KAHULUI - The volume of cargo coming through Kahului Harbor is down sharply, although the total of interisland and overseas port calls has not changed much, The Maui News reported today.

Jeff Hull at Matson Navigation Co. in San Francisco said Thursday that the volume of auto traffic no longer justifies using one of the company's freighters. Vehicles are accommodated on Matson barges, which continue to make three calls a week at Pier 1.

"The frequency is unchanged," he said, although the volume of cargo is down. Matson does not break out its volumes at different interisland ports, and its overall container and vehicle carriage is reported only quarterly within parent Alexander & Baldwin's reports.

The other major interisland carrier, Young Brothers, is not usually sending its auto carrier barge weekly as it used to.

Roy Catalani, YB vice president of strategic planning, said the barge is sent as cargo warrants.

Otherwise, vehicles are accommodated on the decks of barges that carry containers five times a week.

Earlier this year, containers were stacked four and five high as crammed barges strained to cope with ever-expanding cargo traffic through Kahului.

Now, the container barges have enough clear deck space to take vehicles alongside the containers.

Catalani said it would take a little time to analyze the exact drop in container volume, but it is undoubtedly down because of Maui's less-active economy.

Head counts at the airport give some idea of how many tourists are coming - or no longer coming.

Container traffic levels suggest that construction, a major importer of bulky material, is stagnant.

Pasha Hawaii, a privately held shipping operator, does not answer questions from the press, but its specialty vehicle carrier Jean Anne continues to make scheduled calls. The Jean Anne can carry 3,000 vehicles, but how many it is carrying is unreported.

The diversion of vehicle traffic to the Hawaii Superferry has taken some business away from Matson and YB, although since vehicles on Superferry's 350-foot Alakai have to be accompanied by a driver, the ferry does not compete for shipments of new autos for dealers and rental agencies.

On Thursday, the giant cruise ship Carnival Spirit was tied up at Pier 1. Instead of a NCL ship in port almost every day, Pier 1 has seen less passenger traffic since NCL withdrew two ships at the same time that most foreign flag cruise ships dropped Hawaii over proposed new Homeland Security standards on port calls.

Foreign-flag ships like Carnival Spirit can still call at Hawaii ports as intermediate stops on their way to foreign ports. Many do twice a year, as they shift from Alaska cruises in the summer to Mexico or Caribbean cruises in the winter.

Carnival Spirit called at Lahaina on Tuesday and at Kahului on Thursday. It will be back in Kahului on Oct. 11 and 12, although it will not stop in Lahaina on that tour.

Although Kahului is seeing fewer cruise ships than last year, it now gets the interisland Superferry call daily and sometimes twice a day.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.