New England’s ports have encountered head winds from tariffs and regulatory issues but are making solid headway in 2026
Maine Ports — Projects Underway
Chelsea Pettengill, Executive Director of the Maine Port Authority (MPA), notes there is a lot of work going on at the Pine Tree State’s ports — especially the Port of Portland, Maine — Maine’s only container terminal with a strong reefer business, provided by Eimskip’s weekly ship call.
The Port of Portland’s International Marine Terminal (IMT), as Pettengill explains, the original project plan was to add reefer racks that would bring the total up to store around 420 reefers. But the project was “significantly over budget” as material costs have risen. The project’s initial price tag was $17.8 million with the Federal government picking up around $14.3 million. To get the project back within budget, the MPA went to MARAD to “de-scope” the amount of reefer plugs necessary. Recently MARAD gave a thumbs up to the revised reefer plug proposal. Under the new design, the plan is to add another 175 plugs to the current 150 plugs.”
Although Eimskip is the operator of Green Line and its three-ship weekly calls, Eimskip is also the terminal operator of IMT and Sigfússon is looking to bring in additional third-party calls. “We’ve been actively promoting the port and expanding the range of services we can offer. One area of focus this year has been attracting barge vessels, and we’ve made good progress on that front. If everything goes according to plan, we’re hopeful to see several of these vessels calling this year, which would be a strong step forward for us.” Sigfússon added that “At the same time, we continue to promote both the port and our cold storage capabilities, positioning them as an efficient option for handling a variety of commodities. Whether its imports being discharged or exports being loaded, we’re working to establish the port as a reliable and flexible hub for our customers.”
Pettengill says Maine’s ports have other projects in the works. For example, Pettengill said, “Maine DOT successfully received a planning grant under the Clean Ports Program. So, they received $1 million award to study electrification in Maine’s big three ports. So, Portland, Searsport, Eastport, and then they’re taking a look at one of the smaller cruise ports in Rockland. And what they’re doing in Portland, on the eastern waterfront, [is] they’re looking into shore power for cruise ships.”
Pettengill also noted that Searsport is exploring cargo and that “Eastport’s had a big uptick in cruise ships… like 300% plus growth for that for them.” Additionally, Rockland is looking to [adding] a smaller cruise line like ACL (American Cruise Line).
Port of Boston: Efficiency the Key
The Port of Boston’s Conley Terminal, operated by Massport, is New England’s largest container terminal. And efficiency and a lack of congestion coupled with a well-heeled consumer-base keeps ships calling.
The Port of Boston is a niche container port with a market area largely in eastern New England and unsurprisingly concentrated in the metropolitan Boston area — a city concentrated in a relatively small area of 3,486 sq/miles but with a population of over 5 million and an estimated GDP over $645 billion, putting it in the top metro regions in the US.
Nonetheless, the Port of Boston is in an unenviable competitive location with the Canadian ports of Halifax 440-miles to the northeast, Montreal 308-miles to the northwest and the mega-port of New York/New Jersey — the largest East Coast port and third largest port in North America — just 220 miles to the southwest.
Still the port has remained competitive, albeit considerably smaller than any of the three larger bracketing ports, by being efficient in truck turns and uncongested. But the problem facing the Port is remaining cost-effective while moving smaller volumes of boxes than larger ports — essentially reducing the cost per move.
In 2025 the Port of Boston handled 244,835 TEUs, slightly down on the 251,470 TEUs handled in 2024. Like other ports, enduring the tariff headwinds and coping with market shipping industry uncertainties dampened 2025. However, Asian trade was actually up a healthy 14% in 2025 over 2024, 168,781 TEUs to 147,499 TEUs. Part of the reason was import TEUs full were up 6% while export full TEUs were up 33%. However, on the North Europe trade lane full import TEUs were down 20% and full export TEUs off 37%. Overall, in 2025 import TEUs were off -4% at 123,237 TEUs while full export TEUs were flat, up 1% with 58,552 TEUs.
In terms of trading partners, Asian countries had the highest share with China at 19% and Vietnam at 11% leading the way. The largest two trade partners from Europe were Italy and Germany at 3% and 2%, respectively.
In the very early going of 2026, (January and February) the figures for the Port of Boston are up 44,514 TEUs compared to 38,315 TEUs, although this number is a little misleading as empty containers are up 85%: 15,816 TEUs to 8,528 TEUs. However, the combination of winter weather and Chinese New Year tends to dampen the early numbers in the first quarter.
In 2025 the adjusted gross productivity (containers lifted by a ship-to-shore gantry crane per hour) for a ship-to-shore gantry crane at Conley Terminal ranged from around 27 to just over 29 lifts per hour. Obviously, weather and the position of the containers within the vessel factors into the handling of containers. Nevertheless, 35-40 lifts per hour is considered to be top tier productivity on the East Coast. Another factor in port efficiency is truck turn times. The port’s turn times in 2025 run between 30 minutes to 37 minutes (during some unusual weather-related periods a little higher) which is fairly good for a terminal like Conley. And the lack of congestion — virtually no wait times — also improves the overall containership ship call to the port. And the port boasts 19-start times per day, 7-days a week.
Massport has put considerable time and money into restructuring Conley to make the terminal capable of handling the larger line haul container ships that are now regularly calling ports up and down the East Coast. Besides the work on the terminal itself, the main shipping channel has been deepened to 47-feet and the depth at the berths to 50-feet with the turning basin expanded to 1,725-feet. Last year on March 24th, 2025, the 16,196 TEU containership MSC Verona with its inaugural visit to Boston, which visibly demonstrated what Conley could handle.
Port of Davisville — Little Port, Big Numbers
The Port of Davisville, Rhode Island, located within the Quonset Business Park (QBP) run by the Quonset Development Corporation (QDC) (a quasi-state agency), is one of the country’s most unique port operations. The port is located near the mouth of Narragansett Bay, operates five terminals with 4,500 feet of berthing space and 235 acres of operating capacity. The port has no Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) and a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) located within QBP along with its own on-the-dock rail system.
Although the port is one of the nation’s less well-known ports, the Port of Davisville regularly is in the top ten in the nation for auto imports. Vehicle imports through the Port of Davisville have increased from approximately 90,000 in the mid-2000s to an average of 236,000 annually between 2020 and 2025.
The auto importer and processor, North Atlantic Distribution, Inc. better known as NORAD, whose appropriate tagline is “5 million cars and counting” which operates from the QBP, imported over 65 makes and models of vehicles and processed 238,146 finished automobiles in 2025. Overall, 212,045 vehicles arrived by ship while rail and trucks accounted for 26,201. While this was a good performance for NORAD and the Port of Davisville auto imports experienced a slowdown due to tariffs and the general uncertainty surrounding auto imports and RO/RO calls to the US.
In 2025, the Port of Davisville had 306 ship calls, of which 84 were offshore wind related vessels, and handled around 506,399 short tons of non-automobile cargo, representing a decrease from 2024, primarily due to the arrival of heavy steel piles needed to build QDC’s new Terminal 5 Pier in 2024.
The opening of Pier 5 and the Blue Economy Support Docks in September of 2025 represented a major project accomplishment for the port as it was the first new pier built at Quonset in almost 70 years. The Terminal 5 Pier offers specialized berthing spaces to accommodate a variety of vessels and cargoes. The Blue Economy Support Docks and Boat Ramp accommodate smaller boats and the short-term docking needs of small businesses, emerging companies and research and development organizations. The Terminal 5 project was funded through State Fiscal Recovery Funds allocated to Rhode Island as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
Another port project is the rehabilitation of Pier 1. The over eight-decade old pier is being repaired and rebuilt with funding assistance from three separate Federal Maritime Administration (MARAD) grants, Rhode Island State Fiscal Recovery Funds, and a Rhode Island General Obligation Bond. In 2025, reconstruction of the North-East Face was completed, and demolition and reconstruction of the North Face commenced. A new stern ramp is in final design, which will enable the Port to receive automobile imports from a greater variety of ship sizes and types.
While much has gone right for the QDC and Port of Davisville, the port’s future development hit a speed bump when the Trump Administration decided to halt offshore wind generation projects — including the nearly finished Revolution offshore wind farm for which the Port of Davisville was the principal staging area.
Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed at the ribbon cutting for Pier 5 addressed the funding cuts saying, “The Trump Administration’s needless halting of the Revolution Wind 704-megawatt project has cast a shadow of uncertainty on thousands of jobs and could raise energy prices. And the Administration’s recent termination of a separate $11.25 million federal grant [US Department of Transportation (USDOT) withdrew an $11.25 million grant that was awarded to QDC as part of a $679 million cut in federal funding nationwide] for additional upgrades at Quonset is a senseless attack on this economic center for our state.”
Despite the Trump Administration’s efforts to stop construction, first in August of 2025 and more recently in December of 2025 — on both occasions challenges to the Administration were successful and federal judges allowed construction to continue. On March 13th Revolution Wind began delivering power to the New England.
So, while there still remains a great degree of uncertainty, projects are still moving ahead for the Port of Davisville and the importance of the port to Rhode Island continues to grow.
Connecticut Ports: Offshore Wind the Key
The future success of the Port of New London is hinged to the success of the offshore wind projects it was rebuilt to handle. In 2025 The New London State Pier (NLSP) redevelopment was completed and deemed operational with its operator Gateway New London and Ørsted Wind Power North America, LLC leasing the facility from Connecticut Port Authority (CPA). The lease agreement with Ørsted is for ten years and runs through 2033.
Although the pier’s primary design is to handle offshore wind related components, the renovation enables the facility to handle many different types of cargo such as bulk and break-bulk operations as well as RO/RO. The pier also has a rail connection.
The offshore wind power projects the State Pier is expected to handle include:
- South Fork Wind: 12 Turbines (132–megawatts): New York
- Revolution Wind: 65 Turbines (704–megawatts; Connecticut (304–megawatts) and New York (400–megawatts)
- Sunrise Wind: 84 Turbines (880/924–megawatts): New York
As mentioned above, on August 22, 2025, The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), issued a stop-work order in December 2025, the Trump administration ordered construction on five major US offshore wind projects – Sunrise Wind, Vineyard Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, South Fork Wind, and Revolution Wind – citing national security concerns. All five projects received injunctions allowing work to continue. And Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he planned to appeal those rulings but allowed the deadline for the appeal to lapse as a bipartisan energy permitting reform bill would likely fall had the government opposed the projects. On February 2nd, 2026, Sunrise Wind was the last project to be restarted. While there are still many questions as to how the projects will progress, the restarting of the wind projects is a big boost for the CPA and the Port of New London.
