Page 38 - Index

uted to that successful service, which will be expanded next year.”
omas Holt III of Holt Logistics in Gloucester City, NJ, describes the impact of the Panama Canal expansion as negligible.
e executive’s well known family company manages the Delaware River ports of Gloucester, Packer Avenue and Paulsboro Marine Terminals, all under the purview of e Port of Philadelphia. Holt is optimistic about the region’s bene ts for servicing fruit markets.
“ e Port of Philadelphia is uniquely suited
to serve all fruit importers from the Southern Hemisphere as well as Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean,” says Holt. “Philadelphia o ers unparalleled access to 40% of the U.S. popula- tion within a day’s drive of the Port.
“Our goal is to make the Port of Philadel- phia a true “one-stop shop” for any producer or exporter that wants to reach the U.S. market. We o er unparalleled access, fast turnaround times and signi cant room to grow our capacity over the next decade,” he says.
Holt says Gloucester just upgraded its solar
capacity up to 10.1MW, and a new repack facility was also built at the site, which has 25 million-cubic feet of cold storage, 650 reefer plugs and 1.1 million square feet of dry storage.
He says the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal has four million cubic feet of refriger- ated cargo space and 2,200 reefer plugs, and in August the site was expected to see the addition of a post-Panamax crane to build on “a host of other terminal-wide improvements.”
Casey of the Port of Wilmington says work already has begun on the initial set of improve- ments at the port, including: pier restructuring and pile replacement; warehouse upgrades such as new racking systems for palletized cargo and roof improvements to improve safety and secu- rity; and a dock and crane rail extension.
e port’s storage yard also is being restruc- tured to increase the cargo throughput capa- bility from 350,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 600,000 TEUs, as well as added capacity for roll-on, roll-o cargo. “With investment in new refrigerated and especially with the opening of a reefer centric, modern container terminal, the expectation is there will be a market share shift from the other mid-At- lantic terminals – in the midterm,” he says.
“However, GT USA Wilmington’s focus is not on current share, but nding partnerships to bring new share into the region — increasing the pie rather than taking a larger slice of existing pie, so to speak.”
Apart from her praise of infrastructure improvements in Georgia, Advance Customs Brokers & Consulting’s Compres is also partic- ularly upbeat about several upgrades in the Delaware River region.
“Packer [Avenue] has invested signi cantly in cranes and is making a sizeable investment in infrastructure at the terminal, including a newly constructed inspection site, which will enable more inspections and improved release time,” she says. “Seaboard Marine’s service into Penn Terminals last year o ers importers an excellent option for exports of perishables from Peru.”
Overall, she thinks Philadelphia has perhaps the best availability for refrigerated cargo because of its numerous cold storage options.
“However, for the same reason, we have had to secure our own cold storage to elim- inate the substantial congestion in getting cargo into and out of the warehouse,” she says. “Seaboard’s service into Philadelphia has had a positive impact on the Northeast market, allowing options for alternate days of arrival and faster turnaround of cargo through CBP.
“Commodities include bananas, blueber- ries, avocados, pineapples, melons and citrus from South America.” pb
38 / AUGUST 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS