Twenty years after Katrina the Port of New Orleans through resilience and diversity is thriving and even with today’s challenges is looking to new markets for future growth.
New Orleans, built on a bend in the Mississippi River in 1718 to protect it from hurricanes, then lost half its population overnight 20 years ago last month when Katrina tore through the city, passionately celebrates its diverse residents, visitors, music, food, drink and heritage here all day and night.
But over at the Port of New Orleans, founded that same year by the same French-Canadian explorer –Jean Baptiste Le Moyre de Bienville – staff officials are cheering a 2025 first half in cargo growth and trade activity.
Resilience and Diversity
“I think the biggest thing that makes us stand out is our diverse trade lanes and optionality of transport modes,” Amanda Coates, vice president of cargo development for the Port of New Orleans, (Port NOLA), told the American Journal of Transportation in an exclusive interview. “We are evenly split globally between Latin America, Europe and Asia. Whereas some of the other ports are very dependent on the Asia trade such as Asia inbound cargo, for example. We’re not. We are agile and more diverse. We can pivot when markets are shifting, say from peak season to non-peak season.”
Indeed, the city that was 80% underwater in 2005, boasts a port today that has connected Louisiana producers with fast growing international markets and expedites global imports throughout the US, not just the Gulf Coast.
At a time of worldwide uncertainty, Port NOLA’s growth is steady. In the first six months of this year, total container volume was 263,961 TEUs, up 2 percent over last year’s first half and a 9 percent gain over the last six months of 2024.
Trade trends are more dramatic, notes Coates. Organic chemical imports through the port have jumped 70% led by Mexico. Asian copper imports have grown fivefold. Singapore’s import growth through Port NOLA is up 400%, followed by Malaysia at 112%, Chile up 66% and Mexico increasing by 24%.
The port’s leading export destinations, measured by TEUs, she continues, are Vietnam at 155%, Turkey at 40% and Brazil at 35%. Overall, the port has a 70/30 export-import trade balance split and is aiming for 50/50.
Growth Strategy
Coates contends that Port NOLA’s growth strategy is powered by an emphasis on delivering a reliable and efficient gateway in terms of vessel schedules and inland connectivity with multimodal options. scheduling which has strengthened its relationship with customers “plus our multimodal options. We are the strongest intermodal port on the Gulf Coast; we were the seventh largest in the US in 2023—and we are working to grow both. Right now, 8 percent of our overall TEU volume is intermodal and our goal is 16 to 20 %. This gives shippers the optionality—container to railcar, for example, or container to barge—they may not have from other ports.”
Remember, she continues, “our industry has been faced with ‘constant uncertainty’ in the last five years. We offer adaptability for containerized cargo that may not be economical to move in containers, so we can ship it breakbulk when market demands shift.”
Branch Takes the Helm
Port NOLA seems to have an edgy personality that mirrors its city. In the heavily male dominated, tradition-bound maritime business, it has many industry-seasoned women in leadership positions. Coates, who has been on board for seven years heading cargo development and who previously spent 15 years here in senior operational posts with Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world’s largest ocean carrier by capacity, reports to Beth Ann Branch, Port NOLA’s president and chief executive officer and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB).
After a nationwide search, Branch was recruited last year from the Alabama Port Authority in Mobile where she was chief commercial officer. Earlier, she led business development and international marketing for the Port of Oakland and held top posts at Maersk for 18 years in New York and at its Copenhagen headquarters. Janine Mansour, director of trade development, also widely regarded as the face of Port NOLA, brings considerable expertise and a 15-year tenure at the port. Plus, Port NOLA has women in senior positions as general manager of the NOPB short line railroad and chief strategy officer, chief of staff and external affairs, vice president of people and chief of public safety and emergency management officer.
New Trade: Latin America and Mexico
Coates, who sounds more like a head coach than a cargo promotional strategist, claims “our team is driven by passion and strengthened by exceptional talent, creating a dynamic foundation for meaningful results and long-term industry partnerships. Our job is to engage with the port’s various stakeholders, create synergies where they don’t naturally happen, foster those relationships and make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction. A mantra that I often reflect on is ‘find a way or make one.’”
Specifically, Port NOLA is selling its geographic proximity and multimodal options to importers and is currently zeroing in on Mexico and Latin America. Coates says shippers south of the border have a 48-hour transit time from Mexico to Chicago — two days on the water and two days inland with a “very short” dwell on the docks.
Port NOLA boasts five Latin American weekly direct container services which, she says, sets it apart from ports to the East of them in the Gulf. The five services include two East Coast South America, two Central America and one feeder offering global connectivity via Cartagena. Insists Coates: “It has a very high performance in terms of reliability.”
Infrastructure Improvements
At a time when many municipalities and institutions are delaying or cutting capital expenditures or facing the uncertainties of federal funding or losing it entirely, Port NOLA is pushing ahead to further boost cargo volumes and stimulate trade. Coates says four new gantry cranes have been installed at the Container Terminal and are operational. A $27 million concrete paving project has been completed at Nashville Avenue’s yard which “significantly increased capacity and efficiency,” she says.
“We’re planning a new greenfield container terminal, called the Louisiana International Terminal, downriver, below a Mississippi River bridge that is presently restricting us to receiving 10,000 TEU vessels,” she explains. A three-year US Army Corps of Engineers permitting process is wrapping up soon. The Corps completed a dredging project to 50-feet from the mouth of the river to Port NOLA in November 2024.
Distribution Centers
Aside from physical improvements, port leadership is seeking to build new or stronger connections globally for its customers. “Our number one focus is growing distribution centers for the region and Asian imports because that is where we see the critical mass,” says Coates. “India is a market that our exporters have expressed interest in connecting with by direct service and we have been seeking one to handle both exports to India and the retail finished goods coming out of that region.”
High on the port’s agenda for its customers is beefing up trade and direct connections with the west coast of South America, particularly Colombia, Chile and Peru, according to Coates. As she puts it, countries and cultures are comfortable with the existing logistical plans they’ve been working with for years. “The opportunity for us is to open their eyes to the benefits of moving cargo through New Orleans and diversifying their current supply chain.”
Traditionally, job one at any marine port is to keep cargo growing and moving but Branch, Coates, Mansour and their colleagues are constantly selling Port NOLA’s capabilities and advantages. For example, Coates says it is the only port with a short-line railroad, the New Orleans Public Belt, that connects with all six class one railroads that converge on its 2500 plus acres of port-owned property.
And just as the city of New Orleans has 263 hotels including a number of luxury properties aimed at pampering guests, Port NOLA sees itself as able to provide more “boutique like” service with direct customer engagement, business to business “matchmaking” and “quick issue resolution” services, maintains its vice president of cargo development.
But Coates concedes the port has a need to grow volume which she is convinced the new Louisiana International Terminal “will help us do that. Our largest single volume importer is the J.M. Smucker Co’s Folgers Coffee brand. We have the largest silo facility in North America on dock behind our existing container terminal that processes green coffee beans.
Right now, the leadership is on the hunt for a “small and growing importer, or a high-volume retailer that directly imports goods to the port and is working with the Louisiana officials to target distribution centers to drive that volume,” contends Coates.
What about Amazon?
“Funny you mention that” she muses, “Amazon has three and a half million square feet in Louisiana, mainly sortation and fulfillment We are hopeful to see an import cross-docking facility in our port region soon.”
