Port of Wilmington (Del.)
December 15, 2009
Port of Wilmington at a glance
Location: Wilmington, Delaware
CBP Port Code: 1103
Imports: $6,663,684,147 (2008 data)*
Exports: $3,431,955,138 (2008 data)*
Total: $10,095,639,285 (2008 data)*
The Port of Wilmington, Delaware, is the first full-service deepwater port and marine terminal on the Delaware River. The port is located at the confluence of the Delaware and Christina Rivers, 65 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It is owned and operated by the Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC), a corporate entity of the State of Delaware, and handles 400 vessels per year, with an annual import/export cargo tonnage of over 4 million tons. Today, Delaware’s port is the busiest terminal on the Delaware River.
Since it was founded in 1923, the Port of Wilmington has been a major Mid-Atlantic import/export gateway for a wide variety of maritime cargoes and trade. It ranks as the world’s largest banana port and the leading port in the United States for imports of fresh fruit and juice concentrates. Handling all these refrigerated cargoes positions Wilmington as the largest terminal in the United States for imported perishable cargo.

Cargo Overview
Imports include:
- Fresh fruit: bananas and tropical fruit from Central America, Chilean winter fruit, Moroccan clementines, apples and pears from Argentina, Brazilian and Peruvian grapes, and New Zealand kiwifruit and apples.
- Juice concentrates: orange juice from Belize and Costa Rica and apple and pear juice from Argentina.
- Break-bulk: all types of structural steel, steel coils, and forest products.
- Dry bulk: salt, sodium nitrate, specialized ores, and other bulk products from various worldwide sources.
- Liquid bulk: refined petroleum products including gasoline and #2 fuel oil; frozen orange juice concentrate from Brazil Project cargo: wind turbine blades and components, generators, transformers, etc.
Exports include:
- RoRo (Roll-on Roll-off) cargo: new and previously owned autos, SUVs, and light trucks to the Middle East; vehicles and equipment for reconstruction projects in Iraq & Afghanistan; previously owned vehicles to Central America, Mediterranean, and West Africa.
- Break-bulk: steel, kraft liner board and newsprint to Central America.
- Dry bulk: petrol coke and synthetic race track sand.
- Livestock: dairy and beef cattle cows to various destinations.
- Project cargo: generators, special equipment, etc.
Location
The Port is located at the confluence of the Delaware and Christina Rivers, 65 miles from the Atlantic Ocean (four hours steaming from the Cape Henlopen pilot station). It encompasses over 308 acres. The interstate highway system (I-95, I-495 and I-295) is immediately accessible.
On-dock rail service is provided by Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX with shared access to railcar loading docks located next to terminal warehouses.
Facilities and Equipment
The port has seven deepwater ,as well as a floating berth and an oil jetty on the Chrisitina River, with project depths of 35-38 ft. MLW. Additionally, there is a multi-purpose berth on the Delaware River with a 38 ft. project depth. It connects viaa dedicated road to the port’s 68-acre vehicle storage area. This berth thus is suited for vehicle operations, but it can accommodate steel, project, and break-bulk cargoes as well.
Wilmington has significant heavy lift capability utilizing 50 + 75 LT capacity, rail-mounted multi-purpose gantry cranes serving Berths 1–4. Additionally, lift truck/top loader capacity to 95,000 pounds is available along with stretch trailers in support of project cargo operations.
The port has more than 33 acres of outside storage for steel, lumber, and construction equipment, as well as project cargo. This is supplemented by 250,000 sq. ft. of dry warehouse space (covered) and a 40-acre staging area. There is two-pull-per-day capacity in close proximity to NS’s Edgmoor Rail Yard for efficient train “building.”
The Port of Wilmington owns and operates a large dock-side cold-storage facility. The facility includes six separate warehouses aggregating 800,000 sq. ft. (11 million cubic feet) of chilled and freezer space storage space and 16,000 sq. ft. of controlled atmosphere capability. The port is able to provide real-time remote temperature monitoring and management, cold treatment, and fumigation services in its HACCP and C-TPAT certified warehouses.
Specialized IT Services
- E-port - web-based inventory management tools.
- E-load - distribution management tools.
| Companies providing service to Wilmington area |
|---|
| Air Cargo/Small Package Carriers |
| Customs Brokers/Freight Forwarders |
| Ocean Carriers/Agents |
| Trucking Services |
On-Terminal Federal Agencies
- U.S. Customs & Border Protection.
- U.S. Customs & Border Protection - Agriculture.
- USDA APHIS/PPQ.
Security
- TWIC access controlled entry.
- In-house 24/7 security force.
- Radiation Portal Monitors (RPMs) at the main gate.
- C-TPAT certified.
- HCV Mobile + VACIS.
Air Transportation
The Wilmington area is served by the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), which is a city-owned airport. Philadelphia International has seven cargo terminals. The cargo facility handles dangerous goods and very large/heavy cargo and has an express/courier center. Air freight service at the airport is handled by Air Canada, Air France, Air Jamaica, AirTran Airways, American Airlines, BAX Global, British Airways World Cargo, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines Cargo, FedEx, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines Cargo, DHL Express, and United Parcel Service (UPS), which operates one of its five U.S. regional air hubs at Philadelphia International Airport. The airport also has customs available by request. See the Airport Profile section of our Philadelphia port profile for contact information.
Foreign-Trade Zone #99
The Port of Wilmington is a Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) certified facility. Foreign Trade Zone #99 is located in the State of Delaware. The Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) has primary responsibility for the administration and promotion of the foreign-trade zone. The zone sites are located at the Port of Wilmington and Wyoming, Delaware, with other authorized sub-zones thorough the state. The FTZ offers such services as storage of import/export goods without full customs or government taxes/formalities and duty- free inventory management and control, distribution and manufacturing. Companies may take advantage of zone benefits by utilizing the general purpose zone warehouses. A full range of port services is available. See the Foreign Trade Zone section of our Wilmington port profile for contact information.
Future Expansion
Future expansion is planned to provide more storage capacity for existing and future commercial businesses. An 80-acre parcel of Delaware River riverfront land is available for development.
| Port Contact Info |
|---|
| Port of Wilmington 1 Hausel Road Wilmington, DE 19801-5852 Tel: (302) 472-PORT Fax: (302) 472-7740 jharoldson@port.state.de.us www.portofwilmington.com |
TWIC
On October 10, 2007, Port of Wilmington started the enrollment in the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The TWIC compliance date for the Port of Wilmington was on December 30, 2008.
The Port of Gulfport TWIC enrollment center is located at Brandywine West, 1521 Concord Pike, Suite 301, Wilmington, DE 19803. Hours of operation are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
More information on the TWIC program is available at the Transportation Security Administration website and more information on port security is available at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Homeport site.
Map of Wilmington Area
*Source for import and export dollar amounts: U.S. Import and Export merchandise trade statistics, USA Trade Online.
Port of Gulfport at a glance
In CY 2008, the port handled over 2.3 million tons of cargo, 214,074 TEUs and 267 ships.

Port of San Diego at a glance

Port of Duluth-Superior at a glance
Port of Jacksonville at a glance
Port of Corpus Christi at a glance
The Southside General Cargo Terminal features a range of facilities for transferring containers, break-bulk cargo, RO/RO, and heavy lift and project cargo between vessels, railcars, chassis, and trucks. Docks 14 and 15 are designed to facilitate loading and unloading of railcars, trailers, and containers on the land side of the warehouses. Dock-high aprons and RO/RO facilities are available. More than 20,000 ft. (6154 meters) of track are available to support rail operations.
Bulk Dock #2, which is also operated by the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, is located at the Bulk Terminal on the north side of the Tule Lake Channel in the Inner Harbor. Road access is also via Navigation Boulevard. The same rail service for Bulk Dock #1 is provided for Bulk Dock #2. At Bulk Dock #2, coal, petroleum coke, and other dry bulk commodities can be loaded directly to vessels from bottom dump railcars, dump trucks, or storage. The radial shiploader is capable of loading products weighing 55 pounds per cubic foot at a maximum rate of 1500 tons per hour. Actual productivity will vary depending on the product and vessel.
Port of Seattle at a glance
At Terminal 5, APL has announced it will convert vessels to cleaner-burning, low-sulfur fuel when they call the Port of Seattle. APL’s container terminal in Seattle, Global Gateway North, features on-dock intermodal rail facilities and a computerized terminal operations system. Other steamship lines that call Terminal 5 are Hyundai Merchant Marine, MOL, and Westwood Shipping Lines.
Terminal 18 has four berths at 4,440 feet (1,353 meters). The container berths have a water depth of 50 feet (15 meters), and breakbulk berths have a water depth of 40 feet (12 meters). The terminal has ten post-Panamax container-handling cranes. Refrigerated capacity includes 1,227 reefer plugs. The terminal has a intermodal yard with a loading capacity of 54 five-platform doublestack railcars, equivalent to two full trains. Storage at the terminal covers 97,000 square feet (transit shed). There is also an on-site 30,000 sq. ft. facility for container and chassis repair repair. The terminal operation are handled by 
The terminals have integrated real-time computer software system for vessels, rail, and gate operations and access to Interstate 5, Interstate 90, and Interstate 509.
The Seattle area is serviced by the 



The Wayne County Airport Authority is responsible for the management and operation of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Willow Run Airport. The
The
Port of Savannah at a glance
On February 23, the GPA announced the arrival of four new super post-Panamax cranes at the Port of Savannah. The new cranes arrived aboard the Dockwise M/V Tern, a specially designed vessel capable of moving large, heavy structures.
The Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal and Ocean Terminal are gateways to rail and road distribution networks to markets across the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. Both terminals are served by Class I railroads. In addition, Garden City Terminal’s on-terminal intermodal container transfer facility (ICTF) provides unrestricted double-stack service to hubs throughout the Midwest, Gulf Coast, and Southeast, including overnight service to Atlanta. Upon request, a privately operated shuttle car is available for on-terminal switching 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Line-haul services are provided by Norfolk Southern Railroad and CSX Transportation.
Garden City Terminal is scheduled to add on average two high-speed super post-Panamax container cranes every 18 months, for a total of 25 cranes, as well as 86 rubber-tired gantries (RTG) as part of long-term developments for a full RTG conversion at the facility. To accommodate larger vessels, the Georgia Ports Authority is in the process of increasing the depth of the Savannah River Navigation Channel from 42 to 48 feet MLW (12.8 to 14.6 meters). Completion of this project is projected for 2010.
Port of Mobile at a glance

On October 2, 2008, CBP unveiled the first radiation portal monitors at the Port of Mobile. A radiation portal is a detection device that provides CBP with a passive, non-intrusive means to screen trucks and other conveyances for the presence of nuclear and radiological materials. These systems are capable of detecting various types of radiation emanating from nuclear devices, dirty bombs, special nuclear materials, natural sources, and isotopes commonly used in medicine and industry.