Maiden Voyage of MV Fidelio


Dudley Waterman, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Operations Manager, with the MV Fidelio's Captain and Bob Gaffney, Port Authority Manager, Industry Relations at the vessel's maiden voyage plaque ceremony.
Bob Gaffney, Port Authority Manager, Industry Relations, along with representatives of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Line, greeted the arrival of its new vessel, MV Fidelio, and presented the Master with a maiden voyage plaque on May 8th. The 745- foot vessel with a 106-foot beam can handle up to 8,000 regular automobiles on its 13 decks. It discharged 1,000 automobiles plus a large mix of roll on/roll off cargo. The vessels stern ramp, which is used to load and discharge cargo can handle pieces weighing up to 125 tons. Before departing, the vessel was loaded with a number of yachts and other high and wide cargo items that cannot move on traditional container vessels. Under the lines' new ship building program, the Fidelio will have 4 sister ships.



Maiden Voyage of MV Mukaddes Kalkavan


Captain Riza Cetin, Bob Gaffney, Mr. Mustafa Merc, President of Turkon Line and Mr. Mehmet Samsar, New York Consul General of Turkey at the MV Mukaddes Kalkavan maiden voyage plaque presentation. Photo Credit to Razi Canikaligil of Huerriyet, Turkish Daily Newspaper.
On May 2nd, the Turkon Line vessel, MV Mukaddes Kalkavan, arrived at NY Container Terminal. Bob Gaffney, Port Authority Manager, Industry Relations, presented the ship's Captain with the traditional maiden voyage plaque during a shipboard ceremony. Attending the ceremony were the New York Turkish Consul General, Turkon's US President, family members of the lines' owner and a number of the lines' customers from the New York region. The vessel is the first of a number of sister vessels to be built under the lines' vessel replacement program in order to handle anticipated cargo growth from the Mediterranean region to the US East Coast.



Port Industry Briefings in Ohio


Pictured from left to right: Bill Cronin and Bob Gaffney of the Port Authority; Beverly Fedorko, New York Shipping Association; Dave Sell, CSX; and, Steve Liberti, Harbor Freight.
Port Industry Briefings were held in Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio for the fourth consecutive year on March 4 and 6,respectively. Due to the increase of all-water services to the East Coast,more Ohio bound and origin cargo is being routed through the port. Columbus is the second largest rail market for the port and CSX joined us in making presentations to 48 shippers in Columbus and 60 shippers in Cleveland.

New York Shipping Association and the Port Authority also teamed up and held a briefing at The Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, MI, a suburb of Detroit. Approximately 70 representatives from auto companies, manufacturers, ocean, rail and motor carriers, forwarders, brokers and 3PLs involved in importing and exporting vehicles and auto parts by train and truck, attended. Due to an impressive gain of export vehicles, the port is looked upon very favorably. Containerized users have acknowledged improvements in the port, leading to their cargo being handled with greater transparency.