Conley Terminal Celebrates 30 Years with Largest Customer

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the Port of Boston’s largest customer, recently celebrated thirty years of partnership with Massport at Conley Container Terminal (Conley Terminal) and cemented their position as the Port’s longest serving customer. The relationship between the Port and MSC has manifested in a number of record-breaking years for both organizations and contributed to the overall success of the Port.

“MSC has been an integral part of the continued growth and success of the Port of Boston over the past three decades,” said Lisa Wieland, Massport’s Port Director. “Our relationship with the company is a true partnership that has brought both parties significant innovation, growth and opportunity and we look forward to continuing to work with them for decades to come.”

In the past thirty years, MSC has moved over 1.5 million TEUs through Conley Terminal on their North Europe and Mediterranean services. This activity has contributed significantly to Conley’s back-to-back volume records the past two years, accounting for 45% of Conley’s more than 247,000 TEUs in Fiscal Year 2016 (July-June).

“MSC is pleased to have successfully developed its business within the New England market over recent years and is proud to be able to offer reliable port calls in Boston. We very much look forward to continuing our close working relationship with the Port” commented Mr. Fabio Santucci, President of MSC (USA).

MSC has invested significantly by routing a large part of their New England business through the Port of Boston and Massport is undertaking significant investments of its own to ensure Conley Terminal is modernized and ready to compete for the next 30 years.

This is taking shape in the form of two major initiatives: first, ensuring Conley Terminal has the infrastructure upgrades needed to handle larger container ships efficiently and effectively. Massport, with the help of local and state officials, secured two significant funding sources to reach this goal; $107.5 million dollars in state funding to build a new berth and procure three larger cranes and a $42 million dollar Federal FASTLANE Grant to maintain and modernize the existing terminal. In addition, a funding partnership between the federal government, state government, and Massport was created to dredge Boston Harbor, a $350 million project that will begin its first phase later this fall. In total, $850 million will be invested to ensure Massport can continue to serve the New England importer and exporter community.

The second major initiative is to maintain Massport’s focus on Conley Terminal being a customer-focused facility. Even with record-breaking volume growth, Conley Terminal remains congestion-free; with sustained average truck turnaround times of approximately 31 minutes. Massport’s partnership with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has resulted in a 30 percent increase in crane productivity over the last few years at Conley Terminal thanks to an innovative union contract and increased average processing time from 26 containers per hour to 32 containers per hour. Because of these gains, Conley Terminal was recognized earlier this year (by The Journal of Commerce) as the #1 North American port in terms of productivity increases.

The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) owns and operates Boston Logan International Airport, public terminals in the Port of Boston, Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport. Massport is a financially self-sustaining public authority whose premier transportation facilities generate more than $8 billion annually, and enhance and enable economic growth and vitality in New England.