Port Newark Container Terminal breaks ground on 500M expansion

Gov. Chris Christie, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Chairman David Samson, and business and labor representatives were on hand this morning at Port Newark for a groundbreaking ceremony for a $500 million expansion of Port Newark Container Terminal.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. CEO Nicola Arena and scores of longshoremen also were at the groundbreaking, added Scott Schoenfeld, chief operating officer of the terminal operator, which loads and unloads shiploads of intermodal containers, storing them for later transportation by rail and truck.

“It was a wonderful show of support,” Schoenfeld said. “Our expansion, and the elevation of the Bayonne Bridge, are two of the most significant projects going on right now.”

Port Newark Container Terminal committed to spending $500 million on capital improvements by 2030, when its current lease on the Port Authority land expires as part of a 20-year lease extension the terminal operator recently signed with the bistate agency.

Port Newark Container Terminal also is expanding, from 180 acres in Port Newark to about 287 acres, as it looks to handle more cargo stemming from an agreement with Mediterranean Shipping, a Geneva-based shipper that PNCT calls the world’s second-largest shipping company.

The company currently has about 1,400 full-time equivalent employees, according to Schoenfeld, and it’s expected to create at least 800 new construction and other jobs, according to a Port Authority announcement.