Author : Dennis Culnan

When plywood cargo is stalled because of damaged shipping crates importers call Matt DeLuca, Sr. at Federal Warehousing located at South Jersey Ports’ Broadway Marine Terminal to the rescue. “Importers call us to make their distressed cargo shippable,” explained DeLuca, Sr. “For 25 years we have been their quality-control team. We make sure that the cargo is ‘reworked.’ We repair the crates, from repairing damaged edges to an entire rebuild of the crates and repackaging of the cargo. We make sure the cargo is secured and safe for shipment by truck, rail, or ship. And we do it quickly and at the right price.”

It’s a service that is good for the importers’ bottom line and, good for the environment – and, for the DeLuca Family, an affirmation that the South Jersey Ports is a ladder of opportunity, that even without a college degree, you can have a prosperous career and even start your own business.

While millions of tons of cargo move undamaged throughout the port, a tiny fraction becomes un-shippable because of weak crating and/or rough conditions, creating a niche business opportunity for DeLuca, Sr. DeLuca’s Federal Warehousing has been servicing 20 plywood importers at South Jersey Ports’ terminals and traveling to other ports for his clients to survey cargos that need to be “reworked.”

The plywood Federal Warehousing salvages results in significant savings and less impact on importers’ narrow profit margins. The repurposing of plywood also reduces waste in landfills and results in reducing use of one of our most precious natural resources…trees that have many benefits to our environment.

In the grand scheme of port operations, “reworking” distressed plywood cargo is a niche – but it’s a vital niche that requires skilled labor learned on the docks of the South Jersey Ports. Matt DeLuca, Sr. learned “by doing” and by developing the expertise in ‘reworking’ the cargo and earning the trust of the importers.

“It’s developing skills and relationships that three generations of the DeLuca Family learned working at the South Jersey Ports,” Matt, Sr. said. “My Dad, Joe, Sr. worked at South Jersey Ports for decades and my brother Joe Jr. and I followed in his footsteps and now my son Matt, Jr. is working at South Jersey Ports, keeping up the family tradition.”

“We’re grateful to South Jersey Ports for good jobs that made it possible to raise our middle-class families and for the opportunities where you are measured by your performance to get the job done, not by diplomas or college degrees.”

South Jersey Ports networks its’ people into an extended port family of companies, relationships and port people who mentor and share their knowledge to hone their skills and ensure the supply chain needs are met.

“I developed a relationship with one of our (South Jersey Port’s) tenants who mentored me constantly,” DeLuca, Sr. said. “They taught me the ropes of the port operations from the shippers’ and importers’ eyes. They encouraged me to take a risk and now I have my own business.”

In 1984, Dan Szustowicz, Sr. and his wife Mary founded D&M Transportation Services, Inc., a family owned and operated trucking company. D&M offers trucking and logistics solutions to South Jersey Ports’ terminal customers and other businesses others along the Delaware River and has been headquartered for 33 years at South Jersey Ports’ Broadway Marine Terminal in Camden, N.J.

D&M is a flatbed trucking company that services the supply chain in the Northeast region of the United States by transporting a wide variety of commodities (steel, aluminum, tin-plate, and wood) including coils, plate, tubing, lumber, and roofing materials. D&M offers full truckload and less than truckload (LTL) service for loads with either import or domestic origins. Their drivers are TWIC compliant and have extensive knowledge in handling a variety of materials including specialty cargo.

With a passion for quality control and customer service, D&M Transportation Services, Inc. has also developed itself as expert haulers of a variety of specialty steel cargos including high-quality rolled steel, flat plate steel, and structural steel beams.

Dan Szustowicz, Sr. was in high school when he started in the trucking industry. Over the ensuing decades, with the exception of a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he mastered all aspects of the trucking and logistics industry from a management / operations perspective. He has done it all. He worked his way up from company to company mastering key aspects of trucking and logistics with increasing responsibility: inbound/outbound foreman, city dispatcher, and operations manager. In 1974, Ohio Fast Freight (a steel hauling carrier) hired him as a terminal manager, where he honed his operational skills and expertise in handling steel cargo.

“Ten years later, D&M (Dan & Mary) Transportation Services was born,” said Lisa Szustowicz-Colella, Dan Szustowicz’s daughter who was hired in 1987, soon to be followed by her younger brother, Dan Szustowicz, Jr. in 1994.

“We started out using owner-operators and once business grew, my father started to purchase his own equipment and hire drivers. He also obtained his CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) to back up our team. Dan Sr. would often jump into a truck, at the last minute, to deliver a shipment for a customer in need. He always kept an extra truck open for shipments like that.” said Lisa Szustowicz-Colella.

D&M’s equipment consists of late model Peterbilt tractors, flatbed Conestoga trailers and flatbeds with side kits. Their tractors are ELD compliant and equipped with GPS tracking, providing customers with real time status of their loads. Their fleet services a 150-mile radius of their home terminal in Camden, NJ. Being a tenant of South Jersey Ports has been key to D&M’s business growth within the region.
To give its import customers a greater geographic reach into the United States, the Szustowicz family also operates, D&M Services, Inc, a full-service transportation logistics company formed to service their customers’ growing transportation needs and to assist import customers with longer hauls out of the ports of New Jersey and Philadelphia.

“We have expanded to service other ports such as Baltimore, Savannah, New Orleans, Houston, as well as the Great Lakes ports,” explained Lisa. With a network of more than 5,000 contract carriers, D&M Services, Inc. provides customers with excellent transportation services at a reasonable cost. They offer full truckload (T/L), less than truckload (LTL), long-haul and container services.

“When we moved to South Jersey Ports Joe Balzano, then executive director, made sure we felt like were part of the port community. He helped to market us by introducing D&M to new customers and always included us in meetings with existing customers. We shared a common 24/7 work ethic and commitment to our customers. Mr. Saporito, his successor, has the same passion. Andy came in with a plan and immediately started improvements to both terminals. He’s making major upgrades to the infrastructure by upgrading the equipment and facilities,” said Dan Szustowicz, Jr.

For more information, please visit them on the web at: www.dandminc.com or call
1 (800) 220-3806 or (856) 963-0099.

February 27, 2023
CAMDEN CITY, NJ – U.S. Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) today announced $750,000 in new funding that the congressman secured in the FY 2023 omnibus package. The money will be used to stabilize Berth 1 at the Balzano Marine Terminal so the port can meet increasing business activity.

“The ‘liquid highway’ that is the Delaware River is an economic lifeline for South Jersey and the surrounding region,” said Congressman Norcross. “By investing in our critical infrastructure, we are increasing the capacity of our ports and local businesses to access markets not just here in South Jersey, but across the country. Additionally, this funding will create good-paying jobs. I’m proud to have fought for this funding in Congress and look forward to seeing the positive economic impact this project has on our region.”

“We want to thank Congressman Norcross for his advocacy in Washington and his ongoing support of our mission at the South Jersey Ports,” said Andy Saporito, executive director and CEO of the South Jersey Port Corporation. “This investment directly translates into job retention and creation – from the construction workers who will build it, to the dockworkers loading and unloading ships, to the truckers hauling the cargo, to jobs in the industries on the end of the supply chain. It’s a multiplier that is great for our link in the global supply chain.”

“The Port of Camden is one of the busiest along the east coast, so this funding will go a long way to ensure it remains an economic engine,” said Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen. “I am grateful to Congressman Donald Norcross for fighting for this critical funding, grateful for his commitment to invest in much-needed infrastructure upgrades, and grateful for new employment opportunities coming to Camden and this region.”

The funding is one of 15 local projects Congressman Norcross secured funding for in the FY 2023 omnibus funding package. In total, he brought back over $10 million in community project funding for New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District.

About the Infrastructure Improvements at Berth 1 of Balzano Marine Terminal
Berth 1, which is adjacent to the location of the Battleship New Jersey, has been progressively collapsing over the past 20 years, rendering the structure unsafe and off-limits for use. At the west wall of the adjacent Transit Shed 1 building, which is used to store cargo and load rail cars, voids have developed due to the washout of the shoreline. The recent surge in business activity necessitates these repairs to enable the Port to better utilize the shed for cargo storage and transfer to rail cars for transcontinental delivery.

The scope of work will entail removing the northern portion of existing collapsed Berth 1 material and placing riprap stone to reestablish shoreline stability, thus preventing further washout of the material and voids from forming at the existing west side of the Transit Shed 1 building. This early-action construction project is part of a planned program for the Balzano Marine Terminal berth improvement program when additional funding sources become available.

About the South Jersey Port Corporation
The South Jersey Port Corporation was created in 1968 to operate marine shipping terminals in the South Jersey Port District which consists of seven counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Mercer and Cape May. The SJPC is a quasi-state agency, which reports through the Department of Treasury to the Governor of New Jersey.
The purpose of this state-created corporation is to provide meaningful public employment, tax ratables and business incentives to the South Jersey region. The SJPC owns and operates the Joseph A. Balzano and Broadway Marine Terminals in the Port of Camden, the Salem Marine Terminal at the Port of Salem, and is constructing the second phase of Paulsboro Marine Terminal at the Port of Paulsboro.

The successful 30-year partnership between Clipper Americas shipping lines of Copenhagen and the South Jersey Ports was marked – not by bands or the popping of champagne corks – but by the orchestra of cranes, forklifts, and cargo-moving equipment as crews off-load rolls of high-quality European steel coils, tin, and structural steel from Clipper ships. The materials are then instantly dispatched and transported to manufacturers and construction projects throughout the heartland of America and Canada.

“Our business and tonnage grew tremendously at the South Jersey Ports from one ship a month 30 years ago, to now when we have three to four off-loading in Camden in a month,” said Peter Svensson, Senior Vice President, Clipper Americas. “Tonnage to Camden grew from under 200,000 tons a year to over 1 million last year. Our customers, especially our specialty steel customers, expect quality service and that is what our partnership delivers.”

It’s a partnership that has prevailed – and continued to thrive – over several economic recessions, a near-depression, changes in trade policies and a global pandemic that leaves persistent impacts.

Now add to the challenges-climate change and the need for everyone, from individuals to large corporations, to reduce their carbon footprint to protect our planet. “We survived 50 years in this industry by adapting to the challenges before us,” Peter explained. “Climate change is real. Reducing carbon emissions is a shared priority for our company and South Jersey Ports,” said Peter. “Working with South Jersey Port on our dunnage recycling program has virtually saved a small forest. Our fleet will continue to be among the most energy-efficient on the seas.”

Clipper is attacking the problem on a variety of fronts including investing in an increasingly efficient fleet with dramatically lower CO2 emissions and the dockside recycling of dunnage.
In the past, it was simply cheaper to dispose of the wood dunnage used in transit to support steel cargo than hauling back to the originating port. The wood dunnage that went into the landfill was replaced by freshly cut lumber. Climate concerns have changed that. The wood dunnage is now loaded by crews into cargo containers and returned to the originating port, and as the wood loses its viability, it is being replaced by plastic and rubber dunnage with a greater shelf-life that can be recycled.

New ratings of ships for CO2 emissions, set by the European Common Market, go into effect in 2024 that will impose increasing financial penalties on levels of CO2s the vessel releases into the atmosphere. The lower the efficiency rating of the ship, the more it must pay to sail, giving a competitive edge to ships with higher efficiency ratings and lower CO2 emissions.

“We’re confident our current fleet will be rated among the most highly efficient,” predicted Peter. “I’m also confident that as technologies evolve and our fleet turns over, it will continue to be a leader in reducing emissions. It’s good business. It’s good for the environment. It’s the right thing to do as we and our families share this planet too.”

It’s a business axiom that has been the foundation of the partnership between Clipper and the South Jersey Ports. “As a marine terminal operator, we can’t control global economics, trade policy or pandemics but we sure can control two things: our carbon footprint and the quality of customer service that we and our partner Clipper and the stevedores provide to our mutual customers,” said Andy Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of the South Jersey Port.

Good customer service translates into higher efficiency and lower emissions. “Get in, get off,” Peter explained. “The quicker we get into the port, off-load, and get off to sea, the more efficient our ships run which lowers emissions. Good for business. Good for the environment.”

Clipper is a vital link in the steel supply chain to North America. The flow of specialty metal products from the steel and tin plants throughout Europe course through the ports of Belgium to Clipper’s ships and ultimately to manufacturers in North America for cars, appliances, building, and highway construction.

Over three decades, South Jersey Port’s Balzano Marine Terminal in Camden, New Jersey became a franchise port of call for Clipper. It’s importance and tonnage grew, especially in winter months, as shippers of European specialty steel for manufacturers along the Great Lakes found the Camden port a reliable, efficient, and skilled replacement for the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Now “winter-steel” business at Camden is growing towards a year-round port of choice.

“Location is important, and Camden has excellent road and rail connections to the industrial heartland, everything is within hours of our terminals – a day at most,” said Saporito. “But the x-factor is the partnership and the cargo expertise that has been forged over these decades with Clipper, the stevedores, and South Jersey Port. There is a seamless relationship with one goal: a happy customer keeps coming back and spreads the word to new customers.”

Lehigh Hanson, a core South Jersey Port Corporation tenant/partner, and aggressive ally in battling climate change, is working hard to reduce its environmental footprint and is committed to becoming carbon neutral.

“The climate is changing in ways that impact our planet and contribute to rising temperatures, rising seas, flooding, and droughts,” said Lusmerlin Lantigua, Plant Manager of the Lehigh Hanson slag grinding facility in Camden. “We all must strive to reduce our energy use, conserve water, and protect our natural resources. As a company, we are committed to achieving net zero emissions. ”

HeidelbergCement, the global parent company of Lehigh Hanson, is one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of building materials and solutions, with leading market positions in aggregates, cement, and ready-mixed concrete. As a forerunner on the path to carbon neutrality, HeidelbergCement crafts material solutions for the future.

As part of its commitment to be a worldwide leader, the company has increased its focus on sustainable products, driving the circular economy through an emphasis on recycling and recycled products and working to decarbonize the industry.

“Lehigh Hanson has been a good business partner in creating good paying jobs through its operations and importing and exporting millions of tons of product to support the region’s infrastructure needs and it is admirably, a leading ally in the port’s commitment to becoming, with great urgency, a better neighbor by operating cleaner and greener,” said Andy Saporito, CEO and Executive Director of SJPC. Saporito noted that SJPC is in the process of purchasing $6.6 million worth of electric cargo handling equipment and installing an electric charging station at its Balzano Marine Terminal.

Lehigh Hanson’s carbon-neutral strategy goes beyond reducing the carbon footprint of its plant. It also focuses on the cement, concrete, and other construction materials it produces. “Cement is the key ingredient in concrete, the most widely used building material in the world,” explained Lantigua, manager of the Lehigh Hanson plant located at SJPC’s Broadway Marine Terminal in Camden. “Our slag cement significantly lowers the environmental impact of concrete.”

Slag cement is 1.2 times stronger than Portland Cement and, more importantly, emits six to fifteen times less carbon into the air than regular Portland Cement. The slag is the waste from making steel and is repurposed to make stronger concrete to build dams, bridges, highways, airports, and buildings which in turn will reduce overall emissions at upwards of fifteen times.

The alchemy in the Lehigh Hanson strategy is converting a waste product to reduce carbon emissions, a win-win for the environment. With two slag cement plants in North America, they are the market leader for slag cement.

With a capacity for 600,000 tons annually, Lehigh Hanson’s highly efficient Camden plant at Broadway Marine Terminal is 90% automated and employs fourteen full-time employees, not including the stevedores, truck drivers, and other supporting workers. It imports steel slag from Japan and, by barge and truck, supplies its slag cement product for the construction industry throughout the mid-Atlantic, from Virginia to upstate New York.

Supply chain discussions are often dominated by global corporate giants, but the world’s supply chain depends on thousands of local small companies like Page Lyons’s Tri-State Bulk Handling to be the ball bearings that make the global trade machine run smoothly.

“America is built on small business and so is the world’s supply chain,” said Lyons whose family-owned-and-run stevedoring companies have moved tens of millions of tons of bulk cargo at the South Jersey Port Corporation’s marine terminals in Camden.

“Page is a fantastic partner who we, at the port, and his customers trust to get the job done,” said Andy Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of the South Jersey Port Corporation. “He is successful because he is customer-focused and handles cargo the way the customer wants: fast, safe, and efficient. And, by the way, he is a people person which is important in our industry where personal relationships are the coin of the realm.”

An affable man with a quick wit and an appetite for prudent risks, Lyons is a first-generation port man pro, born in the steel town of Weirton, West Virginia. Graduating in 1972 from Bethany College, a small Christian liberal arts college in his native state, he moved with his college sweetheart to Malvern, Pennsylvania, where they started a family. He spent the next nine years bouncing from job to job until his gig as the charming tennis pro at a local club landed him a job as manager of bulk sales and operations at Lavino Shipping Company.

A quick learner with a gnawing ambition to branch out on his own, three years later, Lyons took the biggest risk of his life. At age 37, he started his own stevedoring company, Tri-State Bulk Handling, and the clients he developed at Lavino followed him to South Jersey Port’s marine terminals in Camden, New Jersey, which is a national leader in bulk and breakbulk cargo. Nine years later, he would take another risk and create Broadway Conveyor Corporation to improve the efficiencies of his operations.

“It’s all about relationships in this industry and the trust you build,” said Lyons. “You maintain clients by delivering beyond what is expected and by developing trust with everyone who is moving that cargo, from truckers to machine operators, from the terminal management to the ship’s crew. There are robust discussions and strong opinions that are resolved by relationships. You help them to be successful, they help you be successful. It’s mutual success.”

A case in point is the contract that Lyons has today with Lehigh Hanson Cement to move 600,000 tons of bulk slag cement annually. From 1984 to 1999, Lyons handled iron ore, coal, pet coke, sand, and magnesite on lease parcels at SJPC’s port terminals in Camden. He always evolved with the changing times and changing market needs. In 1999, the South Jersey Port Corporation wanted to lease Lyons’ parcel to Saint Lawrence Cement (the predecessor of Lehigh Hanson). Lyons gave up his leases as part of the deal to land St. Lawrence Cement which included significant capital investments along the pier and a new crane and economic development in Camden. Saint Lawrence gave Tri-State a 10-year contract and it has been renewed by multiple owners since – a testament to the service his company provides.

To better serve his customers, he created the Broadway Conveyor Corporation and invested $5 million to a state-of-the-art conveyor system to move the granular materials efficiently. With the exception of a one-hour “hiccup,” the Lyons’ team has fed the cement manufacturing plant for 23 years without shutting it down. The final loading of the barges and trucks from the silos is completely automated through an underground system to prevent dust. Additionally, Lyons’ team at the Balzano Marine Terminal helps feed 100,000 tons of gypsum annually to the Georgia Pacific operations.

Lyons has a strong commitment to his operation’s host city, Camden. Most of his fourteen employees are city residents. He even invested in a local restaurant but equally important is his sensitivity to the impact of his operations on the community. “We are always working to be a good neighbor,” he said.

All of Tri-State’s bulk-moving equipment are powered by Tier 4 diesels, the Environmental Protection Agency’s strictest emissions requirement for off-highway diesel engines. “In time, we’ll move to an electric fleet to further reduce our carbon footprint” Lyons predicted.

(September 2022) The Board of Directors of the South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) strengthened its management team with the recent appointments of Lisa M. McLaughlin as Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer and August E. (Gus) Knestaut as Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs.

“These are two excellent, highly-experienced and accomplished professionals who now have responsibility for some of the most critical aspects of the SJPC’s legal, regulatory and financial operations,” said Andy Saporito, the ports’ Executive Director and CEO. “They have the skills and, just as importantly, the personalities and work ethic that synchs well with the executive leadership team we have built over the past two years.”

McLaughlin is a Certified Public Accountant with an MBA from Georgian Court College who served as Chief Financial Officer for Monmouth County Ocean Hospital Service Corporation. She has decades of experience in budgeting, finance, auditing, and billing and collections.

McLaughlin lives in Seaside Park, N.J., and graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor of Science degree. She served on the adjunct faculty of and taught Federal Income Tax Accounting at Ocean County College.

Knestaut has decades of experience as a lawyer and manager, both in the private and public sectors. He has successfully navigated the complexities of governmental regulations at local, county, state, and federal levels.

Knestaut previously served as First Undersheriff to the Gloucester County Sheriff and Assistant Gloucester County Counsel. A graduate of Widener University Law School, he has been admitted to the bar in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court, and the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He served as solicitor or prosecutor for numerous municipal-level entities. Born in Woodbury, N.J., he grew up in Paulsboro and graduated from Paulsboro High School (Class of 1984). He and his wife, Angela and their two children (Cassandra and Matthew) live in West Deptford, N.J.

The South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) 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. SJPC is a national leader in bulk and breakbulk cargo, shipping and receiving to and from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. SJPC’s four international seaport facilities in South Jersey handle more than four million tons of bulk, breakbulk, and containerized cargoes annually.

The South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) has deployed its first all-electric terminal tractor, the vanguard of 27 cargo-handling “green machines” which are funded by a $6.6 million grant from Governor Phil Murphy’s Administration. It’s all part of the Governor’s $100 million initiative to grow the green economy by creating new jobs while battling climate change by turning to clean energy alternatives and making New Jersey fully powered by clean energy by 2050.

“As we work determinedly to safeguard New Jersey against the impacts of climate change, we must electrify not just light-duty vehicles, but the medium- and heavy-duty tractors and equipment upon which our thriving logistics industry depends,” said Governor Murphy. “There is no better place to continue our efforts than at the South Jersey Port Corporation, which is contributing to our state’s national reputation as an offshore wind hub. Here in South Jersey, we’re proving that transitioning to clean energy both complements and catalyzes the growth of new industries and the generation of good-paying jobs.”

“Creating family-sustaining jobs is one of our prime objectives,” said SJPC Executive Director & CEO Andrew Saporito. “But, as Governor Murphy warns us, there will be no jobs if we destroy our planet and communities in the process. Jobs are inextricably connected to how we protect our environment and shrink our carbon footprint to zero. We strive to be a better neighbor in the communities we serve by making our operations cleaner and greener while also building the green economy on initiatives such as offshore wind development.”

The governor is funding his “green machine” initiative by leveraging proceeds from the reentry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and money from the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund. In addition, New Jersey and private corporations are investing a billion dollars to build port facilities and infrastructure to make New Jersey the epicenter of the job-rich $100 Billion offshore wind energy industry.

“This is another important step in the Murphy Administration’s commitment to improve air quality in communities overburdened by air pollution and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that fuel climate change across New Jersey,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said.

With this $6.6 million investment, SJPC will replace twenty-seven pieces of older gasoline and diesel forklifts and cargo handling equipment with new electric-powered units and associated charging stations. SJPC aims to systematically convert all of its energy-consuming assets to zero-carbon within the next decade as suitable replacement equipment becomes commercially available.

From steps as simple as planting trees in its host cities to updating warehouse lighting to LED to investing millions in improving direct ship to rail access, SJPC has been working aggressively to reduce its carbon footprint. Instead of retrofitting its vehicles – it can afford to convert its fleet from carbon fuels to electric.

SJPC has become the cornerstone of New Jersey’s growing Green Energy Economy. Its unparalleled location combined with available land and warehouse space and an integrated network of highway, rail, and marine facilities provide the infrastructure to support offshore wind energy investments along the Atlantic Coast. It’s Paulsboro Marine Terminal (PMT) has already emerged as the prime manufacturing site for components of offshore wind turbines.