The largest container vessel to ever call at PhilaPort arrived at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal this week. The M/V MSC Shuba B arrived from the West Coast of South America with a cargo of predominately perishable fruit. The origin of most of the cargo was from Chile and Peru, which included table grapes, peaches, plums, pears and blueberries.

 

PhilaPort has a long history of trade with the agriculturally rich countries of Chile and Peru. In 2017, the value of the cargo originating from Chile had a value of over $1.1 billion dollars and $475 million from Peru, a 15 percent increase from the previous year. 

 

PhilaPort is currently implementing a $300 million infrastructure improvement plan which includes wharf strengthening, new cranes, paving and many other terminal improvements.

 

In 2017, the port realized 19 percent growth in its containerized cargo volumes handling 548,000 containers.

 

The M/V MSC Shuba B is as large as the new 60-story Comcast Technology Building being constructed in Philadelphia at 1,100 feet long and a deadweight of 134,000 mt. This is the largest class of vessel that MSC currently has calling the U.S. East Coast.

 

 

Port Logistics Refrigerated Services (PLRS),  Port Tampa Bay’s newest tenant and the operator of a new state-of-the-art cold storage facility, received its first shipment of perishable products.  More than 3900 pallets of bananas from Ecuador were delivered from the ship MV Wild Lotus, and were unloaded at Berth 219 adjacent to the new PLRS 135,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse. 

 

"This is an important milestone for Port Tampa Bay and our strategic partnership with Port Logistics Refrigerated Services by offering a new cold supply chain solution to customers in Florida, the Southeast and beyond. It enables us to provide significant savings in their truck delivery costs ," stated Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson.   

 

"Port Logistics Refrigerated Services is proud of its ability to handle the first delivery of bananas through the Port in almost two decades. Our brand new refrigerated terminal efficiently handled the transfer of the 3,900 pallets of bananas. I expect this will be the first of a long line of diverse frozen and refrigerated food products to move through our terminal with destinations to central Florida and the southeast U.S. It also validates the public-private partnership in bringing this terminal to reality," said Richard Corbett, well known Tampa developer who financed the PLRS terminal.

 

Completed last fall, the Port Logistics Refrigerated Services state of the art cold storage facility includes 102 reefer plugs, 6348 racked pallet positions,  on-site dedicated fumigation facilities, CBP and USDA inspection areas and a lab, all on deep water.  It is the only facility of its kind in Florida’s largest and fastest growing region – Central Florida and the I-4 corridor.