Horizon Lines Inc. is about to inaugurate next January a brand-new, $2 million state-of-the-art building at its terminal in San Juan. And next year, the shipping company will invest another $2.3 million in other infrastructure improvements.

Over the past four years, Horizon has invested more than $10 million in its San Juan terminal and operations.

“Basically, the investments in our San Juan terminal have increased the turn-around times [for truckers to pick up containers] by 20%, allowing them to move more containers, which has improved our customer service,” said Jacob Wegrzyn, senior vice president & general manager for the Puerto Rico division of Horizon Lines LLC.

“In our business, as well as in our clients’, time obviously is money,” Wegrzyn added. “If you have big customers, who have 25 to 30 containers coming in weekly or on one particular vessel, if we can save 10 to12 minutes per container, those savings are important.

“We will expand our entry and exit gates; there are currently six gates in our terminal area, and we will be adding eight more. The new gates will represent about a $1.4 million investment for next year. We also will be adding a new refrigerated container [“reefer”] wash unit for cleaning the reefers, which will be a $500,000 investment,” Wegrzyn noted.

In all, Horizon expects to invest more than $2 million next year. “Even with a down economy, we still are looking to invest about $2.3 million in our terminal next year,” Wegrzyn noted.

In addition to the investments, Wegrzyn pointed out other factors he believes are helping keep his company in the forefront. “I think one key aspect is our on-time reliability, which is at around 96% to 97%. I think that’s critical. We are still the only carrier in Puerto Rico servicing three ports, Jacksonville (Fla.), Elizabeth (N.J.) and Houston. We also have a companywide environmental initiative to go green in different areas, from environmental mitigation, improved vessel and port operations for emissions and ballast water to engine efficiency and hull coatings that are cleaner for the environment.”

“On Aug. 5, we celebrated 50 years of service to Puerto Rico. Actually, our new building, which will be inaugurated in January, is called the Fairland Building, after the first container vessel ever to arrive in Puerto Rico on Aug. 5, 1958, which was a Horizon vessel.”

The company recently implemented the ReeferPlus GPS (Global Positioning System) container-tracking and shipment-monitoring solution for refrigerated ocean containers moving between the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. This innovative solution is designed to improve visibility and security of high-value perishable cargo that requires cold-chain logistics, a term used to describe the maintenance of product temperature through the entire transport chain from packing to delivery.