Cargoes up at Phila. docks for 5th year running

Cargoes were up 16 percent in 2014 in the Port of Philadelphia, the fifth consecutive year for gains and a sign of an improving economy, officials said.

More steel, more paper, more automobiles, and more imports arriving in 20-foot and 40-foot containers accounted for the increase.

Total tonnage was 5.9 million.

Not everything was up, as sugar, fresh fruit, and so-called project cargo, which is large, odd-size pieces of equipment such as boilers and generators, were down. Cocoa-bean shipments appeared to decline, but only because of a change in how the bean cargoes were shipped, port officials said.

Automobile imports from Hyundai and Kia bounced back to 150,637 from 129,239 in 2013, when there was labor strife in South Korea.

"In the wake of the national economic downturn a few years ago, we became more aggressive than ever in improving and marketing the port," said Charles Kopp, board chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA), a state agency.

The authority said 449,122 containers moved through the Philadelphia port in 2014, compared with 367,499 the year before.

Steel was up 49.5 percent; paper products rose 28 percent; and autos were up 16.6 percent. Sugar plummeted 78.9 percent; sugar is a cyclical commodity. "Importers are waiting for inventories to be depleted before they begin importing again," said Robert Blackburn, PRPA senior deputy executive director.

In November, the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal gained a weekly container service operated by MOL, APL, and Hyundai (HMM) bringing seasonal refrigerated cargo from the west coast of South America.

More Japanese steel used in manufacturing, and more steel bars from Turkey and Spain used in concrete construction, arrived at the port, Blackburn said.

Imported paper, mainly from Sweden and Finland, was up at Piers 78 and 80. Wood pulp from Brazil came into the Tioga Marine Terminal, headed to Pennsylvania plants for making tissue paper, paper towels, diapers, and toilet paper.

Cocoa beans dropped from 121,639 tons to 97,688 tons as a "break-bulk" cargo; however, more than 50,000 tons of cocoa beans arrived in truck-size containers, which are counted separately from cargoes shipped on pallets. "This was actually our best year for cocoa," Blackburn said.

Liquid bulk cargoes were up 13.4 percent, including ethanol, used in making gasoline and the liquid chemical cumene. Both arrived at piers leased to Kinder Morgan Terminals. The cumene is converted at a Frankford chemical plant into another chemical, phenol, which is a main ingredient for manufacturing nylon.

Since 2009, when the recession slowed shipping worldwide, ports on the Delaware have seen an uptick in business - cargo volume in Philadelphia was up 15 percent in 2013, 11 percent in 2012, 10 percent in 2011, and 14 percent in 2010.

Overall, only one more ship docked on the Delaware River in 2013 - 2,139 compared with 2,138 in 2012, said Paul Myhre, operations director of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay.

Elsewhere, in Delaware, 475 ships docked last year, compared with 452 in 2013. New Jersey piers and terminals saw 637 ships, compared with 690 the year before. For all Pennsylvania ports, 1,228 ships arrived, compared with 1,151 in 2013.