Inbound Infrastructure! PhilaPort’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal Poised for Record-Breaking 2019

Zero congestion and increased capacity mean fewer delays and minimal demurrage fees

PHILADELPHIA- On January 8, 2019, the M/V Zhen Hua 25 departed Shanghai, China with two new super Post-Panamax container cranes bound for South Philadelphia. The two behemoths will navigate a lengthy global trek before reaching the Delaware River for an expected March, 2019 arrival at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. The arrival will mark another important milestone in the comprehensive modernization project underway at Packer, and highlights a key competitive advantage for shippers looking to improve time to market on the East Coast of the United States.

the m/v Zhen Hua 25 leaves China with two super post-panamax container cranes bound for Philadelphia.

“Our terminal is currently under capacity, meaning we could handle rerouted surplus bound for nearby congested terminals immediately without blinking an eye,” said David Whene, President of Greenwich Terminals, operator of the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. “With ship productivity as high as 140 gross moves per hour, turn-times of under 40-minutes, and an abundance of available chassis, Packer Avenue offers carriers unparalleled efficiency in reaching the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.”

Boasting a $300 million public-private investment in the Terminal, Packer Avenue is quickly becoming a model of 21st-century port operations. The forthcoming completion of the Delaware River Deepening Project will provide a full 45-foot shipping channel through Philadelphia, allowing vessels as large as 14,500 TEUs-among the largest in the world-to traverse into the port.

This deepening project is timed perfectly with the arrival of the new super Post-Panamax cranes, which will bring the total operational cranes on the terminal to six (a seventh will arrive in August). This increase in capacity will only lead to improvements on the already stellar 40-minute turn times for containers coming in and out. Terminal-wide improvements in lighting, electrification, and warehousing add to a 360-degree modernization that has helped drive overall throughput capacity for PhilaPort to one million TEUs per year.

“We have always known that PhilaPort’s market potential was significantly greater than reflected in past volumes,” said PhilaPort CEO, Jeff Theobald. “Now with our capital improvements nearing their completion, shippers should know that we have excess capacity and that we are open for new business.”

Flexible work hours, abundant access to trucking, multi-modal rail, and an increasing network of distribution centers in the region all make Philadelphia an ideal destination for a wide variety of import products. And Philadelphia’s location at the heart of the U.S. Northeast Corridor places goods within a day’s reach of 40 percent of the US population, the most lucrative market in the world.

PhilaPort has seen 166 percent container growth in the last decade and broke all records in 2018 by handling 600,000 TEUs. The surge in cargo volume is welcome and PhilaPort’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal is ready to take its position as one of the premier cargo gateways in the United States.