Cargo volume up in Port of Philadelphia

Cargoes were up 10.4 percent in 2012 in the Port of Philadelphia, the third consecutive year for gains and an indicator the economy is improving, officials said.

More steel, more paper, more cars. And sugar, a new cargo, weighed in at 24,331 tons.

But the year was not all rosy. Container shipments were down after Chilean shipping company CSAV reduced ship calls at Tioga Marine Terminal and Star Line L.L.C. suspended service, citing the economy and rising fuel costs.

Since a recession slowed shipping worldwide in 2009, ports on the Delaware River have seen an uptick in business - cargo volume in Philadelphia was up 17 percent in 2010 and 10 percent in 2011.

"While the national and world economy still challenges our efforts in many ways," the latest annual statistics show the port "is on the right track," said Philadelphia Regional Port Authority executive director James T. McDermott Jr.

Steel shipments bound for U.S. auto manufacturers were up 21 percent "primarily due to the recovery of the American automobile manufacturing business," said Robert Blackburn, the port authority's senior deputy executive director.

Unconventional cargoes known as "project cargoes" - construction and power plant equipment, generators, and turbines - were up 21 percent, headed to industrial construction sites, Blackburn said.

Sugar, a new cargo here, "was a shot in the arm for our Tioga Terminal," Blackburn said. "It went to confectionary suppliers."

The biggest part of the increase was in liquid bulk cargoes, up 65.62 percent.

The liquid chemical cumene arrived on ships from suppliers in the Gulf of Mexico at two piers leased to Kinder Morgan Terminals at Delaware and Allegheny Avenues. Cumene is converted into another chemical, phenol, at a Frankford chemical plant that Sunoco Inc. sold to Honeywell International in 2011.

After Sunoco cut back shipments of key raw materials, Honeywell lined up alternative suppliers to bring in a critical industrial chemical for making nylon to Kinder Morgan, where it is stored and sent by barge up the Delaware River to Frankford. There it is turned into phenol, which Honeywell ships to another facility in Hopewell, Va., to make into the main ingredient for manufacturing nylon for carpet fiber, clothing, and plastic in automobiles.

Sunoco's divestiture of the Bridge Street plant has been a  big gain for the Philadelphia port - 1.22 million metric tons of liquid chemicals moved through the port last year.

Automobile imports were up 12.44 percent. In all, 143,258 new Hyundai and Kia autos arrived at Packer Avenue terminal from South Korea, headed for dealer showrooms, compared with the 127,406 that rolled off ships in 2011.

Overall, fewer ships docked in 2012, but they may have carried bigger loads, said Paul Myhre, operations director of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay.

Elsewhere, in Delaware, 1,020 ships docked last year, compared with 1,065 in 2011, said Myhre. New Jersey piers and terminals saw 709 ships, compared to 689 the year before. For all of Pennsylvania ports, 1,079 ships arrived, compared with 1,239 in 2011.

With the loss of Sea Star, which had sailed once a week into Tioga from Puerto Rico with mangoes, coffee, tomatoes, rum, and pharmaceuticals, Tioga's volumes were down.

Since July 2010, Pennsylvania has spent more than $100 million on maintenance and infrastructure improvements at the Philadelphia port. The bulk of the money, designated by the Rendell administration, has been released by the Corbett administration for upgrades to piles and decking, roof repairs, electrical and utility improvements, paving, and sprinkler systems.