The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will restart cargo operations Friday evening, with activity picking up over the coming days, Bethann Rooney, the port’s director, said in a media briefing Friday.
The port will begin discharging and reloading containers and automobiles from ships Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. ET. During the weekend, two terminals will open for truck activity, which includes delivery of cargo out of gates and to distribution centers. The remaining terminals will reopen on Oct. 7 at 6 a.m. ET, according to Rooney.
Additional gate hours are expected next week but the port has yet to finalize plans with the marine terminal operators, Rooney added.
The reopening of the port was spurred by the end of a three-day strike from the International Longshoremen’s Association. The union and the United States Maritime Alliance came to a tentative agreement on a wage deal and extended their master contract until Jan. 15, 2025. The added time will allow the ILA and USMX to come back to the negotiating table to discuss other pending matters.
“Since the agreement was reached last night, it has been all-hands on deck to reopen the port and restart the flow of cargo,” Rooney said.
On Friday morning, there were 24 ships at anchor waiting to get into the Port of New York and New Jersey, including 19 container ships, four roll-on roll-off vessels and one specialty vessel, Rooney said.
The 19 container vessels are carrying a combined 35,000 import containers filled with different types of consumer goods, the director said. Eleven of those vessels are already being brought to the port to have cargo unloaded.
Rooney called on the warehousing, distribution center and trucking communities to utilize all available hours that the terminal operators make available to ensure a successful and efficient reopening of the port.
Other ports like Georgia Ports Authority and Port of Baltimore opened Friday morning, while Port Houston is reopening later this afternoon and the Port of Virginia will reopen on Saturday morning.
Editor's note: The headline and subtitle of this story were updated to note the port reopened over the weekend.
