Philadelphia, January 20, 2012
Philadelphia Regional Port Authority Signs Cooperation Agreement with Lithuanian Port of Klaipeda
New Business Opportunities and Expanded Trade a Likely Result of New Agreement

Philadelphia, January 18, 2012
Port of Philadelphia's 2011 Cargo Statistics Show Sizable Gains for Most Port Cargoes
3,993,616 Metric Tons of Total Cargo Handled in 2011 is a 10% Increase over 2010 Cargo Figures

Philadelphia, January 11, 2012
Port of Philadelphia Welcomes New Year with Record-Size Cargo of Cocoa Beans

PHILADELPHIA REGIONAL PORT AUTHORITY
SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENT
WITH LITHUANIAN PORT OF KLAIPEDA

NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AND EXPANDED TRADE
A LIKELY RESULT OF NEW AGREEMENT

            PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, JANUARY 20, 2012-- The Republic of Lithuania and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) today signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding  that promises to open Philadelphia ports to the European and Asian shipping trade via the ice-free port of Klaipeda, the Lithuanian port city on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

            Lithuania’s Transport and Communications Minister Eligijus Masiulis led a delegation of that country’s leaders to meet with PRPA Chairman Charles G. Kopp, PRPA Executive Director James T. McDermott, Jr., various Pennsylvania state and city officials, and Leo A. Holt, President of Holt Logistics Corporation, the organization that operates the PRPA’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the Port of Philadelphia’s largest facility. 

            Together, they signed an official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which pledges increased support for expanded trade between Philadelphia and Klaipeda. The delegation also included Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States Zygimantas Pavilionis and Eugenijus Gentvilas, the Director General of the Klaipeda Seaport.  Today’s ceremony took place in the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority Administration Building on the Delaware River waterfront.

            The agreement follows months of extensive discussions between Lithuanian officials and the Port of Philadelphia, led by Krista Bard, the U.S. Consul to Lithuania; Philadelphia Regional Port Authority officials; and representatives of Holt Logistics.

              “Today’s agreement is another step forward for the Port of Philadelphia,” said PRPA Chairman Charles Kopp.  “Under Governor Corbett’s leadership, the PRPA is committed to revitalizing the Port, both through continued support of the River deepening project and through partnerships that expand trade opportunities with important port cities like Klaipeda.”

            “We live in an increasingly interconnected world, and this agreement significantly improves the Port of Philadelphia’s ability to compete for the cargoes that mean jobs and opportunity for our region,” said Mr. Holt.  “The Port of Klaipeda is a gateway to greater shipping and trade opportunities throughout Western Europe and Asia, and we are honored that they have selected Philadelphia for this purpose.”

            Klaipeda is the third largest city in Lithuania and the principal ice-free port on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The deep-water port connects sea, land and railway routes from east to west in that region – the main shipping lines to the ports of Western Europe and Southeast Asia pass through Klaipeda. The port’s annual cargo handling capacity is up to 45 million tons.

            There already is a federally mandated partnership between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Republic of Lithuania, and this event marks another historic step in strengthening these ties.

            “We are honored to partner with the Commonwealth and the private sector to create new opportunities for expanded trade between these two vital port cities,” said Ms. Bard, the U.S. Consul to Lithuania.  “The Commonwealth, the PRPA, and the Holt family have worked hard to make this agreement possible, and we thank them for their outstanding support.”

            A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding and the list of official delegation members are available upon request from PRPA.

            The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged with the management, maintenance, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned port facilities along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, as well as strategic planning throughout the port district.  PRPA works with its terminal operators to modernize, expand, and improve its facilities, and to market those facilities to prospective port users.  Port cargoes and the activities they generate are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the Philadelphia area and throughout Pennsylvania.

Photograph: PRPA Executive Director James T. McDermott, Jr. and officials from Lithuania sign a Memorandum of Understanding on January 20, 2012

PORT OF PHILADELPHIA’S 2011 CARGO STATISTICS
SHOW SIZABLE GAINS FOR MOST PORT CARGOES

3,993,616 METRIC TONS OF TOTAL CARGO HANDLED IN 2011
IS A 10% INCREASE OVER 2010 CARGO FIGURES

            PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 18, 2012--   With 3,993,616 metric tons of cargo handled at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s waterfront facilities in 2011 compared with the 3,628,312 tons of cargo handled in 2010, the Port of Philadelphia marked a solid 10% increase in cargo last year, officials of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) reported today.  Gains in both containerized cargoes and several non-containerized cargoes contributed to this gain.  Combined with the 17% increase in cargo in 2010 over 2009, PRPA has re-established and surpassed pre-recession cargo levels.

            With 2,028,011 metric tons of containerized cargoes handled in 2011 compared to the 1,860,097 tons handled in 2010, container tonnage was up 9% last year.  Counted as individual containers, or TEU’s, the 291,091 TEU’s handled in 2011 marked a 6.7% gain over the previous year’s 272,824 TEU’s.  Containers move through the Port of Philadelphia at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and the Tioga Marine Terminal.

            Many of the Port’s regularly-handled breakbulk cargoes (all non-containerized cargoes excluding automobiles and  liquid bulk cargoes) also experienced big gains in 2011.  These included forest products (432,270 metric tons handled, an 11% gain); cocoa beans (111,773 tons handled, a 15% gain); and project cargo (41,996 tons handled, an almost 4% gain).  Steel (167,353 tons) and fruit (290,146 tons) performed at about 2010 levels last year.

            Projections indicate continued growth in breakbulk cargoes in 2012, with several positive developments already occurring.  The port’s cocoa-handling center at Pier 84 handled a record-size cargo of cocoa beans (19,328 metric tons) in early January, and forest products carrier Spliethoff Line will return to the Port later this month, regularly delivering high-quality paper and other forest products to the Port’s Forest Products Distribution Center at Piers 78/80 and 74.

            The biggest highlight among the Port of Philadelphia’s 2011 non-containerized cargoes was undoubtedly automobiles, due to continuous growth in the Port’s Hyundai and Kia automobile business.  With 127,347 Hyundai and Kia automobiles arriving at the Port of Philadelphia in 2011 compared with the already sizable 68,876 automobiles that arrived in 2010, the Port experienced a dramatic 85% gain to this already-healthy cargo.  Counted as tonnage instead of units, 174,978 tons of automobiles were handled in 2011 compared to the 77,350 tons handled in 2010, a 126% gain. 

            In a joint ILA/Teamster operation, automobiles are discharged at PRPA’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and then processed for eventual further shipment inland at PRPA’s Automobile Processing Facility, located directly across the street from the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.

            Finally, with 740,890 metric tons of liquid bulk cargoes handled in 2011 compared to the 677,553 tons handled in 2010, liquid bulk cargoes demonstrated a sizable gain of more than 9%.  More substantial growth is anticipated in this area in 2012 as a result of cooperation on capital improvements and marketing between PRPA and its liquid bulk-handling terminal operator, Kinder-Morgan.

            “While in many ways the Port of Philadelphia’s activity levels are tied to the U.S. economy, we nevertheless always strive to move as much cargo through this Port as possible, no matter the economic climate” said PRPA chairman Charles G. Kopp.  “That ongoing effort, by both our port staff and our terminal operators, helped to yield big results last year.  It also helped that the economy has shown improvement, a trend that we hope will continue in 2012.”

            The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged with the management, maintenance, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned port facilities along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, as well as strategic planning throughout the port district.  PRPA works with its terminal operators to modernize, expand, and improve its facilities, and to market those facilities to prospective port users.  Port cargoes and the activities they generate are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the Philadelphia area and throughout Pennsylvania.

Automobiles and rolls of high-quality paper, both seen here at the Port of Philadelphia’s facilities, experienced big gains in 2011.

PORT OF PHILADELPHIA WELCOMES NEW YEAR
WITH RECORD-SIZE CARGO OF COCOA BEANS

            PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 11, 2012-- The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s dedicated cocoa-handling facility at Pier 84 is no stranger to large shipments of cocoa beans from the world’s cocoa-producing nations, with the facility routinely establishing and breaking records based on the size of the shipments it receives.  This happened yet again during the first week of January, 2012, when the M/V Pacific Tramp arrived at Pier 84 with its load of 19,328 metric tons of cocoa beans (totaling 293,755 bags of cocoa beans), yet another new record for the United States and this facility.

            Port officials are optimistic that this current shipment continues the recent upward trend in cocoa cargoes at the Port of Philadelphia, as total cocoa bean cargoes handled at Port in 2011 were up over 26% compared to 2010. 

            A spectacular sight along the north berth of Pier 84 for the several days it took to discharge its cargo, the M/V Pacific Tramp is a newly-built vessel chartered by the Hamburg-based logistics company Unicargo. The vessel left Pier 84 on schedule on Tuesday, January 10, shortly after completing its discharge operation.

            The Pacific Tramp’s cargo originated in Africa’s Ivory Coast, at the Ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, with the final destination of the cocoa beans being various grinders and processors located throughout the Philadelphia region and beyond.  A sizable portion of the vessel’s cargo is destined for Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, located just outside Philadelphia in Eddystone, Pennsylvania.  Several representatives of the company visited the vessel to witness the continuing discharge operation on Friday, January 6.  There they met with officials of both the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA), which owns Pier 84, and Dependable Distribution Services (DDS), which operates Pier 84.

            Dependable Distribution Services is a leading handler of cocoa beans and cocoa products in the Philadelphia region, offering a variety of value-added services in addition to its primary discharge operations at Pier 84.  That fact, coupled with Pier 84’s close proximity to the region’s many chocolate manufacturers and cocoa processors, makes it a force in the region and the first choice among many shippers and receivers of cocoa beans.

            “I’m truly pleased to welcome the M/V Pacific Tramp to the Port of Philadelphia and Pier 84,” said Harvey Weiner, President of Dependable Distribution Services, upon meeting Captain Zewan Smit, Master of the Pacific Tramp on Friday, January 6.  Joining Mr. Weiner on the bridge of the vessel to meet Captain Smit were PRPA Director of Marketing Sean Mahoney, Director of Communications Joseph Menta, and Marketing Representative Frank Camp.  The group later greeted representatives of Barry Callebaut, which shortly arrived to see the vessel and the portion of the cargo that their company owned.  Continued Mr. Weiner to the assembled group, “Everyone here today- the Port, the carrier, the terminal operator, and the customer- are necessary components in making a major piece of port activity like this one, with all its economic benefits, a reality.  When you have a great team, great things happen.”

            Barry Callebaut, whose world headquarters is in Switzerland, will be undergoing major expansion at its Eddystone, Pennsylvania facility in its effort to more efficiently serve both the regional artisan/chef trade as well as more traditional food manufacturers.

            Another regional customer receiving a large portion of the Pacific Tramp’s cocoa bean cargo was Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) of Hazelton, Pennsylvania.  A leading producer of high-quality cocoa ingredients, ADM’s cocoa processing and chocolate manufacturing facility in Hazelton became fully active in 2010.  The company’s recent activities further contribute to Philadelphia and the surrounding region’s reputation as a major distribution and manufacturing center for cocoa.

            Upon being briefed on the new year’s record-size cocoa cargo, PRPA Chairman Charles P. Kopp said, “This is a great example of the kinds of things that happen when the public and private sectors bring their individual talents together.  Here we see a busy port facility tending to the needs of both the carrier and the final customers, with the resulting activity benefitting everyone.”

            For Unicargo’s Olaf Dimter, the vessel’s operator and the person credited with parceling together this record-breaking shipment, the discharge operation at Pier 84 was the final piece of a logistics puzzle that began weeks before in Africa.  “I personally witnessed much of the loading operation in the Ivory Coast, pleased with the care taken as the cargo was loaded,” he said.  “I was equally pleased when briefed on the care and efficiency of the discharge operation at the Port of Philadelphia.  While Philadelphia’s proximity to our final customers put it under natural consideration as our destination port, its reputation for a quality operation was equally important in our decision to go there.  Once again, the Port of Philadelphia lived up to that reputation.”

            PRPA is pleased to report that it recently concluded lease negotiations with Dependable Distribution Services which will extend DDS’s lease at Pier 84 to 2018. 

            The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged with the management, maintenance, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned port facilities along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, as well as strategic planning throughout the port district.  PRPA works with its terminal operators to modernize, expand, and improve its facilities, and to market those facilities to prospective port users.  Port cargoes and the activities they generate are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the Philadelphia area and throughout Pennsylvania.

On Friday, January 6, the M/V Pacific Tramp is seen discharging its record-size cargo of cocoa beans at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s dedicated cocoa bean facility at Pier 84 in South Philadelphia.  The vessel departed from the facility on Tuesday, January 10.