As used machinery becomes an increasingly international business, the need grows for
associates who can confidently navigate unfamiliar waters. New Jersey’s AMS Container Line,
Inc., is one of those businesses, and one of the MDNA’s newest premier vendors.
 
Inder Khokhar is founder and owner of AMS Container, headquartered in East Windsor, just off
the New Jersey Turnpike about midway between New York City and Philadelphia. From his
office, he oversees freight forwarding in and out of major American seaports and airports, as
well as surface transport. He specializes in moving used machinery — most of it by ship — to
customers both foreign and domestic.
 
“Our core business is international shipping,” Inder explained in a recent interview. “We do
export a lot of used machinery— especially to Japan, India, and Bangladesh, and also a few
shipments to Europe. We can also provide short-term warehousing at multiple locations in the
U.S. if it is some machinery we need to pick up inland and get it to New York, we can bring it to the yard and load the containers there. We are a general domestic company for international
shipping, and we also do domestic trucking. We outsource the trucking and have a brokerage
license.”
 
Customs is a key consideration for customers, and Inder’s team knows those ropes well. AMS is licensed by the Federal Maritime Commission as a Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier,
which Inder calls “a premier certification to handle sea freight into and exports out of the
U.S., where we can issue our own bill of lading.
 
“Customs are very regulated as those regulations are very, very straightforward,” he continued.
“Nobody can expedite Customs. If they say they can it’s probably just a sales pitch. With
customs, it is right or wrong — no gray areas. There are terrorism concerns, for instance, I’ve
had somebody stuck with some machines that are very old, but which could be modified to
make something dangerous. Customs held it to make sure that it is not going to some country
where they can start producing barrels for guns and things like that.”
 
Inder has been in the shipping business since he was a 19-year-old college student in his
hometown of Delhi, India.
 
“I joined a company that wanted to have a U.S. office and that’s how I migrated to New Jersey
in 2002,” he recalled. “At that time, we were primarily looking at Indian subcontinent business,
and New Jersey/New York was one of the biggest gateways. So I made my base here and in
2008, I started this company on my own.”
 
AMS operates from the East Windsor offices and a warehouse in nearby Linden. N.J., near
New York City.
 
As Inder began attending sale events in the New York area seeking export prospects, he
became acquainted with MDNA-affiliated machinery dealers. Those associations led to eventual sponsorships for AMS as an MDNA premier vendor.
 
“We’re blessed to have established a business in the U.S.A” Inder said of his business as he
enters his third decade on the U.S. scene. “It’s the American dream.”

“Hit the ground runnin’,” singer David Lee Roth’s lyrical shout from the Van Halen ‘80s rock hit “Unchained,” inspired the name for HGR Industrial Surplus. The MDNA member business took Roth’s advice from the day it opened in 1998 in the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, Ohio — and it’s not about to slow down.
 
Alex McNealey is a few months into his job as HGR’s chief operating officer, and is excited about the prospect of continuing the strong growth and diversification the company has achieved in recent years.
 
“We’re looking to expand and looking toward the international market,” he said in a recent interview. “We’re there whenever a manufacturer needs to facilitate and find buyers in a surplus equipment space.”
 
Alex came to HGR recently, bringing with him a long background in “the operational side of business … when companies need to scale up and achieve efficient growth. I like change.
 
“The only business constant is change,” he opines. “We facilitate that change.”
 
Recent changes have included HGR opening new spaces in Wisconsin and Texas to complement warehouses across the U.S. and Mexico. The range of services the company offers make it an option for almost any machinery business considering expansion, moving, retooling, or liquidation.
 
“One value we provide that is very desirable is that we have the ability to clear their four walls, quickly,” Alex said, adding that other HGR services provide cash up front to sellers; consignment sales; brokerage services, primarily for sales of large equipment; the potential to engage in joint ventures; and facilitating auctions.
 
HGR’s equipment acquisition services have both end users and resellers as its primary customers. “We’ll buy almost anything that is quality equipment,” Alex adds. “and we’re known for having a wide selection.”
 
The company hosted the annual MDNA Cleveland Chapter meeting this spring. Its new leader sees MDNA as “a forum to bring people together, share experiences, and help problem-solve among each other.”