New name, GCT Bayonne, reflects its advantages

Effective October 1, 2014, the name of the Port of New York/New Jersey’s Global Terminal will become known as GCT Bayonne. The terminal is owned by parent company, GCT Global Container Terminals Inc. GCT Global Container Terminals Inc., itself, hails from Vancouver, British Columbia. It operates both GCT Bayonne (formerly Global Terminal & Container Services, LLC) and GCT New York (formerly New York Container Terminal, LLC), which were established in 1972 and 1995 respectively. Unique to GCT Bayonne is its location. It is the closest container terminal to the harbor entrance, which saves an average of four hours in vessel transit time compared to terminals in the Port Newark/Elizabeth area.

A 70-acre expansion at GCT Bayonne was completed in the second quarter of 2014 when the company celebrated its grand opening on June 18, 2014. ”This transformed the facility to the most modern, state-of-the-art, semi-automated terminal on the East Coast of North America,” comments John Atkins, president, GCT USA. Making GCT Bayonne unique is the fact it is the only terminal in the Port of New York / New Jersey that is not subject to any water draft restrictions or air draft restrictions under the Bayonne Bridge. It is also the only terminal in NY/NJ able to accommodate the largest vessels currently transiting the Suez Canal. “As one of our two terminals located in the Port of New York and New Jersey, GCT Bayonne services the one of most concentrated, affluent markets in the world,” remarks John Atkins, president, GCT USA. Another big advantage is GCT Bayonne is big ship ready. “Our $230 million investment in new infrastructure, equipment, and technology allows us to increase productivity from 25 GMPH to 40 GMPH in the harbor,” he says. “In addition, our new gate complex has above-industry standard performance with highly efficient transactions. Providing a 45 minute truck turnaround time, shippers will be able to get their shipments faster.” In addition, GCT Bayonne is planning to further roll out process enhancements to provide increased transparency for cargo availability coupled with expected truck arrivals. The steamship lines calling at GCT Bayonne are G6 Alliance (APL, Hapag Lloyd, Hyundai, OOCL, MOL, NYK), Hamburg Sud, CSAV, and CCNI. “GCT Bayonne handles the largest vessels calling the Port of New York and New Jersey,” Atkins says. In fact, the terminal handles the largest vessel calling the New York harbor, the NYK Arcadia at 9600 TEUs deployed between Asia and New York on the Suez Canal.

While 85 to 90 percent of the traffic moving through the port is truck based, once the Greenville intermodal yard is complete, GCT Bayonne will have the most advanced intermodal yard in the US Northeast and mid-Atlantic. In fact, during the week of September 15, the NY/NJ Port Authority Board approved the development of its fourth ExpressRail at Greenville Yard. “Greenville Yard is GCT Bayonne’s near dock rail yard and will support GCT’s customers in connecting to the hinterland,” Atkins explains. Once complete, Greenville Yard will have a capacity of 250,000 lifts. “With a direct connection to the CSX and Norfolk Southern railways, the near dock Greenville Rail Yard will play a key role in our operations,” Atkins explains. “Due to our ability to leverage the advantage of operating two terminals in the harbor, we are currently providing our customers uninterrupted reliability through our dedicated ExpressRail at GCT New York.” Currently, a $300 million highway interchange outside the GCT Bayonne by the NJ Turnpike Authority is underway that is expected to alleviate congestion. “The project is fully funded, design and property acquisitions are complete, and public consultations are complete,” reports Atkins. Meanwhile GCT Bayonne officials say the terminal is on track to become the port’s first terminal operator to deploy automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs) that maximize efficiency on the Port Jersey Channel. The first five (of 20) cranes were in operation in March this year, and greatly increase the facility’s ability to process cargo. According to Atkins, these are being deployed to increase safety, improve reliability, and decrease processing times. “The semi-automated RMGs communicate with our newly redesigned gate complex,” he explains. “This ‘talking’ allows our infrastructure to work in concert to move cargo through the terminal more quickly and efficiently. In addition, our faster turnaround time will increase the efficiency of our operations and provide a cost-savings to our customers by reducing dwell times at the terminal.” Though speed and efficiency are a priority, Atkins points out that neither is more important than the safety of the terminal’s workforce and the trucking community. “Trucks will no longer need to drive through the terminal,” he says. “Instead, they will stop directly at the stack to pick up and drop off containers. In addition, GCT Bayonne’s new RMG stacks are positioned at an angle to make approaching and departing the area safer, quicker, and easier. Also, through semi-automation, every step is carefully monitored by highly trained ILA operators such that the RMGs never interact with a truck until the driver has entered the safe zone.” Most important, GCT Bayonne will make the Port of New York/New Jersey more competitive with other East Coast seaports by boasting 17 Terex shuttle trucks, 20 semi-automatic RMGs from Konecranes. It also offers an automated gate system that has 19 in-gates and 10 out-gates, a 2,700 foot berth, and a 50 foot draft. “There are two additional ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes from Liebherr arriving in the first quarter 2015 to complete a fleet of 8 post-Panamax cranes,” Atkins adds. “Through GCT Bayonne, the Port of New York and New Jersey has joined a few key ports on the East Coast that are big ship ready and can now handle the largest vessels, and GCT Bayonne ensures that cargo volumes destined for the region can be served by the largest, most efficient vessels, thus supporting local economic growth.”