With 3,993,616 metric tons of cargo handled at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s waterfront facilities in 2011 compared with the 3,628,312 tons of cargo handled in 2010, the Port of Philadelphia marked a solid 10% increase in cargo last year, officials of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) reported today. Gains in both containerized cargoes and several non-containerized cargoes contributed to this gain. Combined with the 17% increase in cargo in 2010 over 2009, PRPA has re-established and surpassed pre-recession cargo levels. With 2,028,011 metric tons of containerized cargoes handled in 2011 compared to the 1,860,097 tons handled in 2010, container tonnage was up 9% last year. Counted as individual containers, or TEU’s, the 291,091 TEU’s handled in 2011 marked a 6.7% gain over the previous year’s 272,824 TEU’s. Containers move through the Port of Philadelphia at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and the Tioga Marine Terminal. Many of the Port’s regularly-handled breakbulk cargoes (all non-containerized cargoes excluding automobiles and liquid bulk cargoes) also experienced big gains in 2011. These included forest products (432,270 metric tons handled, an 11% gain); cocoa beans (111,773 tons handled, a 15% gain); and project cargo (41,996 tons handled, an almost 4% gain). Steel (167,353 tons) and fruit (290,146 tons) performed at about 2010 levels last year. Projections indicate continued growth in breakbulk cargoes in 2012, with several positive developments already occurring. The port’s cocoa-handling center at Pier 84 handled a record-size cargo of cocoa beans (19,328 metric tons) in early January, and forest products carrier Spliethoff Line will return to the Port later this month, regularly delivering high-quality paper and other forest products to the Port’s Forest Products Distribution Center at Piers 78/80 and 74. The biggest highlight among the Port of Philadelphia’s 2011 non-containerized cargoes was undoubtedly automobiles, due to continuous growth in the Port’s Hyundai and Kia automobile business. With 127,347 Hyundai and Kia automobiles arriving at the Port of Philadelphia in 2011 compared with the already sizable 68,876 automobiles that arrived in 2010, the Port experienced a dramatic 85% gain to this already-healthy cargo. Counted as tonnage instead of units, 174,978 tons of automobiles were handled in 2011 compared to the 77,350 tons handled in 2010, a 126% gain. In a joint ILA/Teamster operation, automobiles are discharged at PRPA’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and then processed for eventual further shipment inland at PRPA’s Automobile Processing Facility, located directly across the street from the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. Finally, with 740,890 metric tons of liquid bulk cargoes handled in 2011 compared to the 677,553 tons handled in 2010, liquid bulk cargoes demonstrated a sizable gain of more than 9%. More substantial growth is anticipated in this area in 2012 as a result of cooperation on capital improvements and marketing between PRPA and its liquid bulk-handling terminal operator, Kinder-Morgan. “While in many ways the Port of Philadelphia’s activity levels are tied to the U.S. economy, we nevertheless always strive to move as much cargo through this Port as possible, no matter the economic climate” said PRPA chairman Charles G. Kopp. “That ongoing effort, by both our port staff and our terminal operators, helped to yield big results last year. It also helped that the economy has shown improvement, a trend that we hope will continue in 2012.”