Port

NEW YORK - Carnival Cruise Lines prices have taken a dip this spring, according to pricing data, and some industry observers blame headlines about problems on several Carnival ships. Todd Elliott, owner of Cruise Vacation Outlet, said his agents had seen a drop in price of 20 percent or more for equivalent cruises. "Rates are far lower than I have seen in a while; for example, the Carnival Dream, seven nights, Eastern Caribbean out of Port Canaveral, May 4 is $299 per person," he said.

Delaware Avenue ports were abuzz yesterday as USDA Inspector Jonnie Tigner (above) examines first shipment of Chilean fruit of the season, a $1.5 billion industry, at Tioga Fruit Terminal. Bill Molz (left) checks inventory at new 208,000-square-foot warehouse for forest products at Snyder Avenue.

City officials are hoping their plan to create an enterprise zone along the Delaware River waterfront will help capture state subsidies needed to rebuild Philadelphia's port facilities. The city Commerce Department wants to nominate a large stretch of riverfront property for consideration as an enterprise zone - a designation that would allow the area to better compete for low-interest loans and grants. The area that the city has in mind includes the Tioga and Packer Avenue marine terminals, and all the waterfront property in between.

Dole Fresh Fruit Co. has renewed its lease until 2025 with the Diamond State Port Corp. at the Port of Wilmington, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell announced Friday. The long-term contract "secures more than 800 jobs at the port," he said. Financial terms were not disclosed. Wilmington is the largest banana-receiving port in the world. In 2009, Dole made 57 ship calls in Wilmington. Dole is the largest banana company in North America and brings in more than 60 million individual bananas and over 1 million individual pineapples a week into Wilmington, said Stuart Jablon, Dole's vice president of operations in Wilmington.

The Port of Philadelphia will gain a shipping line when Horizon Lines Inc. moves its northeast terminal operations from Elizabeth, N.J., in April. The Charlotte, N.C.-based shipping company said Wednesday that the Philadelphia port would handle cargo arriving from its operations in Puerto Rico. Richard Rodriguez, general manager of Horizon's Puerto Rican operations, said in a statement that the company expected the relocation to produce "significant advantages," including faster transit and turnaround times, and expedited cargo inspections.

Cargoes were up 10.4 percent in 2012 in the Port of Philadelphia, the third consecutive year for gains and an indicator the economy is improving, officials said. More steel, more paper, more cars. And sugar, a new cargo, weighed in at 24,331 tons. But the year was not all rosy. Container shipments were down after Chilean shipping company CSAV reduced ship calls at Tioga Marine Terminal and Star Line L.L.C. suspended service, citing the economy and rising fuel costs. Since a recession slowed shipping worldwide in 2009, ports on the Delaware River have seen an uptick in business - cargo volume in Philadelphia was up 17 percent in 2010 and 10 percent in 2011.

While the maritime community has been lobbying hard for Conrail to develop an intermodal yard near the port, CSX has been working quietly on such a facility in South Philadelphia. Within the next two months, the parent company of the Chessie system will complete a $2.3 million renovation of its 60-acre yard at Snyder and Delaware avenues that will boost its capacity to transfer marine cargo containers to rail flatcars. "It's a great step forward for the port," said Bill DeWitt, the Philadelphia Port Corp.

Frances H. Sherman, 65, who was one of the first women to become a business leader at the Ports of Philadelphia and became something of an institution in Delaware River business circles, died Sunday in the Fox Chase Cancer Center. Ms. Sherman had worked for 43 years at Davies, Turner & Co., a customs brokerage and foreign freight forwarding firm, where she was secretary- treasurer and managed the Philadelphia office for more than half of her career. Ms. Sherman became known within the port for her knowledge of customs regulations.

Next time you peel a banana, there's an excellent chance it will have slipped here through a port on the Delaware River. Billions of bananas arrive through the piers and terminals on the Delaware headed to grocers, wholesalers, and produce markets across the country. Wilmington is the largest banana port in North America, and is second only to Antwerp, Belgium, in banana cargoes in the world. Dole Fresh Fruit Co. brings one ship a week, carrying more than 65 million bananas into the Christina River in Wilmington, or more than three billion bananas a year, said Dole vice president for operations Stuart Jablon.

Stung by a state ethics commission conflict-of-interest ruling, John Ober resigned yesterday as vice chairman of the South Jersey Port Corp. Ober came under scrutiny by New Jersey's Executive Commission on Ethical Standards because of private business dealings with the state-owned port agency's municipal dock at Salem. He is one of three partners in the Del Line, a one-year-old steamship company that uses the Port of Salem dock. Though it acknowledged that Ober quit voting on Salem matters when Del Line began using Salem last July, the commission ruled that he had continued to participate in discussions and receive confidential information related to Salem.

NEW YORK - Officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey vowed Wednesday to take a closer look at overtime after an internal report showed overtime hours spiked 30 percent over projections during the first three months of the year. Most of the increase for nonpolice employees was blamed on continuing cleanup from Hurricane Sandy and a higher-than-usual number of snowstorms that affected area airports. Nonpolice employees were paid 309,000 hours in overtime in the first quarter of 2013, or 30 percent higher than the projected amount of 237,000 hours, according to Port Authority figures.

A PORT RICHMOND man has been arrested and charged in a fatal hit-and-run that occurred almost two years ago, police said. Robert Sickman, 26, of Almond Street, surrendered to police Tuesday. He is accused of driving the car that struck William McCue, 28, on April 10, 2011. McCue was walking home when a passing car struck him as he crossed Richmond Street near Sergeant, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, but the driver fled. Police found the vehicle the next morning and identified Sickman as the driver, but were unable to locate him until Tuesday.

A 31-YEAR-OLD Port Richmond man was held on $3 million bail Friday after police who were serving a drug warrant at his house discovered what appeared to be pipe bombs inside. Cops found the explosives early Thursday morning at the house, on Thompson Street near Huntingdon, and arrested Nicholas Suozzo, the District Attorney's Office said. The bomb squad was called to clear the house and remove the devices, authorities said. He's facing a slew of charges, including possessing weapons of mass destruction, possession of an offensive weapon, risking catastrophe and drug possession.

A Port Richmond man was being held Friday on $3 million bail after authorities said they found explosives in his house. Nicholas Suozzo, 31, of the 2600 block of East Thompson Street, was arrested Thursday after police, serving a narcotics warrant on his house, found incendiary devices believed to be pipe bombs. Suozzo was charged with possessing weapons of mass destruction, possessing a controlled substance, possession with intent to distribute, and other offenses, the District Attorney's Office said Friday.

Cargoes were up 10.4 percent in 2012 in the Port of Philadelphia, the third consecutive year for gains and an indicator the economy is improving, officials said. More steel, more paper, more cars. And sugar, a new cargo, weighed in at 24,331 tons. But the year was not all rosy. Container shipments were down after Chilean shipping company CSAV reduced ship calls at Tioga Marine Terminal and Star Line L.L.C. suspended service, citing the economy and rising fuel costs. Since a recession slowed shipping worldwide in 2009, ports on the Delaware River have seen an uptick in business - cargo volume in Philadelphia was up 17 percent in 2010 and 10 percent in 2011.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has called off a deal to invest $200.5 million and operate the state-owned Port of Wilmington, citing antagonism from a local longshoreman's union leader. The publicly traded energy company, based in Houston, wanted to expand cargoes, bring new jobs, and invest in needed port infrastructure repairs. The Diamond State Port Corp. in December named Kinder, with operations at Tioga Marine Terminal in Port Richmond and Fairless Hills, Bucks County, as the "preferred" bidder to lease the Wilmington port.

The Port of Philadelphia will gain a shipping line when Horizon Lines Inc. moves its northeast terminal operations from Elizabeth, N.J., in April. The Charlotte, N.C.-based shipping company said Wednesday that the Philadelphia port would handle cargo arriving from its operations in Puerto Rico. Richard Rodriguez, general manager of Horizon's Puerto Rican operations, said in a statement that the company expected the relocation to produce "significant advantages," including faster transit and turnaround times, and expedited cargo inspections.

Beth Kephart is the author of 14 books, and "Handling the Truth," a book about the making of memoir, is due out in August I take the Blue Route south and I-95 north. The day is gray and bitter, the lanes too aggressively pocked. Beyond me the Delaware River crawls, heavy with the exhaust of bedlam truckers and implacable with its reminisce of pirates, oil tanks, and whale bones. At the Allegheny/Castor Avenues exit I veer right, then left toward the heart of Port Richmond. This was collier country once - home to coal traders, but also shipbuilders, cargo holders, and dockhands.