NJ Will Get Boost From Long-Term Lease At Port, Governor Says

NEW JERSEY — One of the largest ports in the nation is on the brink of extending a high-profile lease for another three decades.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Monday that it has reached a 33-year tentative agreement with APM Terminals, the operator of the agency’s second-largest container terminal.

If it crosses the finish line, the deal will help to meet the rising demand for cargo shipments in the area, officials said.

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on the lease extension at their meeting on March 27.

According to the Port Authority, terms of the tentative deal include:

• “APM Terminals’ new lease extends the term through December 2062, from its current expiration in December 2029, and requires payment to the Port Authority of an extension fee and modified annual rental payments.”
• “As part of the agreement, APM Terminals will invest over $500 million over the coming years to enhance cargo-handling capacity at its 350-acre terminal.”
• “APM Terminals’ new lease extends the term through December 2062, from its current expiration in December 2029, and requires payment to the Port Authority of an extension fee and modified annual rental payments.”
• “APM Terminals has committed to the replacement and maintenance of all wharf and berth structures.”
• “APM Terminals has committed to future capacity enhancements driven by demand.”
• “The Port Authority and APM Terminals will expand the lease to include portions of an adjacent parcel of land to APM Terminals for enhanced productivity.”

The lease would support the Port Authority’s Port Master Plan 2050, which anticipates cargo volumes doubling or tripling by mid-century, officials said.

There are also environmental provisions in the proposed deal, including:

• “APM Terminals has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and support the Port Authority’s goal of reaching net zero agency-wide by 2050.”
• “APM Terminals will invest in zero-emission cargo-handling equipment over the coming years.”
• “As a Port Authority lessee, the terminal operator is also subject to the Port Authority’s marine terminal tariff, which incentivizes the adoption of cleaner equipment as new technology becomes commercially available.”

APM Terminals is an independent division of Denmark-based A.P. Møller – Mærsk.

“Our region is an irreplaceable driver of the U.S. economy, serving as home to one of the busiest ports in our nation’s supply chain,” Gov. Phil Murphy said.

“In addition to getting goods into the hands of millions of consumers across the country, the Port of New York and New Jersey creates hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs for our communities,” Murphy added.

With this lease extension, most of the Port of New York and New Jersey’s major tenants are now secured under long-term agreements, officials noted: APM Terminals through 2062, Port Liberty Bayonne and New York through 2047, and Port Newark Container Terminal through 2050.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the busiest port on the East Coast and among the top three busiest in the country as the first East Coast port of call for the vast majority of transatlantic container vessels. In 2024, it handled approximately $264 billion worth of goods, moving 8.7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). Port operations supported more than 563,000 industry jobs in the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania region, according to a study of 2022 maritime economic activity by the Shipping Association of New York and New Jersey.

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