Holt Logistics Invests More Than $1 Million on New Equipment to Increase Efficiency and Attract New Business

Philadelphia — In its continuing effort to grow the containerized cargo business at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal (PAMT), Holt Logistics Corp. announced today that Greenwich Terminals, LLC will invest an additional $1 million in new storage equipment designed to increase container capacity at the Terminal.

Greenwich Terminals has purchased two new “reach stackers” – agile and mobile cranes with claw grips that can handle, move and stack shipping containers – at a cost of $1 million that will allow the Terminal operator to continue to “densify” PAMT by permitting the safe storage of additional containers onsite.

The new equipment, which represents the latest in a series of investments at PAMT that total more than $50 million over the last 20 years, will improve operational efficiency and free up critically-needed dockside storage capacity to support the new cargo opportunities that continue to arrive at the Terminal.

Cargo volumes increased by 10 percent at Packer in 2010 thanks in large part to a deal with Hyundai Motor Co. to import and process up to 150,000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles through PAMT annually. That growth created more than 200 additional jobs at Packer in 2010, with the potential for more in 2011 thanks to the start this year of Maersk Line’s Spondylus Service and CMA CGM’s Black Pearl Service. And on April 2nd, the largest container vessel ever to call at a Delaware River Port, the mammoth 6,750 TEU MSC Laura, arrived at PAMT.

Densifying the Terminal is an important step in maintaining the momentum for new cargo growth at PAMT and the Port of Philadelphia.

“We’re constantly upgrading the equipment at the Terminal to provide the best, fastest and most efficient service for our customers,” said Thomas J. Holt Jr., President of Astro Holdings, Inc., which leases PAMT under a long-term concession with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. “We operate in a competitive field, and these investments are necessary to satisfy the needs of our current customers as well as those we hope to attract to Philadelphia in the future.”

The two Hyster YardMaster II reach stackers have the capability of safely stacking standard containers “five high,” providing dramatically improved storage capacity at PAMT.

“With all of the business that is interested in coming to Philadelphia, identifying available land for storage space is critical,” Holt said. “Land is at a premium here, and while we continue to look for opportunities to grow the Terminal’s footprint, we’re doing everything we can to make our operations more efficient by improving our stacking capability.”

About Holt Logistics Corp.

Holt Logistics Corp. is a technology, marketing and corporate service organization. Holt Logistics Corp. provides transportation and logistics management companies solutions in dynamic segments of the transportation industry such as truck and rail transportation, marine terminal services, warehousing and logistics management. The philosophy of Holt Logistics Corp. and its client companies is to provide the safest, highest quality, and competitively priced cargo movement