Port Newark Container Terminal is entering a new phase of construction that will boost its annual handling capacity to over 2 million TEUs by 2019 in anticipation for incraesed volumes.
The Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT), one of six container terminals operating within the Port of New York and New Jersey, is entering a new phase of construction in which it plans to increase its annual handling capacity from about 1.5 million TEUs to more than 2 million TEUs.
The infrastructure development at PNCT, which is financed with about $300 million in bond proceeds, will boost the terminal’s footprint roughly 17 percent to 308 acres and will include the buildout of a new gate facility, as well as larger and deeper vessel berths. The expansion work is expected to be completed by 2019.
In addition, PNCT has ordered four super post-panamax gantry cranes that are capable of servicing the new ultra-large container vessels that have begun serving the transpacific trade between Asia and North America and will continue to expand its straddle carrier fleet.
“Our focus in New York is to continue to improve the efficiency of the port,” PNCT President and CEO James Pelliccio told American Shipper in a recent interview. “PNCT’s development actually adds the capacity of another port in the Port of New York, and creates a more efficient footprint.
“We’re focused on New York as a gateway, we’re focused on our role in New York as a gateway, and we’re putting our money where our mouth is.” – James Pelliccio, president and CEO, Port Newark Container Terminal
“We think that bodes well for the Port of New York and New Jersey and that’s why our investments are as aggressive as they are at PNCT,” he said.
Long-Term Investment. PNCT’s terminal enhancements at the port began in earnest five years ago, with the initial 2012 yard expansion that included demolishing outdated structures and conducting environmental remediation of the property.
“Between 2012 and 2017 was kind of a hybrid of how the terminal has evolved so far,” Pelliccio said. “In that $298 million [in bond proceeds] we raised, $125 million of that is really focused on new development, which will include renovation of about 50 acres of existing yard and completion of our terminal gate and access improvement projects. It will also include wharf revitalization, which will allow us to handle multiple larger vessels at one time.”
The 20 new straddle carriers that are expected to arrive this year will increase PNCT’s terminal fleet to 120.
“Eighty percent of our fleet now is upgraded, but we’ll continue to replace [older units] each year as we go forward,” Pelliccio said.
In addition to the equipment investments, PNCT will upgrade its electrical infrastructure and information technology at the terminal.
“Our first step on the civil works side was to expand 33 acres. It increased our stacking capacity 25 percent,” Pelliccio said. “We also, back in the early stages of our development, added a flyover bridge, creating on-dock rail for the facility.”
PNCT’s railyard was previously off-dock, directly across the street, west of the facility. In 2013, the terminal’s new flyover bridge to the nearby railyard was completed, effectively doubling the size of the working track in the facility from 5,000 to 10,000 feet.
“Beyond 2012, and into 2013 and 2014, we added ultra-large container vessel crane capability, we put on three additional cranes. During that period, we added 64 new straddle carriers between 2012 and 2017. Thirty-six of those were four-high. We’re the only terminal in the United States that operates four-high straddle carriers,” Pelliccio said.
PNCT’s expansion reflects the projected 4 percent annual growth for the next five to 10 years at the Port of New York and New Jersey, which is the busiest seaport on the East Coast and the third busiest on the continent, after the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California.
PNCT, which has about 20 percent of the market share in the Port of New York and New Jersey, competes with the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn, the Global Container Terminals facilities in New Jersey and Staten Island, and the nearby Maher Terminals and APM Terminals facilities in Elizabeth, N.J. for ocean carrier business.
Leapfrogging Long Beach? During 2017, container terminals at the Port of New York New Jersey handled 6.71 million TEUs, the most in port history and a 7.3 percent increase from 2016, while the Port of Long Beach, the country’s second busiest port, saw its container volumes increase 11.4 percent to a record 7.54 million TEUs.
The increased container volume at the Port of New York and New Jersey during 2017 can be attributed to a variety of factors, according to port spokesman Steve Coleman. “The economy is strong and consumer spending is up,” Coleman told American Shipper. “The Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Project was completed in June 2017, paving the way for ships up to 18,000 TEUs to safely call terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey. That allowed the neo-panamax vessels utilizing the second set of larger lock at the Panama Canal to call our terminals, all leading to economies of scale for the ocean carriers.”
Significant capital investment and operational and efficiency improvements were also made across the port during the past several years, he added.
Coleman said the mid-2016 expansion of the Panama Canal has contributed to increased container traffic at the Port of New York and New Jersey, but not significantly.
“Volumes have increased, but the greater share of our cargo still comes through the Suez Canal,” he explained. “Presently, 40 percent of our volume is via the Suez, while 26 percent is via the Panama Canal, an increase since the new locks were opened.”
Pelliccio said the Panama Canal’s expansion was taken into consideration years ago when planning PNCT’s expansion.
“Our development plan was based on a number of factors, and clearly the expansion of the Panama Canal was one of those considerations we made back in 2012 as we were reconfiguring the terminal,” he said. “So up to this point, we’ve seen some increase in volumes, but I think that’s still ahead of us as the supply chain continues to evolve.”
The fact that the Port of New York and New Jersey moved only about 830,000 TEUs fewer than Long Beach is an encouraging sign for the port, considering that it was coming off a down year.
In 2016, the Port of New York and New Jersey moved 6.25 million TEUs, which was down almost 2 percent from the then-record setting 6.37 million TEUs handled by the port in calendar year 2015.
Despite inching closer to Long Beach’s container volumes, officials at the East Coast port say their focus is not on making gains on the West Coast, but improving their own services in the wake of recent infrastructure expansions.
“I think as the overall market grows and our efficiencies improve, all of the investments that have been made in New York—deepening the harbor, raising the Bayonne Bridge—those are all massive infrastructure projects that are behind us,” Pelliccio said. “So it’s quite natural that the terminals would now create more efficiency in their own footprint and container-handling equipment.”
More To Come. “The elimination of air draft restrictions at the Bayonne Bridge will definitely have an impact on our overall growth, as well as the completion of the harbor-deepening project,” Coleman said.
The Bayonne Bridge’s raising saw the span’s navigational clearance elevated to 215 feet above mean high water this past June, seven months ahead of schedule.
The new elevation allows vessels up to 18,000 TEUs to safely transit to the port’s terminals west of the bridge.
The $2.1 billion deepening project, which started in 2004 and finished in late 2016, allows larger ships to access the port’s New Jersey container terminals by way of newly dredged 50-foot water access.
Looking ahead, the fourth on-dock rail terminal in New York-New Jersey’s ExpressRail system is scheduled to come online in late 2018. ExpressRail, a comprehensive $600 million rail program, consists of rail facilities, as well as support track and rail yards, for each of the port’s major container terminals.
ExpressRail facilities currently serve PNCT, the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island, and an 18-track facility that straddles both the APMT and Maher terminals.
The Port of New York and New Jersey’s other terminal operators are also investing millions of dollars to expand their container yards, adding new super post-panamax ship-to-shore cranes, and upgrading gate systems and yard handling equipment.
All that investment “positions the Port of New York and New Jersey for strong growth in the future,” Coleman said.
“We believe that if our service continues to improve, that the cargo will follow,” Pelliccio said. “Where we sit in that race is something that I’d rather not predict; we’re very, very focused on just gaining efficiencies in the New York gateway, giving us greater access to inland ports through our intermodal improvements and our intermodal capabilities.
“We’re focused on New York as a gateway, we’re focused on our role in New York as a gateway, and we’re putting our money where our mouth is,” he said.