Delaware River Terminals deploy new tech for new biz

Gloucester Terminals Currently, Gloucester Terminal LLC is deploying new technology at Gloucester Terminals, which has the largest refrigerated capacity of any terminal in the United States. This includes gravity-fed racks for fruit product handling and fork lift technology, which are electric silicon solar boards with an electric equipment profile. The solar project feeds into the rooftop solar power plant that Holt constructed. It is the largest rooftop solar power plant in North America. “It generates a lot of fleet electricity,” says Holt. Holt also is deploying iPads into the hands of employees on the warehouse floors so that the cargo flow and management are significantly enhanced, and the cargo experience for customers is improved. “The overall port has benefited nationally from the implementation of and deployment of a national initiative by the US Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol, which they call 559,” Holt says. “This will allow the vetting and application for private enterprise to assist the government with funding and some of the expenses of having dedicated inspectors available for the inspection of products that come in.” This has long been a play for airfreight. The maritime world is now using it to solve bottleneck issues for private industry as well as budgetary issues for the federal government. NJ’s Paulsboro Marine Terminal

The South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) is developing a new state-of-the-art marine terminal in Paulsboro, NJ with Holt Logistics Corp, with which it entered into a partnership in July for its construction. Located on the banks of the Delaware River in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, the planned facility – a redevelopment of the terminal—will be the first new multi-purpose marine terminal to be constructed on the Delaware River in over 30 years. The project is directly connected to the planned construction of the new Holtec International manufacturing facility in nearby Camden. Holt refers to the activity on the Delaware River as creating a “rising tide that can create abundant opportunities for new cargo and business growth for the entire region.” “Essentially, the Paulsboro Marine Terminal is a 190-acre development with a 3,000-foot deep water berth and 21,000 feet of rail track that is being constructed as we speak,” Holt told AJOT. Holt Logistics is relinquishing an important portion of its Pier 5 port facility at the Broadway Marine Terminal in Camden in exchange for the opportunity to energize the project. The Paulsboro Marine Terminal has been vacant since the original BP oil refinery was permanently shuttered. “The project is on schedule and under way,” Holt reports. SJPC anticipate completion of the $170 million redevelopment by next year. Holt is initially investing in excess of $10 million at the site, which represents the first phase of a private investment. Among the equipment in which Holt has invested are cranes, major rolling stock, capital equipment, and gantry cranes. “The facility eventually will have three cranes,” Holt says. “Right now the facility is being constructed. The outside commission date for the wharf is January 2016.” Similar to the Southport Marine Terminal in Philadelphia, the Paulsboro terminal is being planned like a campus. “It’s emerging at an exciting time when a confluence of many types of cargo, traditional cargos like steel, rolling stock, containers, as well as this magnificent opportunity that is coming out of Marcellus shale region,” Holt says. “It’s part of the overall energy revolution that’s occurring within the United States.” Port of Wilmington, DE Tom Keefer, deputy executive director of Diamond State Port Corp., reports that volumes at the Port of Wilmington are up in most categories. “Tropical fruits saw their best season last year,” he says. Last year the port handled 44,000 pallets of clementines. “It was our biggest season ever,” Keefer comments. Currently, the fruit is in the middle of its season. Originally, the fruit came to the Port of Wilmington for transshipment to Canada. “Four years ago we started to get more involved in the US-clementine trade,” he says. To cut shipment times, the port offered a cold treatment program that continues to be highly successful today. In 2014, the port signed a five-year extension agreement with Chiquita that runs for another five years with options. “That will keep them at the port through 2029,” Keefer says. The service is once a week. Keefer reveals that the port anticipates a strong Chilean fruit season this year. By mid December, the port discharged its third ship from the trade lane. “They are bringing up grapes, stone fruit and blueberries,” Keefer says. “This is the first season where we have handled their first three ships on the river. During the last four years we handled the first ship.” Overall, the port’s major break bulk commodities are bananas and pineapple. “All totaled, we handled 1.5 million to 1.7 million tons of perishables a year,” he says. The Port is also active in handling rocket boosters for Orbital Sciences. “They come in one at a time,” Keefer says. “This requires a lot of planning to move them by truck landside.” In other news, the Port of Wilmington is undergoing improvements as a result of a $10 million TIGER grant. “As we complete repairing Berth 5, the crane rail will be extended eventually to Berth 6 that will give us the ability to move gantry cranes to those berths,” he says. “We anticipate ordering two ship-to-shore multi-purpose cranes early in 2016.”