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Posted Dec 27, 2017, 9:05 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Philadelphia
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Philly's port prepares for further growth: Bigger ships, expanded cargoes, new cranes, more jobs
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At the Port of Philadelphia, two harbor cranes, as large as any in the world, will arrive in early March. The first ship taking used-car exports will leave Philadelphia for Africa next month, and the largest ship ever to sail up the Delaware River will dock here in January with cargo from South America.
Work will wrap up soon to strengthen ship berths at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. The design of new warehouses at the former Philadelphia Produce and Seafood Terminal will be completed and go out to bid. Ground will be broken on a 100,000-square-foot warehouse at the Tioga Marine Terminal in Port Richmond. Building a vehicle-processing center for Hyundai and Kia imports is also expected to begin at the Southport terminal at the Navy Yard.
“Construction of the warehousing improvements will all be done in 2018, a really significant growth expansion process,” said Gregory Iannarelli, senior director of business development and chief counsel for the port, known as PhilaPort.
Sounds like a busy 2018. It follows on the heels of a bang-up 2017 at the port, which saw more containerized freight, more cars, more cargoes such as wood pulp, and the promise of those larger cranes, capable of unloading larger ships.
The first two cranes, as big as any in New York Harbor, are on their way from Shanghai, China. Port officials recently announced the $23.5 million purchase of two additional New Panamax-size container gantry cranes, which will arrive in April 2019 and enable Philadelphia to double container cargo volumes and create jobs.
The changes came after the Wolf administration pledged $300 million, the first major capital investment in four decades for terminal improvements, wharves, warehouses, and cranes. The state is landlord and owner of 16 piers and terminals on the Delaware River.
PhilaPort, which leases and manages the piers and terminals, spent $10 million in June to buy the former Produce and Seafood Terminal from Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. The 29-acre parcel at Third Street and Pattison Avenue will be used to relocate warehouses and increase container capacity at Packer Avenue.
All these improvements at the port are expected to create up to 2,000 waterfront jobs, and nearly 7,000 total jobs for truckers, rail workers, suppliers, and port-related businesses over the next decade.
“Right now, we can’t build fast enough,” said port CEO Jeff Theobald. “We have to get through this construction as quickly as possible to get those jobs going. And then move on to Phase Two. Clearly, we need more warehouse space. We’re trying to look at properties available.”
Holt Logistics, which operates the Packer terminal for PhilaPort, has shifted empty containers, chassis, and other equipment from the main yard to a 45-acre lot next door, increasing space at the dock. Containerized cargoes are up about 20 percent over last year, said Eric Holt, vice president of sales and marketing.
“The goal right now is to free up as much terminal operating area as possible, because the number of containers has grown to the point where, if we don’t, we’re going to become congested,” Holt said.
Instead of retrofitting an existing terminal at Tioga, port officials shifted gears and decided to add 100,000 square feet of “food grade” warehouse space for wood-pulp shipments. Fibria Celulose, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp, sends 400,000 tons of pulp from Brazil to Tioga annually. A second pulp customer, CMPC Celulosa, also ships to Tioga, and now other wood-pulp producers want to come, too.
With the 103-mile deepening of the Delaware River navigation channel to 45 feet from 40 feet, begun in 2010, nearly completed, bigger ships are coming to Philadelphia through the expanded Panama Canal.
Next month, the largest ship ever to sail up the Delaware — a vessel 11,000 TEUs operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. — is scheduled to bring cargo from Chile and Peru, port officials said.
More than 154,000 new Hyundai and Kia vehicles arrived at the port from South Korea as of Nov. 30, headed to dealer showrooms. The state will invest $93 million at the Southport site to build a new processing center and provide additional acreage for autos.
In January, a twice-monthly shipping service will take used-car exports from Philadelphia to Tema, Ghana; Cotonou, Benin; and Lagos, Nigeria, Iannarelli said. The first ship, MV Glovis Cosmos, is due to load cars on Jan. 10.
Looking to the future, the port’s chief executive wants to develop a ship berth on 30 to 40 acres and 2,000 feet of waterfront at the eastern end of the Navy Yard. It would be welcome news to the International Longshoremen’s Association and others, who have long wanted a marine terminal at Southport.
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Read more here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/ph...rgoes-new-cranes-more-jobs-20171228.html
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