Port of Baltimore looks to benefit from expansion of Panama Canal

With its 50-foot-deep container ship berth and addition of four super-post-Panamax cranes at its 284-acre Seagirt Marine Terminal, the Maryland Port Administration’s Port of Baltimore is well-positioned to take full advantage of its inland location when the expanded Panama Canal opens for business.

The deep Berth 4 and the bigger cranes, when they went operational last year, made Baltimore one of only two U.S. East Coast ports able to accommodate some of the largest container vessels in the world. The super-post-Panamax cranes, which joined seven post-Panamax gantries, are the most visible cornerstones of the Seagirt facility, which is operated under a landmark 50-year public-private partnership agreement with Ports America Chesapeake. Even before completion of the Panama Canal project, which now is targeted for late 2015, the Port of Baltimore has been enjoying record levels of activity. In 2013, the Port of Baltimore set records in handling of key target commodity categories such as automobiles (see sidebar on page 14), containerized goods (6.4 million tons, up 1 percent from 2012) and wood pulp, used in making napkins, tissues and paper towels (591,570 tons, up 23 percent from the prior year). Coal remains by far the port’s leading export commodity by weight, with more than 15 million tons shipped out in 2013, the second-highest such volume among U.S. ports. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley commented, “The Port of Baltimore continues to prove that it is one of the most productive seaports in the U.S. “The port has successfully withstood a challenging economy and has outperformed many other major U.S. ports thanks to shrewd infrastructure investments, unique job-creating public-private partnerships, and long-term contracts with major international shipping companies,” O’Malley continued. James J. White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, which is an agency of the Maryland Department of Transportation, pointed to the public-private partnership at Seagirt as a critical element in the Port of Baltimore’s present and projected future successes. The 50-year lease and concession agreement inked in 2009 with Highstar Capital’s Ports America Chesapeake retains state ownership of the container terminal while putting its operation under the aegis of the largest U.S. terminal operator – a trusted firm that, through predecessor entities, has had a Baltimore presence for nearly a century. “We wanted to be ready for the bigger ships that are being built today and the water depth of the Suez Canal and, soon, the Panama Canal, but we didn’t have the money to move forward ourselves to do it,” White said.

Billed as the closest East Coast port to the U.S. Midwest, thanks to its position near the top of Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore offers timely, cost-effective service to inland markets, including via CSX Corp.’s National Gateway double-stack rail corridor, as well as Norfolk Southern Corp. trains and Interstate highways. Plus Baltimore is located in the heart of the third-largest U.S. consumer market. This positioning would seem to make Baltimore an ideal port of entry for an increasing volume of goods from China and other Asian markets, particularly when the Panama Canal project is done. In 2013, Baltimore’s export volume, at nearly 19.4 million short tons, was close to double its import tonnage of almost 10.9 million, while total value of exports of nearly $20.9 million was far less than the more than $31.7 million in import value. In tonnage terms, China continues to be the Port of Baltimore’s top export partner, with 6,535,168 tons of cargo moving to the world’s most populous country last year, while the Netherlands (3,224,703 tons), Japan (2,292,007 tons), South Korea (2,173,656 tons), India (1,477,825 tons) and Brazil (1,369,553 tons) all exceeded 1 million export tons in 2013. Brazil, at 1,090,892 tons, was the only country to eclipse the 1 million ton mark in imports into the Port of Baltimore. According to officials, the Port of Baltimore generates about 14,630 direct jobs, while some 108,000 Maryland jobs are linked to port activities. The port is responsible for a total of about $3 billion in personal pay and more than $300 million in state and local taxes. The port’s commitment to superior customer service was recently underscored by the signing by numerous entities of a portwide pledge at a Baltimore Port Alliance meeting. Signatories included representatives of the Maryland Port Administration and other state and federal government agencies, as well as the Association of Maryland Pilots, Baltimore Custom Brokers & Forwarders Association, Maryland Motor Truck Association’s Intermodal Council, Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore and Maryland Maritime Association. Upon the signing, Mary Jane Norris, the MPA’s manager of port operations services, said, “We, as a port, are very proud of this document, as it is a testament of the cooperation we have in our port working with all entities to get problems solved and, even more importantly, to continue to make progress.” One key to more business is the proliferation of distribution centers in the vicinity of the Port of Baltimore. By yearend, Amazon.com is to join such major companies as Costco Wholesale Corp., IKEA, Toys “R” Us Inc., Pier 1 Imports Inc. and Starbucks Corp. in this regard. In addition, the MPA has created a new marketing division focused on intermodal trade development, has advanced an initiative to woo beneficial cargo owners currently shipping via West Coast ports, maintains an international trade representative based in Taiwan and, on at least an annual basis, sends top port officials to Asia to meet with current and prospective customers. Also, the MPA has had a memorandum of understanding for increase commercial activity in place with the Panama Canal Authority since 2009. At the same time, under its Environmental Management System, the MPA has maintained staunch dedication to sustainability, earning multiple awards for its dredged material placement activities and having been recertified as meeting the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14001 standards. A $750,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping further advance the port’s program to replace pre-1997 drayage trucks with modern, cleaner-burning vehicles. The port was formally named the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore in 2006, honoring the longtime port advocate who from 1985 to 1995 served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland.