Governor Martin O’Malley announced today that the Port of Baltimore’s public marine terminals continued to rebound strongly in 2011 from the economic recession by handling more containers and autos than during any other previous year. Both containers and autos are key targeted cargo commodities for the Port.

“The Port of Baltimore’s very successful 2011 year is great news for the thousands of men and women who depend on the Port to provide for their families,” said Governor O’Malley. “Through sound infrastructure investments, forward-thinking business partnerships and long-term contracts with international shipping companies, the Port continues to recover from the challenging world economic conditions and position itself in a very good light moving forward.”

Records or significant accomplishments of key targeted commodiites for the port’s public marine terminals in 2011:

Containers:

• Most containers in a calendar year: 402,135 (up four percent from 2010)

• Most Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU’s) handled in a calendar year: 631,806 (up three percent from 2010)

Autos:

• Most autos in a calendar year: 446,403 (up 12 percent from 2010)

• Most autos exported in a calendar year: 166,077 (up 32 percent from 2010

Forest Products:

• 515,433 tons of wood pulp imports was a record

Roll On/Roll Off (Farm and Construction Machinery):

• Second highest amount of tonnage in a calendar year: 938,675 tons (969,272 in 2008)

• Roll On/Roll Off was up 51 percent from 2010

Public Terminals Total

• 8.88 million tons of general cargo (second highest amount behind 8.96 million tons in 2008)

Last month it was announced that a record 251,889 people sailed on 105 cruises from the Port of Baltimore in 2011. That total represented the third consecutive record year for cruise passengers.

Through the first 11 months of 2011, the Port of Baltimore ranked as the top port in the nation out of 360 U.S. ports for handling farm and construction machinery, autos, trucks, imported forest products, imported sugar and imported gypsum. Baltimore ranked second in the U.S. for exported coal, imported salt, imported aluminum, and imported iron ore.

Business at the Port of Baltimore generates about 14,630 direct jobs, while about 108,000 jobs in Maryland are linked to port activities. The Port is responsible for $3 billion in personal wages and salary and more than $300 million in state and local taxes.