The Glovis Summit came to port on Friday, November 18, 2016. Two harbor tugboats assisted her as she docked at Pier 14. Ships like this come into San Juan harbor once or twice a week, but usually dock on the far side of the port.

The Glovis Summit during docking, The Summit is registered in the Marshall Islands.

The Summit is a vehicle carrier, a PTPC (pure truck, pure car), one of a fleet of 38 owned and operated by Hyundai Industries of Korea. Hyundai manufactures vehicles (KIAs, Hyundais) in Korea and elsewhere. The vehicle carriers transport the finished vehicles around the world. There are, for example, five or six vehicle carrier sailings per month between Korea and the US west coast ports of Tacoma and Portland. Glovis has routes to Europe, Africa, South America, the Red Sea, Australia, New Zealand – pretty much everywhere in the world.

Vehicles being driven from the bowels of the Summit.

The Summit came here directly from Ulsan, Korea, across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal, if information from an independent shipping website is to be believed. Once docked, the rear ramp was lowered and vehicles began to spit out of her. Dockworkers (I presume they are longshoremen) drove the cars and trucks down the ramp (the Summit is a RORO –  roll on, roll off vehicle carrier), though some kind of scanner set up by port officials, and then were directed to one of several areas of the pier. Vans collected the drivers and took them back up the ramp for more cars and trucks.

New cars from the Summit.

It is hard to know how many KIAs, Hyundais, and trucks came off the Summit. I would guess close to a thousand. Since the Summit can carry about 6,000 cars and trucks, there are still vehicles for the next ports.

I find it hard to believe that the Puerto Rican market can absorb that many new vehicles. And remember, a ship like the Summit arrives in port two or three times a week, presumably carrying other brands – Subarus. Lincolns, BMWs, Nissans. For example, an NYK carrier arrived this morning, Sunday, two days after the Summit came and left. The NYK ship (NYK stands for Nippon Yusen Kaisha; it is a Japanese logistics company) arrived either from Europe on its way to the US west coast and then to Japan, or from Veracruz, Mexico after stops at US east coast ports. If the NYK ship is on that route, it will call at Venezuelan, Colombian and Central American ports before returning to Veracruz. That city is home to several automobile manufacturing plants, including Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Land Rover, etc.

Cars being moved from the pier, eight at a time.

I would have to guess that San Juan transships some of the cars and trucks to smaller Caribbean islands, with less capable port facilities. I don’t know how that occurs. I do know that there will be a steady stream of trucks transporting the new arrivals, eight or ten at a time, to somewhere, auto dealers around the island, car rental companies, etc., for the next several days.

The Summit left after about 12 hours in port, headed for Galveston, if a shipping website is to be believed. I did discover that another logistics company, Ghanem Forwarding LLC out of Baltimore, rents space on the Summit. You can take your vehicle to Galveston, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Port Newark, or Boston, and have it loaded onto the ship as it heads for West Africa, So if you want to tour Ghana or Nigeria, or Benin or Senegal with your own car, this is how you can do it.