Florida Atlantic Coast ports gear up to handle increasing cargo volumes

With infrastructure investments totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, seaports along Florida’s Atlantic Coast continue to gear up to handle growing volumes of global commerce.

Meanwhile, cruise activity provides stabilizing diversification as it contributes significantly to success of several Florida ports, including PortMiami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, Jacksonville Port Authority and the Port of Palm Beach on the East Coast, as well as Port Tampa Bay on the Gulf side.

And Florida port officials, especially those on the Atlantic side, are enthused about the recent designation by President Trump of Broward County native Laura DiBella as chair of the Federal Maritime Commission. DiBella launched her maritime career in 2017 as port director of Northeast Florida’s Port of Fernandina.

Here’s the latest on the cargo front at Florida East Coast ports, beginning in South Florida and progressing northward along the Interstate 95 corridor:

PortMiami

Living up to its trademarked status as the Cargo Gateway of the Americas, Miami-Dade County’s PortMiami is Florida’s top international containerport and is ranked No. 11 among all U.S. seaports in global box commerce. The fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025, saw PortMiami handle more than 1 million 20-foot-equivalent container units, or TEUs, for an 11th consecutive year.

Fruits and vegetables represent PortMiami’s No. 1 commodity, with perishables from Latin America and the Caribbean reaching 70 percent of the U.S. population in one to four days. The port enjoys trade with more than 140 nations, 46 percent of which are in the Latin American-Caribbean region, 33 percent in Asia and 20 percent in Europe and the Mediterranean, with growing activity with emerging markets of Africa.

Recent service additions include the weekly CMA CGM California Bridge Service, entering its second year of providing market-leading transit times from North Europe to Miami.

Port Everglades

With the nearly $500 million expansion of its Southport turning notch area now completed, Port Everglades has added three more super-post-Panamax gantries, bringing its contingent of the extra-big ship-to-shore cranes to six, helping the Broward County port move a record 1,167,552 TEUs of containerized cargo in the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2025. Last year, the port inked new and renewed terminal agreements, respectively, with Mediterranean Shipping Co. subsidiary Everglades Company Terminal Inc. and King Ocean Services Ltd.

Consistently garnering high marks in containerport performance from the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, Port Everglades is a leading hub for trade with the Caribbean and Latin America. Major commodities include apparel, motor vehicles and parts, furniture, machinery and perishables.

Port Everglades also remains Florida’s top petroleum port, moving 131,855,261 barrels of such liquid bulk products in fiscal 2025 while supplying fuel throughout a 12-county area, including five international airports.

Port of Palm Beach

Having completed its $30 million infrastructure enhancement endeavors in November 2025 – six months ahead of schedule – the Port of Palm Beach has significantly increased its cargo-handling capabilities.

The undertaking, buoyed by a U.S. Department of Transportation grant, has delivered a modernized intermodal container transfer facility that more than doubles the port’s rail cargo capacity, paving the way for taking an estimated 35,000 truck trips a year off local roadways and Interstate 95. Also, a rebuilt main gate, featuring automated documentation, has further streamlined operations, thereby reducing truck wait times, accelerating cargo movement and lowering emissions.

Historically export-driven, with longtime leading tenant Tropical Shipping serving the Bahamas and Caribbean, the Port of Palm Beach is seeing a rise in imports, including granite aggregate from Canada, yachts from Italy and cement from Mexico, Turkey, Spain and Thailand. Officials anticipate that, by 2031, imports will make up 40 percent of the port’s activity.

Port Canaveral

Boasting unique quadrimodal capabilities, Port Canaveral links sea, land, air and space with a diversified portfolio, encompassing dry bulk, liquid bulk, breakbulk, heavy-lift and project cargos, including high-value components for aerospace and military operations, in addition to having become the world’s busiest cruise port.

With a third Liebherr mobile harbor crane entering service in August 2025, the Central Florida port has nearly tripled its cargo-handling capacity, while soon-to-be-completed renovations at North Cargo Berth 4, along with clearing of adjacent upland parcels, augur to unlock further cargo development opportunities. All told, Port Canaveral has more than $900 million in projects in its five-year capital improvement plan, with much of these related to cruise and recreational activities.

Port Canaveral already is a preferred port of entry for supplying Central Florida with building and construction materials, roadway-building aggregates and transportation fuels. Officials tout Port Canaveral as the largest fuel terminal operator in Florida.

JAXPORT

Northeast Florida’s Jacksonville Port Authority is furthering its position as the Sunshine State’s busiest containerport with infrastructure enhancements and numerous global service additions.

In summer 2025, SSA Marine completed $72 million modernization of JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal, reconstructing and paving 97 acres to accommodate taller container stacks and installing an upgraded truck gate system. An underway project aims to raise overhead power lines, to increase the terminal’s air draft by yearend to 205 feet from 175 feet. Also, JAXPORT has added two 50-gauge container cranes at Blount Island, bringing that terminal’s ship-to-shore crane contingent to 11 units, plus installed a new container crane at Talleyrand Marine Terminal.

JAXPORT continues to augment auto berth facilities at Blount Island, where Southeast Toyota Distributors has opened a 380,000-square-foot vehicle-processing facility. And Enstructure is expanding to the Talleyrand footprint vacated by Southeast Toyota, growing its breakbulk business while adding vehicle processing and logistics.

Port of Fernandina

On Amelia Island, in the Sunshine State’s far northeast corner, near the Florida-Georgia line, the Port of Fernandina handles a wide range of forest products, including wood pulp, lumber, medium-density fiberboard, plywood and kraft linerboard, as well as containerized goods, while officials promote capacity and expertise to manage any breakbulk or project cargo with a dedicated nonunion workforce.

The Fernandina Beach installation, known as Nassau Marine Terminal, is operated by Relay Terminals, which also operates Carolina Marine Terminal in Wilmington, North Carolina. Relay Terminals was created in April 2025 as a rebranded entity by its joint venture partners – infrastructure investment firm Ridgewood Infrastructure LLC and global supply chain leader Savage Companies – succeeding Transportation Infrastructure Partners LLC.

Relay Terminals touts a rail-served facility with congestion-free truck access, providing seamless connections across the Florida Panhandle and throughout the U.S. East Coast, with comprehensive warehousing, flexible storage options and space for future growth.