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Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee recently announced that the Port of Davisville in the Quonset Business Park in Quonset has become the seventh-largest auto importer in North America.

Last year, the port imported 150,519 automobiles and received another 41,797 vehicles via rail. The business park is served by Seaview Transportation Co., which operates about 14 miles of track and interchanges with several Class Is.

“Last year's results put us ahead of Boston, Halifax, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charlestown and Seattle — among others — as one of the premiere auto ports on the continent,” said Chafee.

Most vehicles transported to the port are processed, finished and distributed across the nation by North Atlantic Distribution Inc. Over the past decade, the port also has become one of the top East Coast ports for handling frozen seafood.

Chafee supports a provision in the state’s fiscal-year 2013 budget proposal that would enable the port to increase the number of autos imported annually as well as take on other cargoes. The provision would help fund a dredging project that calls for creating a deeper and wider ship channel. If the general assembly approves the provision, dredging work would begin in October and be completed within less than a year, said Chafee.