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South Jersey Port Corporation moved their corporate headquarters to the Camden waterfront last week. We are occupying office space in the Ferry Terminal Building which is just a short drive from the Balzano Marine Terminal. The new office will allow SJPC to consolidate the executive, engineering, administrative, and accounting departments into one location allowing for better efficiency and meeting space for business development and administrative functions. The move will also result in creating additional space to meet future port operational and space needs. Our new address is 2 Aquarium Drive, Suite 100, Camden NJ 08103.

“2021 was our best business year ever,” Michael J. Amato, president of Camden Yards Steel Company at the South Jersey Ports’ Broadway Terminal proclaimed proudly as he cast an optimistic but cautious eye toward 2022.

Sales volumes and imported tonnage of steel all hit record levels in 2021 for the family-owned-and-operated steel fabricator which, in turn, contributed in part to an overall record tonnage year for the South Jersey Ports. The company increased its steel imports by 20% to 200,000 tons last year.

Camden Yards Steel is an International Organization for Standards (ISO) certified prime flat rolled steel service company that specializes in the processing and distribution of full truckload quantities flat rolled steel. With over fifty years of experience in the steel industry, they service customers across the entire United States and parts of the Mid-Atlantic region.

“Camden Yards Steel has been a great long-term partner of ours and is an example of the type of family-owned business that is the backbone of our economy,” said Andy Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of South Jersey Port Corporation. “We congratulate them on their record-breaking year and look forward to continuing to support their growth and success.”

 “Our business has grown steadily since we opened in 2002 and we just invested another $10 million in our Camden facility to upgrade our equipment and sharpen our business in a very competitive sector that demands high quality and tight margins,” Amato added.

The investment has increased efficiency and productivity and propelled Camden Yards into a new business sector of galvanized steel for HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) manufacturers where other long-time suppliers, according to Amato, had grown complacent.

“We are very, very service oriented and very, very customer-oriented,” he boasted. “We showed we provide service and quality at a competitive price and as a result our galvanized steel business has grown consistently and dramatically, from 200 tons a month six years ago to 4,000 tons a month last year and it keeps growing from Maine to Florida to Ohio,” he said. “The leadership at South Jersey Ports helped us find laydown space to support our business growth, which was appreciated given the overall space constraints at ports nationwide.”

While optimistic about the future, the steel-eyed businessperson in Amato is cautious about predicting a consecutive record-breaking year in 2022.  While it would be nice, realistically businesses just do not keep having endless record-breaking years especially in a business hostage to variables in steel prices.

Camden Yards, with fifty full-time employees to support in Camden, was able to navigate the whipsaw impacts of COVID, steel tariffs, supply-chain shortage in 2021 in which steel prices rose to $1.00 a pound with pent up demand; and then, suddenly dropped to 30-cents a pound, sticking the company with high priced inventory to meet its commitments.

“Half of our business is contractual, and half is transactional,” he explained. “We are committed to our customers to deliver what we said we would deliver, when we said we deliver and at the price we agreed on.”

It just happens that the price for steel goes way, way too high and then suddenly goes way, way too low.

“We try to buy on the down but it’s like trying to catch a falling knife without getting cut,” Amato explained. Sometimes you catch the handle, sometimes you don’t. Whatever, the outcome, Amato protects his customers. “That’s how we earn the trust and business of our customers,” he said. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is expected to have a major impact on the world economy in 2022, especially on steel prices. “We don’t use Russian steel for our products, so we don’t anticipate any dramatic impact for our customers, but we’ll deal with whatever high and lows as we have in the past. It’s the nature of our business.”      

The South Jersey Port Corporation is pleased to announce the recent appointment of veteran engineer Chris Perks to the organization’s team. Perks was appointed as the Director of Engineering to support the agency’s growth strategy and continue to provide quality customer service for current and future tenants and customers. The appointment of Perks comes as the port closed on a record-breaking year for cargo handling and a flurry of capital projects, improvements, and milestones of the burgeoning offshore wind energy industry in South Jersey. Ensuring a strong leadership team has been a mission of Andrew Saporito, the agency’s Executive Director and CEO, who has assembled an experienced leadership team since first being appointed in 2019.

Perks has extensive experience in local public works engineering and construction markets and experience in project engineering related to design and construction of multi-disciplined large capital projects. He has previously and successfully participated in numerous capital improvement programs for a wide variety of clients, including many public and state agencies. In addition to his vast public experience, Perks was responsible for integrating and completing over sixty projects in Camden City, home to the port’s headquarters and Balzano and Broadway terminal facilities.

Perks will add value through his rich experience and prolific ability to direct all design, construction, and maintenance activities at the port. With a solid engineering skillset, Perks will be tasked with executing significant tenant improvements, capital projects, major operation works, and construction programs. Moreover, Perk’s expertise will allow the port to rely on his capabilities of capital program management, ensuring port facilities remain in good condition and meeting and exceeding expectations for efficient operations.

“SJPC has a long tradition of hard-working employees who go the extra mile for our customers. Ensuring our facilities are meeting standards and keeping up pace with our plans for growth is key to our continued success and customer satisfaction. Having Chris on the team is a critical part of our strategy and we welcome him,” said Andrew Saporito, Executive Director & CEO.

“My experience has taught me that capital program management is not just to keep the facilities in good condition, but more importantly to support excellence in operations. I am excited to get to work and be part of a top-notch team with the mission of expanding economic opportunity in the South Jersey region,” said Perks.

The final numbers are in and the South Jersey Port Corporation closed out 2021 with an all-time record-breaking cargo volume of 4,636,097 tons, a 54% increase over 2020, breaking the previous record by 6%. 

“That’s the best in the history of the South Jersey Ports and we’re expecting 2022 to be a very strong year that may top 2021,” reported Andy Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of South Jersey Port Corporation at the monthly meeting of the Board of Directors.  “This milestone is a testament to the skilled workers and partners who keep goods moving through the supply chain while our team seeks solutions to improve efficiency, attract business and build for the future.  The ongoing collaboration with SJPC’s labor force and industry partners lifted the port to this extraordinary record during the challenging time of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Saporito.

The dramatic increases in tonnage came from nearly all the SJPC’s prime cargo sectors: steel, plywood, recycled metals, cocoa beans, cement, and gypsum. The lone laggard, sand exports, is expected to increase as the national infrastructure plan is implemented.  

Rebounding steel imports led the way with 2,399,076 tons, a 141% increase over 2020.  The majority of this increase occurred at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal which moved 1,760,018 tons of steel slabs.  Plywood import tonnage increased by 98% totaling 220,812 tons demonstrating the Camden terminals as a premiere plywood portal on the East Coast.  Cocoa beans totaled 76,108 tons, a 36% increase verses 2020 totals. Exports of recycled metals increased by 10% and cement increased by 8%. 

The number of ship days was 960 days compared to 549 ship days in 2020, a 75% increase. “Ship days is the number of days a ship is loading or unloading at its terminal” explained Kevin Duffy, Assistant Executive Director / Chief Operating Officer. “We’ve worked hard to ensure we continue to operate safely and efficiently to move the increased cargo and have space to meet our customers’ needs”.  

Brendan Dugan, Assistant Executive Director / Director of Business Development, expects the cargo activity at South Jersey Ports to remain strong for the foreseeable future due to the national infrastructure plan and New Jersey’s leadership role in the $109 billion offshore wind industry.  EEW Group, which is building a $300 million manufacturing plant at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal to provide the massive steel monopiles for the offshore wind farms along the entire eastern seaboard, will ultimately require 150,000 tons of imported steel annually to meet their customers’ demand.  To build on this momentum, SJPC is conducting a study of the Port of Salem, which is a smaller port just down river from Paulsboro that could become an important supply port for the local offshore wind support services industry.  

“The challenge is to build the infrastructure to grow the port while operating more efficiently to meet current demands,” said Dugan.  South Jersey Ports received a $6 million grant to upgrade the rail infrastructure at one of their Camden terminals and a $9 million grant for wharf infrastructure improvements at the Salem Terminal.  “We identified an old building that we might refurbish to put another 40,000 square feet of storage space online and meet long-term customer demands.” 

“We continue to focus on upgrading technology and automation to optimize the fluid movement of cargo through our terminals and to ensure our customers’ storage and inventory needs are met”, added COO Kevin Duffy.

The South Jersey Port Corporation was created in 1968 to operate marine shipping terminals in the South Jersey Port District, consisting of seven counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Mercer, and Cape May. The South Jersey Ports is a national leader in bulk and breakbulk cargo, shipping and receiving to and from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.  Their four international seaport facilities in South Jersey handle more than four million tons of bulk, breakbulk and containerized cargoes annually.