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More than 10,000 shiny, new vehicles have been packed and shipped on approximately 12-story vessels from South Korea and unloaded at the port for last-minute preparations prior to shipping them to dealerships. And there are many more on the way.
Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors began delivering to the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, Packer Avenue and Columbus Boulevard, with five shipments already here and two more expected to arrive tomorrow and Saturday bringing in more than 17,000 automobiles to prepare for sale this month alone.
“Contracts have been negotiated between various parties as the facility has been built out and when we were finally ready with contracts secured and a proper facility, we have begun to receive vessels,” Robert C. Blackburn, senior deputy executive director of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, said.
The first vessel, Hyundai 203, arrived Aug. 2 with crews unloading 1,811 vehicles the following morning at 8. About 3,400 were unloaded Aug. 14 plus 1,500 more the next day. About 2,500 cars on average will be unloaded from each vessel, Blackburn said.
“It’s a big piece of business,” Blackburn said. “Yes, it could grow. It could decline a bit depending on the market. The Korean cars have been doing well and we hope as our economy recovers, there will be more demand for automobiles.”
Most recently, the area had been used for military cargo and overflow space for terminal equipment, but this is not the fi rst car business the port has seen though, Blackburn said noting Nissans and Volkswagens occupying the space more than 10 years ago.
“[Those were] nowhere near the volume this represents,” he said.
The partnership had been in the works for more than a year-and-a-half and Gov. Ed Rendell announced April 21 that there would be an importation of up to 100 vessels of 150,000 Hyundai and Kia cars yearly through the marine terminal.
Holt Logistics Corp. — whose company, Greenwich Terminals LLC, has a lease with the port authority to operate at the terminal — reached the agreement with Philly RoRo Partners.
“[Philly RoRo] were looking for real estate in a major U.S. seaport for an account they had that actually was Glovis [of America], which is the company in charge of transportation for Hyundai and Kia,” Blackburn said.
Hyundai Motor Co., the manufacturer of Hyundai and Kia vehicles, and Glovis of America previously used ports in Baltimore and outside of New York in Elizabeth, N.J. Services there are in the process of being phased out with Philadelphia replacing both, Blackburn said.
“There will be a time in the future where all their mid-Atlantic business is coming through Philadelphia and we’re very excited about that,” he said.
That time has already come, Andy Vogt, director of operations for a Glovis subsidy, Global Auto Processing Services, said. Glovis chose Philadelphia since it would allow the company to continue its reach, but with one centralized location.
“Primarily because of the geographic location, it enabled us to do a port consolidation from Baltimore and New York, so basically we shut down our operations in New York and Baltimore and consolidated our operations in Philadelphia,” he said.
Hyundai increased its domestic marketshare from 4.8 to 7.1 percent from 2007 to ’09, according to a port authority press release. The company also moved up in the rankings in the 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study by J.D. Powers and Associates.
“Quality is our No. 1 priority and customers have come to expect that Hyundai vehicles will measure up to the best in the industry,” Frank Ferrara, Hyundai’s executive vice president of corporate planning and customer satisfaction, said in a statement. “Hyundai backs its cars with a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty to signal our partnership with buyers in their vehicle purchase. We aim to raise the bar for the industry not only in quality off the showroom floor, but after years of driving as well.”
The new account is expected to bring in, $7.2 million in personal income, $24 million in business accounts and $3.2 million in taxes, as well as create the equivalent of 276 full-time jobs locally.
A workforce of about 85 to 125 of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1291 are responsible for unloading the vessels, Boise Butler, Local 1291 president, and port authority board member, said
“It’s very substantial,” he said. “On the average, it’s going to work out to two vessels a week and that’s putting to work approximately 100 people. That’s huge.”
“It helps certainly longshoreman and it helps people who are trying to become longshoreman because we have people we are able to hire on occasion,” Martin Mascuilli, secretary and treasurer, added.
Local 1291 workers unload the carsfrom the approximately 12-story vessel and transport them to an 85-acre autofinishing facility that Philly Ro-Ro Partners obtained in October ’09 at Pier 98, Columbus Boulevard and Oregon Avenue, where Teamsters Local 107 prepare the vehicles for delivery.
The port authority chipped in $1 million toward capital improvements for the Pier 98 Annex facility while Philly Ro-Ro Partners contributed $3.7 million to upgrades along with transforming the automobile- handling center, which was ready a few weeks prior to the first shipment. The facility consists of two storage lots — the Whiskey and Savage Yards — where cars are parked while awaiting processing, Vogt said. Global Auto Processing Services employed 22 and has hired 200 Teamsters for the facility.
“The entire facility with the exception of the structures themselves were upgraded,” he said noting new car washes, paint and body shops and mechanical lifts.
Preparation includes taking off the tape and oil that prevents scratches, washing the vehicles and possibly installing an item such as a special radio or spoiler, Mascuilli said.
“It’s a nice project,” he said. “It’s a great thing to have for everyone in Philadelphia.”
Upon completion of inspection, the cars will be transported by truck or sometimes rail to dealerships mainly along the East Coast, but also in the Midwest, Blackburn said. Hyundai has more than 800 dealerships nationwide.
Other recent deals for the port authority include M-real, a Finland-based paper company, that began importing May 7 into Piers 78 and 80, Sea Star Line, LLC, which transports to the Caribbean, brings in cargo each Friday to the Northeast’s Tioga Marine Terminal and Southport Marine Terminal project, Blackburn said. The port authority is now in the process of finding a bidder to embark on Southport, the first major expansion in the past 50 years, and hopes to have it operating by year’s end.
“It’s a nice piece of business,” he said of Hyundai. “It’s something we worked hard for. Like many other businesses, we’ve had some tough years recently. This is one of the new businesses that we’ve gotten this year that will help us turn things around.”
Contact Staff Writer Amanda Snyder at [email protected] or ext. 117.
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