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PORT OF
PHILADELPHIA’S 2004 YEAR-TO-DATE CARGO FIGURES
RUNNING WELL AHEAD OF 2003 FIGURES
Philadelphia, August 6, 2004--
James T. McDermott, Jr., Executive Director of the Philadelphia
Regional Port Authority (PRPA), today announced that cargo levels
for the first half of 2004 are running more than 7% ahead of cargo
levels during the first half of 2003. The overall increase was buoyed
by a big increase in containers handled, as well as dramatic improvements
with several breakbulk cargoes. Here are highlights of PRPA’s
year-to-date cargo statistics:
With 87,462 TEUs handled during the first half
of 2004 compared to the 70,926 TEUs handled during the first half
of 2003, container handling saw a 23% increase over the earlier
period. TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent unit, with one TEU
equaling one twenty-foot container. A forty-foot container is equal
to two TEUs.
97,010 metric tons of cocoa beans were handled
in January to June 2004, a 115% increase compared to the same period
last year.
Several cargoes that underperformed during the
first half of 2003 bounced back in January-June 2004. In particular,
project cargo (8,233 metric tons YTD to June), finished wood products
(47,281 metric tons YTD to June), military cargoes (34,636 metric
tons YTD to June), and pulp (15,544 metric tons YTD to June) all
experienced dramatic increases compared to the first half of 2003.
Steel (355,695 metric tons), fruit (143,601 metric
tons), & paper (356,922 metric tons) also remained strong.
With all breakbulk cargoes calculated together,
PRPA’s facilities handled 1,072,922 metric tons of breakbulk
cargoes in January-June 2004, a 1% increase over the 1,063,639 metric
tons handled during the first half of 2003.
With PRPA’s 87,462 TEU year-to-date-to-June
container figure converted into a total metric tonnage figure of
690,192 metric tons and added to the total breakbulk tonnage figure
described above, PRPA’s total tonnage for the first half of
2004 was 1,973,209 metric tons of total import and export cargo
handled, compared to the 1,837,512 metric tons of total cargo handled
during the first half of 2003, a 7.38% increase.
McDermott honored by Philadelphia
Maritime Society; repeats call to deepen river’s main channel.
Philadelphia, May 5, 2004—The
Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is pleased to report
that PRPA’s Executive Director, James T. McDermott Jr., was
honored on Thursday, April 29 as the 2004 Man of the Year by the
Ports of Philadelphia Maritime Society, a regional industry trade
group.
McDermott, 48, who this week will mark 10 years
as head of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, was presented
the award at the Maritime Society’s 69th annual banquet at
the famous “Ballroom at the Ben”, the historic main
gathering hall in center city Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin
Hotel.
McDermott, who recently returned from Cuba as
part of a local delegation exploring trade opportunities there,
is a former assistant district attorney and two-time candidate for
Philadelphia City Council. He joined PRPA as Chief Counsel in 1991
and was soon promoted to Executive Director.
During his April 29 remarks, McDermott repeated
his call for the start of the Delaware Main Channel Deepening Project,
a $264 million project authorized by Congress in 1991 to deepen
the existing 40-foot ship channel to 45 feet. McDermott promised
the audience he would continue to fight in favor of the project,
which could take up to seven years to complete, and produce 1,600
jobs, $200 million in wages, and $400 million in revenue.
“The channel needs to be deepened since
shippers are increasingly turning to larger carriers that draw at
least 42 feet of water,” said McDermott during his remarks.
“Ports to the both the north and south of Philadelphia are
presently deepening their channels or have plans to do so. We must
move forward or be left behind. Indeed, it is our responsibility
to move forward.”
Proponents of the project scored two major victories
in March. On March 2, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection concluded that materials dredged from the Delaware River
during the course of the project can be an extraordinarily valuable
and effective tool in mine reclamation. On March 19, an independent
review commissioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supported
the economic benefits of the project.
In his introduction, Capt. Michael J. Linton,
President of the Pilots Association for the Bay and Delaware River,
said that while McDermott’s style and mannerisms are low key,
McDermott has been one of the most effective port administrators
Linton has ever worked with.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA)
is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged
with the management, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned
marine terminals located along the Delaware River in Philadelphia,
as well as strategic planning for maritime industrial activity in
the port district.
REPORT CONFIRMS
ECONOMIC BENEFITS
OF DELAWARE RIVER DEEPENING PROJECT
Philadelphia, March 30, 2004--
Proponents of the Delaware River Channel Deepening Project scored
a major victory on Friday, March 19 when an independent review once
again supported the economic benefits of the plan to deepen the
Delaware River’s main channel from 40 to 45 feet. Most notably,
the economic reanalysis of the project identified $24.2 million
in annual benefits, clearly demonstrating that the project would
be a prudent investment in the region’s maritime industry.
“This supplemental report by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers again underscores the economic viability of this
project,” said James T. McDermott Jr., Executive Director
of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. “As we have said
time and time again, we must modernize this river or else suffer
a disastrous decline in river traffic.”
“It has been conclusively demonstrated that
dredged materials from the Delaware River are environmentally benign,”
said Brian Preski, Chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.
“Now we have yet another economic reanalysis of the project,
which clearly outlines the dollars-and-cents benefits. The question
is, why are we still debating this issue? We need to deepen this
channel now.”
A December 2002 report- itself a reanalysis- identified
the economic benefits of the $264 million project, which was authorized
by Congress in 1991. However, after some concerns were raised regarding
the Corps’ data and assumptions, the Corps agreed to again
reanalyze some aspects of the project. It engaged a panel of experts
for an independent review of the reanalysis and results of the December
2002 report. That panel has now found that the Corps’ overall
benefits analysis, which demonstrates how a deeper channel would
benefit specific cargoes and commodities at the Port of Philadelphia,
to be sound, the Corps said.
The Delaware River needs to be deepened, Preski
said, as industries and shippers are increasingly turning to larger
vessels that draw at least 42 feet of water. Moreover, he added,
ports to both the north and south are presently deepening their
channels or have plans to do so. The Port of New York & New
Jersey, for example, is deepening its channel to 50 feet, and at
a cost many times higher than the $264 million cost of the Philadelphia
project.
“With a deeper channel and the economies
of scale that will accompany the larger vessels we’ll be able
to service, ships will be able to carry more cargo on the Delaware
River,” Preski said. “This will lead to substantially
more direct and indirect economic activity on the waterfront.”
The Delaware River Port Authority, a bi-state
transportation and economic development agency that frequently supports
the efforts of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and other
maritime agencies along the Delaware River, is the non-federal local
sponsor of the project. Economic benefits of the project will begin
immediately: during the five years it will take to deepen the channel,
the project is expected to produce 1,600 jobs, $200 million in wages
and $400 million in revenues. Upon completion, the project is expected
to produce 1,300 new jobs and increase cargo tonnage on the Delaware
River by up to 2.5 million tons annually.
A recent independent survey found that, by a margin
of more than three-to-one, residents in the tri-state area support
the project.
This latest report comes on the heels of another
piece of good news for the port community. On March 2, the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection concluded that dredged materials
from the Delaware River deepening project can be an extraordinarily
valuable and effective tool in mine reclamation. Filling abandoned
mines with material from the river bed would prevent accidents,
as well as halt the discharge of acidic water that has spoiled more
than 2,000 miles of streams in the state, officials of the agency
said.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA),
a major proponent of the Delaware River Channel Deepening Project,
is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, charged
with the management, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned
marine terminals located along the Delaware River in Philadelphia,
as well as strategic planning for maritime-industrial activity in
the port district.
GOVERNOR RENDELL APPROVES
MEASURE
EXPANDING PORT’S WATERFRONT HOLDINGS;
ADVANCES “SOUTHPORT” DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Philadelphia, March 19, 2004--
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is very pleased
to announce that on February 5, 2004, Pennsylvania Governor Edward
G. Rendell signed into law House Bill 696, which conveys to PRPA
47.2 acres of ground previously part of the Philadelphia Naval Business
Center, a waterfront industrial park located in South Philadelphia
on the site of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard. PRPA officials
hailed this transfer of property as an important first step in the
Port of Philadelphia's future plans to expand its operations along
the Delaware River to meet growing cargo business.
H.B. 696, sponsored by longtime supporter of the
Port of Philadelphia Representative William F. Keller along with
sixty of his colleagues in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,
marks the first expansion of public port property in over fifty
years. H.B. 696 was the end result of a December 2002 agreement
between PRPA, the City of Philadelphia, rail carrier CSX, Conrail
Joint Assets Corporation, and various commercial and retail interests.
That agreement stated that PRPA would permit limited commercial
and retail development on waterfront lands previously earmarked
only for maritime-industrial use, but only if other waterfront acreage
of comparable size was turned over to PRPA to assure room for future
port expansion. PRPA had zoning governance over but didn't own the
lands previously in contention, meaning that PRPA has now gained
significant new acreage for maritime-industrial use without losing
any previous acreage.
James T. McDermott, Jr., Executive Director of
PRPA, immediately thanked Governor Rendell and Representative Keller
for their efforts on the Port's behalf. "With this additional
acreage, PRPA can now pursue its Southport expansion project which
we believe is necessary to assure the future viability of maritime
operations in Pennsylvania," Mr. McDermott said. The Southport
expansion proposal includes not only the lands conveyed in H.B.
696 but also Piers 122 and 124 and adjacent property. The proposal
will significantly enlarge the capacity of the Port of Philadelphia
to handle additional container cargo as well as enhance its ability
to handle military cargoes now regularly moving through the Port
as a result of PRPA's 2002 designation as a Strategic Military Seaport
by the Defense Department.
In addition, as the Southport project will require
major filling in and re-shaping of the waterfront portions of the
acquired acreage, the proposal will enable Pennsylvania to accept
a major portion of dredged material from the Delaware River for
this purpose, significantly advancing the proposed Delaware River
Navigation Deepening Project, a top priority for PRPA and its Board
of Directors. PRPA Chairman Brian Preski, Esq. expressed his approval
of this new legislation by saying, "PRPA has already established
that deepening the Delaware River's navigation channel is the highest
priority for the port community. The Southport expansion plan represents
a substantial effort in achieving this long-sought goal. We will
undertake a major expansion of the Port of Philadelphia while at
the same time accepting Pennsylvania's fair share of the dredged
material resulting from the deepening project."
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