2 American Journal of Transportation American Journal of Transportation ajot.com 1 OUR SERVICES Warehousing and Logistics Solutions Warehousing • Rack/bulk storage • WMS inventory control • Temporary and seasonal surges Distribution • Import/export • Dry goods and specialty foods • Transportation resources Fulfillment • Order processing • Pick/pack • Labeling • Restacking Cross-docking • Loading/unloading • 21 doors • Minimal turnaround Call us at (201) 773-0770 250,000 sq. ft. owner-operated warehouse serving the Tri-State Area for 29+ years 20-10 Maple Avenue Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 teamlogistics.com LEARN MORE AT The Port of New York/New Jersey building for the future In an interview with the AJOT, Bethann Rooney, Port Director for the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey (PANYNJ) dis- cusses the successes and emerging challenges for the largest port on North America’s East Coast. By George Lauriat, AJOT (BUILDING – continued on page 12) 2025 A Good Year — 2026? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) posted a throughput of 8,897,531 TEUs — a very good year by most measures, and an exceptional year considering the geo-political and economic headwinds. On a deeper dive into the numbers, PANYNJ’s loaded TEUs were up nearly 3% over 2024 at 5,995,798 TEUs, edging out the Port of Long Beach (5,920,671) for second place in loaded TEUs behind the Port of Los Angeles. As Bethann Rooney, Port Director for PANYNJ explained, “All things con- sidered…last year was a good year. We continue to grow year over year on our overall volume. We continue to grow in laden imports, and we continue to grow in laden exports. The growth of the exports was more sig- nificant last year than we have seen.” The reasons for the export growth were complex, immersed in a fog of tariffs, which covers nearly, but not completely, everything. “So, our econo- mists call it the effec- tive tariff rate [which] is lower than what you see as the published tariff rates, because there’s all sorts of, I’ll call it, fine print on what gets the pub- lished tariff rate versus what doesn’t get the published tariff rate. So, if I look again at last year’s exports, we had a notable increase in vehicles. We had a notable increase in wastepaper, which is interesting because the wastepaper, like all the Amazon boxes, for example, they get recycled, shipped out, and they come back as the next Amazon box. We also had a most notable increase in food products exported [along with] iron and steel.” And there were surprises in the numbers, as Rooney points out. The Port exported 32,000 TEUs of tramway or railway stock and traffic signals com- pared to 5,000 TEUs in 2024. Equally the mix of countries for which the exported goods were des- tined, reflects a changing trade pat- tern for the US, with UAE, Singapore, Thailand, Belgium and Turkey the main recipients with a notable but expected decrease in exports to main- land China. Shippers: Tacking and Tactics Ever since the COVID period, shippers and BCOs (Beneficial Cargo Owners) have learned to tack quickly when the trade winds shift and to develop new strategies to keep ahead of potential supply chain problems. To a degree this adaptation by ship- pers and carriers was partly behind the results of 2025. When asked what main factors were driv- ing the Port’s strong showing in 2025, Beth Rooney gave a nuanced answer to the question of what happened in ’25 and what is happening now. “Both in terms of ‘25 and still with ‘26, the years are over- shadowed with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of behavior on the part of the shippers…racing against the clock… And in the early parts of 2025, we had shippers that were front-loading in anticipation of tariff implementation… And then tariffs go into effect. Then they are challenged with Supreme Court [decision which ruled 6-3 against the President using the International Emergency Eco- nomic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs] and [now] there is a bit of two different things we’re hearing….” In a sense it is a little like an eco- nomic rip tide with global trade being driven simultaneously in contrary directions by abnormal geo-political events. And as Rooney points out, “One is, again, front loading because the tariffs are down at the moment under the 180-day program, but the 301 considerations are out now for public comment under the USTR, and therefore there’s a period of time Bethann Rooney, Port Authority of NY and NJ port director Master planning: Port master plan 2050 The Port of New York /New Jersey’s infrastructure and opera- tional future is largely reflected in the Master Plan, a plan based on two 15-year segments that end in 2050. By George Lauriat, AJOT The Port of New York/New Jer- sey’s infrastructure and operational future is largely guided by the port’s Master Plan, which as Port Direc- tor Bethann Rooney explained to the AJOT is broken into two 15-year periods, 2020-2035 and 2035-2050. “We’re a third of the way through the first phase of the master plan — and the first phase of the master plan was largely focused on maximizing the use of all of the infrastructure that we had put in place by 2020 and then beginning to optimize land use across our facilities. And that was in combi- nation ensuring vacant parcels were leased out. If those vacant parcels did not provide any commercial maritime benefit, then look to the best of those and then optimizing the use of the remaining property.” In real terms it meant reorganiz- ing the property usage in a manner grouping compatible “products” or industries such as container terminal or auto processing related activities into “districts” so, rather than having “brand new import autos sitting next to scrap metal and road salt, that was adjacent to a container terminal.” And at this point, all of the autos have been removed from the middle part of the facility in Newark and Elizabeth, which is called “Port Newark South.” Additionally, PANYNJ made a com- mercial decision to no longer service scrap metal and Belgium block. The port now has only one remaining scrap metal operation, and they are on an expiring lease. And in so doing will create “additional space for us to pro- vide to the container terminals or for container terminal expansion area or container support area,” Rooney noted. Modernizing Leases The Port of New York/New Jersey operates under the “landlord port” model which the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey administers. And besides, addressing the optimi- zation of the properties themselves PANYNJ has been modernizing the leases. As Rooney noted, “The other big component of what we’ve been doing in the last five years is mod- ernizing our leases. So, as we think about how we are [the Port of New York/New Jersey] going to handle the volume that is forecasted in the 2035, ‘40, ‘45, ‘50. We need to develop addi- tional capacity within the container terminals…. [And] very few options exist to expand those terminals, so, we need to densify those terminals, make (PLAN – continued on page 24) NORTHEAST PORTS 2026
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