office of the
Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th and E Streets NW, Washington,
DC 20230; Harvey L. Perry, District Director, U.S. Customs District
Mobile, P.O. Box 2748, Mobile, Alabama 36601; and Colonel Robert H. Ryan,
District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District Mobile, P.O. Box 2288,
Mobile, Alabama 36628.
As part of its investigation of the proposal, the Examiners Committee will
hold a public hearing on February 12, 1980, beginning at 9:00 a.m., in
the Marine Trade Center of the Panama City Port Authority, 5321 West
Highway 98, Panama City, Florida 32401.
The purpose of the hearing is to help inform interested persons, to
provide an opportunity for their expression of views, and to obtain
information useful to the examiners.
Interested persons or their representatives are invited to present their
views at the hearing. Persons wishing to testify should, by February 5,
notify the Board's Executive Secretary either in writing at the address
below or by phone (202)377-2862. In lieu of an oral presentation, written
statements may be submitted in accordance with the Board's regulations to
the Examiners Committee, care of the Executive Secretary, at any time from
the date of this notice through March 13, 1980. Evidence submitted
during the post-hearing period is not desired unless it is clearly shown
that the matter is new and material and that there are good reasons why
it could not be presented at the hearing.
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be available
during this time for public inspection at each of the following locations:
Office of the Port Director,
U.S. Customs Service,
James H. Moore Bldg., Room 2121,
30 W. Government Street,
Panama City, Florida 32401
Office of the Executive Secretary,
Foreign-Trade Zones Board,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 6888-B
14th and E Streets NW.,
Washington, D.C. 20230.
Dated: January 7, 1980.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 80-830 Filed 1-9-80; 8:45 am]