PHILADELPHIA-The Port of Philadelphia is about to get busier. Starting this month, about 150,000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles will go through the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal annually.

The move is expected to generate about 100 new vessels going through the port each year and increase truck and rail traffic, says John Estey, chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. The vehicles will get processed at a finishing plant located at Pier 98 at Columbus Boulevard and Oregon Avenue.

Imported automobiles haven’t gone through the port in more than a decade, says Thomas Holt, president of Holt Logistics Corp., which handles leasing for the port. Glovis America, the logistics provider for Hyundai Motor Co., was formerly moving the vehicles through the ports of Baltimore and Newark.