For New England’s importers and exporters, the Port of Boston is an integral part of their supply chain strategy.
On March 24th, 2025, the 16,196 TEU containership MSC Verona made its inaugural visit on a typically cold and drizzling day nestling into the berth at the Port of Boston’s Conley Terminal, operated by Massport.
This wasn’t an ordinary call. The ship call represented a seminal moment for the Port. It was as Massport’s Port Director Lauren Gleason recounts, “A testament to the federal, state and local elected delegation who advocated for the support. It’s a testament to the leadership that came before me. It’s a testament to the industry, the shippers, and all of the port partners and stakeholders that advocated, for decades, to modernize and revitalize Conley Container Terminal.”
“Big Ship Ready” Levels the Playing Field
And the transformation of Conley into a “Big Ship Ready” terminal was necessary in enabling the Port to level the playing field amid the regional competition.
In terms of regional markets, the Port of Boston’s boxed in by larger container ports. For example: the Canadian Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia lies 440 miles by sea to the northeast and handles around 500,000 TEUs annually; while the Canadian Port of Montreal, Quebec is 308 miles to the northwest of Boston and had a throughput of nearly 1.5 million TEUs. But it is the Big Apple, the Port of New York/New Jersey that takes the biggest bite out of the Port of Boston’s market area. The Port of New York/New Jersey is located around 220 miles southwest of Boston and is the biggest Port on the East Coast with a throughput of 8.7 million TEUs — and the third largest in the US behind the Californian ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Even beyond the traditional Northeast market area Boston is competing for ship calls. From Halifax down to Baltimore, Boston is in competition for ship calls — the port needs to be in play for that additional call beyond the near-mandatory stop in the New York/New Jersey mega-port. And with only three ocean carrier alliances [GEMINI, Ocean Alliance and Premier Alliance] along with the independent services of MSC and Zim [which collaborate on some services] the port competition for ship calls can be intense.
Efficiency is one of the keys to keeping the ships calling a niche port like Boston. If ships can efficiently call, discharge and load boxes and exit a port, it helps keep with vessel rotation integrity.
And Massport’s Conley terminal is very efficient with truck turn times of under 30-minutes and an average of 28-cranes moves per hour, 19-start times per day, 7-days a week and virtually no congestion. With new gate facilities on tap along with 15-acres of new container storage, the terminal stands to become even more efficient. Add to this the fact the main shipping channel has been deepened to 47-feet and the berths to 50-feet and the turning basin expanded to 1,725-feet and all the elements are in place to handle the line haul 16,000 TEU vessels.
Regional Geography: Expanding Reach
In comparison to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic competitors, the Port of Boston, which handles over 250,000 TEUs annually has a relatively small throughput — a far cry from the 8.7 million TEU throughput at the Port of NY/NJ.
But the numbers are somewhat misleading as Boston is by far the largest container port in the New England region and has an outsized impact on the local shipping community — especially in the greater Boston area. The Port is as Gleason points out, “an economic engine” with $8.2 billion in economic impact and “66,000 jobs” for the region.
And there is a good reason for containerships to keep calling at the port. One of the great attractions to the ocean carriers is the proximity of Boston itself — the greater Boston region has a GDP of over $615 billion which translates into an enormous consumer-ready market area for the high value goods the container ship calls deliver.
And the impact of these ship calls resonates throughout the economy. As Gleason noted, “One of our wine importers always says, “Every time you consume a bottle of wine that comes through the port of Boston, you support 13 pay checks in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
While it isn’t New York, nonetheless the Port of Boston is New England’s hub port — and the reach is expanding. Gleason says, “We really saw our radius expand. I think, pre-pandemic, I would’ve told you the general definition of New England, but now we’ve seen that expand truly to all six New England states. So, I’m including Connecticut in that. I’m including all the way up to Northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and we’ve seen that expand to New York State. We have customers as far as west as Buffalo, New York now, with 100% trucking market. So, I think that’s been really important to see that Boston is another alternative to servicing the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic United States,” Gleason said of the port’s expanding reach.
Sourcing Diversification and Carrier Shifts
As with the port’s reach, the cargo and the port’s service have increased. Some of this is due to the diversification of cargo sourcing whether that be a “China plus one or China plus two” as Gleason notes.
And the diversification strategy has accelerated, and trading patterns have shifted and are continuing to shift. As Gleason explains, “When I started here in 2017, China accounted for over 50% of Conley Terminal’s business. But due to the diversification and sourcing and manufacturing that took place in 2019, we have seen truly the testament of diversification and shippers looking to alternative sourcing origins, including Vietnam, which has become quite large for us… Malaysia, Thailand, and India. Today, that figure is 34% of our businesses is related to China.”
With the shifts in trade there has also been changes in liner scheduling. “I think it’s important for everyone to remember, pre-pandemic, we only called seven ports on a weekly basis, in China and Europe. And because of our expansion, because of our diversification in global connectivity, with multiple ocean carriers, we can now connect to 40-ports on ... weekly basis, throughout North Europe, Mediterranean, Turkey, Latin America, China, Southeast Asia. Our coverage has been able to expand greatly, and that’s for the direct benefit of the importers and exporters who utilized Conley Terminal as part of their supply chain strategy.”
