4,000 new Toyota vehicles damaged in Sandy storm surge
11-03-12, 04:36 PM
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4,000 new Toyota vehicles damaged in Sandy storm surge
4,000 new Toyota vehicles damaged in storm surge
Friday, November 2, 2012 Last updated: Saturday November 3, 2012, 12:18 AM
BY RICHARD NEWMAN, HUGH R. MORLEY AND MICHAEL COPLEY
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
As many as 4,000 new Toyota vehicles were damaged or destroyed, along with several thousand other cars in an adjacent shipping company lot, when Port Newark docks were swamped by a storm surge at the height of Sandy. Losses could total well over $100 million.
The Toyotas, Lexuses and other vehicles were at Toyota’s vehicle processing operation on Newark Bay next to one run by the shipper, which said thousands of cars were apparently destroyed by the 5-foot surge early Tuesday.
The financial impact was unclear Friday, but using TrueCar.com’s average sale price of a new car in the U.S. — about $30,000 — the loss of 4,000 vehicles would total $120 million.
Meanwhile, shipping company officials said Port Newark could be back up and running by Monday after Sandy wreaked havoc on the terminals, scattering empty cargo containers, flooding the facility and forcing the ports to close.
Electricity, which was out at the port all week, was expected to be restored as early as Friday evening, and the U.S. Coast Guard is surveying channels at the port, according to a message posted on the web site for the Port Newark Container Terminal.
“There’s no power, that’s the big thing. They’re saying everything looks OK, but until they put power to it we’re not going to know,” said Howard Pitcher, vice president of commercial operations for Bermuda Container Line. “We thought it was the end of the world a couple of days ago.”
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the leading port in North America for imports and exports of automobiles, handling 650,669 vehicles last year. But autos are only part of the more than $200 billion in goods whose delivery has been held up by the closure.
The destruction at the automobile lots appeared to be the worst damage suffered by the port, and it was still not clear Friday how bad the damage was.
A Toyota spokeswoman initially reported that all of the company’s vehicles hit by the surge were submerged in corrosive saltwater and were “not salvageable.” But she later backed off that statement, and said that some may be saved.
“On closer inspection they can see it’s not that black and white,” said Cindy Knight, spokeswoman for the U.S. marketing and sales arm of Toyota Motor Co.
“If there is seaweed on the roof or on the hood, it’s pretty obvious, but they will have to look for evidence of the water line,” she said. It will take “a couple weeks” to assess the damage, she said.
August LoBue, owner of FAPS, the shipping company, said he was going car by car Friday, assessing the damage to determine how many were salvageable. LoBue ships American-made cars of several makes out of the country and imports vehicles from Japan and elsewhere.
“Water is essentially poison to a vehicle, especially saltwater,” said Chris Basso, spokesman for Carfax, which sells vehicle history reports on used cars to consumers and automobile industry professionals.
According to Basso, about 600,000 cars were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and many of those cars that were flooded were later resold, sometimes fraudulently, without the damage being properly disclosed.
Both Toyota and FAPS lease their terminals from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The 90-acre Toyota facility sits right on the Newark Bay, and would be the first hit by the surge, while the 104-acre FAPS terminal is sheltered slightly and sits on an inlet.
Port Authority officials issued a brief statement saying that Sandy “resulted in significant flooding in our port terminals, including areas where autos are stored.
“Thousands of cars — which were delivered to the port over the past weeks — suffered varying degrees of damage,” the statement said. “The Port Authority is working with our port tenants on recovering from this devastating storm.”
The Toyotas and Lexuses are owned by Toyota Motor Sales Co., which purchased them from the parent company to fill dealer allotments, and were bound for dealers in New Jersey and throughout much of the Northeast. The facility, which employs 147, will be closed for an undetermined time.
“I don’t know if it will mean a shortage,” Knight said. “Dealers who have inventory are shipping inventory to dealers who are now without. I think the company will send extra product.” The next two shipments are being redirected to Baltimore, Knight said.
The damaged goods also may include replacement parts, such as higher-end audio systems, which are sold to customers as options, she said. McKnight said she did not know the dollar amount of the damage and declined to make an estimate.
On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard continued surveying channels — the Kill Van Kull channel, which provides access to New Jersey Maritime terminals, was still closed — and officials with the Port Newark Container Terminal tested and repaired equipment. Once electricity is restored, the port’s substations will have to be tested and brought on line one a time, according to a statement from Port Newark officials.
Jeffrey J. Milstein, director of operations for Moran Shipping Agencies and a member of the Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, said in a report that the recovery effort in New Jersey was hampered because roads leading to many of the port facilities were blocked, “making it [impossible] for persons to view the site.”
On Monday, as Sandy made its way toward New Jersey, water already was overtaking the bulkhead at Port Newark; by Tuesday morning, all of New Jersey’s port facilities were underwater and containers were seen floating in channels, according to Milstein.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/4000....html?page=all
Friday, November 2, 2012 Last updated: Saturday November 3, 2012, 12:18 AM
BY RICHARD NEWMAN, HUGH R. MORLEY AND MICHAEL COPLEY
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
As many as 4,000 new Toyota vehicles were damaged or destroyed, along with several thousand other cars in an adjacent shipping company lot, when Port Newark docks were swamped by a storm surge at the height of Sandy. Losses could total well over $100 million.
The Toyotas, Lexuses and other vehicles were at Toyota’s vehicle processing operation on Newark Bay next to one run by the shipper, which said thousands of cars were apparently destroyed by the 5-foot surge early Tuesday.
The financial impact was unclear Friday, but using TrueCar.com’s average sale price of a new car in the U.S. — about $30,000 — the loss of 4,000 vehicles would total $120 million.
Meanwhile, shipping company officials said Port Newark could be back up and running by Monday after Sandy wreaked havoc on the terminals, scattering empty cargo containers, flooding the facility and forcing the ports to close.
Electricity, which was out at the port all week, was expected to be restored as early as Friday evening, and the U.S. Coast Guard is surveying channels at the port, according to a message posted on the web site for the Port Newark Container Terminal.
“There’s no power, that’s the big thing. They’re saying everything looks OK, but until they put power to it we’re not going to know,” said Howard Pitcher, vice president of commercial operations for Bermuda Container Line. “We thought it was the end of the world a couple of days ago.”
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the leading port in North America for imports and exports of automobiles, handling 650,669 vehicles last year. But autos are only part of the more than $200 billion in goods whose delivery has been held up by the closure.
The destruction at the automobile lots appeared to be the worst damage suffered by the port, and it was still not clear Friday how bad the damage was.
A Toyota spokeswoman initially reported that all of the company’s vehicles hit by the surge were submerged in corrosive saltwater and were “not salvageable.” But she later backed off that statement, and said that some may be saved.
“On closer inspection they can see it’s not that black and white,” said Cindy Knight, spokeswoman for the U.S. marketing and sales arm of Toyota Motor Co.
“If there is seaweed on the roof or on the hood, it’s pretty obvious, but they will have to look for evidence of the water line,” she said. It will take “a couple weeks” to assess the damage, she said.
August LoBue, owner of FAPS, the shipping company, said he was going car by car Friday, assessing the damage to determine how many were salvageable. LoBue ships American-made cars of several makes out of the country and imports vehicles from Japan and elsewhere.
“Water is essentially poison to a vehicle, especially saltwater,” said Chris Basso, spokesman for Carfax, which sells vehicle history reports on used cars to consumers and automobile industry professionals.
According to Basso, about 600,000 cars were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and many of those cars that were flooded were later resold, sometimes fraudulently, without the damage being properly disclosed.
Both Toyota and FAPS lease their terminals from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The 90-acre Toyota facility sits right on the Newark Bay, and would be the first hit by the surge, while the 104-acre FAPS terminal is sheltered slightly and sits on an inlet.
Port Authority officials issued a brief statement saying that Sandy “resulted in significant flooding in our port terminals, including areas where autos are stored.
“Thousands of cars — which were delivered to the port over the past weeks — suffered varying degrees of damage,” the statement said. “The Port Authority is working with our port tenants on recovering from this devastating storm.”
The Toyotas and Lexuses are owned by Toyota Motor Sales Co., which purchased them from the parent company to fill dealer allotments, and were bound for dealers in New Jersey and throughout much of the Northeast. The facility, which employs 147, will be closed for an undetermined time.
“I don’t know if it will mean a shortage,” Knight said. “Dealers who have inventory are shipping inventory to dealers who are now without. I think the company will send extra product.” The next two shipments are being redirected to Baltimore, Knight said.
The damaged goods also may include replacement parts, such as higher-end audio systems, which are sold to customers as options, she said. McKnight said she did not know the dollar amount of the damage and declined to make an estimate.
On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard continued surveying channels — the Kill Van Kull channel, which provides access to New Jersey Maritime terminals, was still closed — and officials with the Port Newark Container Terminal tested and repaired equipment. Once electricity is restored, the port’s substations will have to be tested and brought on line one a time, according to a statement from Port Newark officials.
Jeffrey J. Milstein, director of operations for Moran Shipping Agencies and a member of the Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, said in a report that the recovery effort in New Jersey was hampered because roads leading to many of the port facilities were blocked, “making it [impossible] for persons to view the site.”
On Monday, as Sandy made its way toward New Jersey, water already was overtaking the bulkhead at Port Newark; by Tuesday morning, all of New Jersey’s port facilities were underwater and containers were seen floating in channels, according to Milstein.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/4000....html?page=all
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