Sea-Land Service, Inc.; Notice of Application to Increase Service in the Non-Contiguous Domestic Trade for Puerto Rico

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket No. MARAD-98-4297]

Sea-Land Service, Inc.; Notice of Application to Increase Service

in the Non-Contiguous Domestic Trade for Puerto Rico

Sea-Land Service, Inc. (Sea-Land), by application dated July 17,

1998, has applied for an increase in the authorized level of the

service that Sea-Land

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provides to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico), pursuant to

section 656(d) of Subtitle B, Title VI, of the Merchant Marine Act,

1936, as amended (1936 Act). In support of its application, Sea-Land

has provided information related to the growth of Real Gross Product

(RGP) for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as supplied to Sea-Land by

the Planning Board of the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico.

This application is composed of two separate requests by Sea-Land.

The first asks for revision of Sea-Land's authorized service level for

Puerto Rico for Fiscal Year (FY) 1996 and FY 1997, based on revised

figures for the increase in RGP for those periods. The second is a new

request for a service level increase in respect to the growth in RGP

for FY 1998. A summation of the service level increases requested by

Sea-Land is attached hereto as Table I.

Any person, firm or corporation having an interest in this

application for increased service authorization, and who desires to

submit comments concerning Sea-Land's application, is requested to

provide those comments to the Docket Clerk, U.S. DOT Dockets, Room PL-

401, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590. Such comments

must be filed no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday, September 14,

1998. All comments received will be available for examination at the

above address between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday,

except Federal Holidays. An electronic version of this document is

available on the World Wide Web at http:/dms.dot.gov.

By Order of the Maritime Administrator.

Date: August 10, 1998.

Joel C. Richard,

Secretary, Maritime Administration.

Sea-Land Service, Inc.; Requested Increases in Authorized Non-

Contiguous Domestic Service for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Revision for FY 1996 (July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1996)

Due to the legislatively established end date of August 9, 1995,

for the time period used for determination of grandfather service

levels for containerships, FY 1996 is prorated for the period

between August 9, 1995 and June 30, 1996. This proration is 326/366

days (1996 was a leap year).

Original FY 1996 RGP: 3.1 percent

Proration Factor: 326/366=.89

Original FY 1996 RGP proration: (.89)x(3.1)=2.76 percent

Current Service Level for FY 1996: (220,157)x(.0276)=6,076

220,157+6,076=226,233 TEUs

Revised FY 1996 RGP: 3.3 percent

Revised FY 1996 proration: (.89)x(3.3)=2.94 percent

Service level for FY 1996: (220,157)x(.0294)=6,473 TEUs

Revised service level for FY 1996=220,157+6,473=226,630 TEUs

Change: +397 TEUs

Revision for FY 1997 (July 1, 1996 through June 30, 1997)

Original FY 1997 RGP: 2.8 percent

Current Service Level for FY 1997: (226,233)x(.028)=6,335

226,233+6,335=232,568 TEUs

Revised FY 1997 RGP: 3.2 percent

Revised Service Level for FY 1997: (226,630)x(.032)=7,252

226,630+7,252=233,882 TEUs

Change: +1,314 TEUs

Service Level Increase for FY 1998 (July 1, 1997 through June 30,

1998)

Revised Service Level (July 1, 1997): 233,882 TEUs

RGP for FY 1998 (uncorrected): 3.0 percent

Proposed Service Level (July 1, 1998): (233,882)x(.03)=7,016

233,882+7,016=240,898 TEUs

Increase: 7,016 TEUs

[FR Doc. 98-21780 Filed 8-12-98; 8:45 am]

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