AUGUST 2026 American Journal of Transportation American Journal of Transportation 31 (L to R) Mark Deptula – Moran Tug, Jennifer Clark – Moran Tug, Nathan Hauser – Moran Tug, Jonathan Steinberg – Moran Tug, Laura Fogarty – MSC, Liam Flynn – Moran Tug Michael Rankin – Lightning Transportation Jody Loukakis – Emanuel Tire (L to R) Mitch Nemmers, Gregory Weber, Juan Lopez (all from Magaya) (L to R) Steve Subrani, Jason Dye, Karl Laufer, Jan Ruby (all from Vanguard Logistics) (L to R) Michelle McGowan, Veronica Noria (both from CMA CGM) (L to R) Donna Davison, Kevin Daly (both from CCM) (L to R) Patrick Daly, Steve Banasiak, Joe Halter, Jasmine David, Fabiana Carvalho, Byron Menendez, Jeffrey Soos (all from East Coast Warehouse) Baltimore Propellor Club Crab Feast goes off without a hitch By E.C. Lauriat, AJOT Thursday, August 13 was the date of 2026’s Crab Feast, hosted by the Pro- peller Club of Baltimore. Held at the beautiful Conrad’s Ruth Villa in Baltimore County, Maryland, the event was packed as ever — a full house of the Port of Baltimore’s who’s-who taking advantage of the near-perfect weather to enjoy both delicious crab and a wonderful networking opportunity. Among the talking points of the picnic table crowd was while last year was an amazing time, the torrential downpour at the end sent everyone dashing for cover. This year, the sky remained crystal clear the whole time, making it a whole lot easier on every- one’s tents. And what a load of picnic tables there were! From logistics com- panies like Ancora Warehousing, to container shipping companies like ONE, Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, CMA CGM and APL to even the Port of Philadelphia, there were representatives from all sections of our industry. As always, attend- ees received complimentary crab, and there were plenty of drinks to go around, keeping everyone hydrated for their important conversations. While the grounds were packed, there was no trouble navigating, thanks to the Port of Baltimore’s Propeller Club’s booth having a handy map, pointing out exactly where each company was. It was a wonderful event, and everyone will surely be excited to return for next year’s Crab Feast! port facility to serve the transportation of bulk commodities and containers via barge, rail, and truck. JCPA said the new port could serve as a link in the new north-south waterway trade lane connecting the Midwest to the lower Mississippi River. Ports in southern Louisiana may need feeder services throughout the bistate region and other upstream inland port facilities. Total project costs are still being determined. In 2022, the Jefferson County Port Authority received $25 million from the State of Missouri to support devel- opment of the Container-On-Vessel port. In late summer 2024, the Jef- ferson County Port Authority (JCPA) purchased 18 acres along the Missis- sippi River for $18 million. A new port entrance road is under construction and is expected to be completed in summer 2026. The planned Broadway Extension Road will provide additional access within the proposed development. Many think the site is ideal to serve advanced battery manufacturing due to the critical minerals that can be produced in Missouri necessary for batteries – such as cobalt, nickel, copper, lead, and zinc. Doe Run Lead Co. and U.S. Strategic Minerals can produce these metals and minerals from resources in the region. (DRIVE – continued from page 24) demand out of Taiwan just keeps climbing, while the e-commerce base that carried Europe is gone with the de minimis change.” Kathy Liu, VP, Global Sales and Marketing, Dimerco Express Group. At a webinar back in April this year, Henk Venema, DHL Global Forwarding’s (DGF) EVP, Global Airfreight, noted that in the event of a significant decline in the e-com- merce air cargo trade between China and Europe, a good deal of freighter capacity would be freed up. Huge Demand for Hyperscale AI Cargo He went to speculate that these freighters could end up having a role to play in serving “probably the big- gest growth engine of air freight over- all in 2026 and beyond – the shipment of hyperscale AI.” This includes highly-scalable comput- ing infrastructure, including large-scale data centers, powerful processors, and vast networks to build, train, and run complex AI models. Venema highlighted the huge volume of demand for freighter capacity coming out of what he called the VTT coun- tries – Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan, mainly going into the Midwest and Central US for the build-up of data centers and data parks, but which is also destined for other markets. (RULES – continued from page 22)
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