Page 133 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

ramped up production, creating high demand
for raw materials. As rates to transport goods by container increased to as much as five times the normal rate, suppliers clamored to ship their goods all at once, creating severe logjams. Finally, to avoid transporting goods in containers, shippers began sending their products on break-bulk vessels. These factors brought a record number of ships
to Rukert Terminals in 2021. As infection rates around the country waxed and waned, the cargo came fast and furious. Rukert Terminals’ 100th
year in business is on course to be its busiest year ever. Exhausted employees work around the clock, but the pace is unrelenting. Still, employees treat the cargo like it is their own. Warehouse employee James Hood said, “I enjoy going into a store and seeing lumber that I shipped out to them, and I see it’s in good shape. The customer is getting a great product.”
Bud Nixon used to say, “Business is like riding a bicycle. If you stop pedaling, you fall off.” In the face of adversity, every single employee in all departments at Rukert Terminals made sacrifices
to keep the company on its wheels and maintain full-time operations. Vice President of Warehouse Administration Jason Loveland’s energy, focus and stamina are unmatched. All hours of the day, he is tethered to his phone, in constant communication with customers around the world. Always available and responsive, Jason cultivates and maintains excel- lent relationships with customers by going the extra step to meet their needs. The days of mailing photos of cargo have passed. Instead, it is not unusual to see Jason or other managers FaceTiming with customers from a pier or warehouse.
Amid the cargo crunch of 2021, Jason and Frank, his counterpart in Vessel Operations, worked together to discharge all vessels, even when the terminal was full. To accommodate customers, they
PART II BRINGING THE WORLD TO BALTIMORE
“Business is like riding a bicycle. If you stop pedaling, you fall off.”
— Bud Nixon
arranged to have 1,000 truckloads of excess cargo transported to other warehouses around the area. For the first time ever, Rukert Terminals had to turn new business away on a regular basis. This was frustrating but necessary amid the unprecedented onslaught of cargo.
Rukert Terminals’ 100th year in business
also coincided with a significant shift that had been decades in the making. Since the 1990s, general cargo tonnage had been trending up as the company diver- sified into various break-bulk and project cargoes. President John Coulter remembers when management considered 125,000 tons of general cargo per year
a lot. Because general cargo is more labor intensive than handling bulk, each incremental rise in annual tonnage was demanding. Rukert Terminals adapted and, in 2019, employees handled nearly a million
tons of general cargo arriving by vessel. This was a milestone that company leaders never expected to see. It also marked the first time in company history that general cargo accounted for 50 percent of all annual tonnage. The surge in general cargo was fueled by a growing pulp business and rising demand for forest products like lumber and plywood.
In 2021, general cargo tonnage was on pace to exceed bulk tonnage for the first time ever. Bulk cargo tonnage was down a third overall, largely due to a decrease in deicing salt. In the last 40 years, deicing salt regularly accounted for approximately
FACING PAGE:
In February 2021, Samantha Rukert and Andy Nixon helped place a historic marker that highlights Rukert Terminals' role in the development of the Clinton Street waterfront.
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