Port Manatee positioned to boost shipping traffic from Panama Canal
Tampa Bay Business Journal - Port Manatee is pegging its hopes for more shipping traffic on a soon to be complete Panama Canal expansion, combined with the port’s own improvements and strategic location. Port Manatee boasts the best shipping-lane access to the Panama Canal of any U.S. deepwater port, the Bradenton Herald said. Over the past 15 years, it has invested $247 million in improvements including, most recently, a new container berth, the start of construction on a yard to store cargo containers and a plan to improve rail service.
Port officials believe they have many advantages in the competition for shipping traffic. This includes 20 million square feet of warehouse and office space within 7 miles, convenient access to interstate highways and millions of dollars of improvements to the intersection in front of Port Manatee in order to support larger trucks, the Herald said. Still, other ports including Norfolk, Va. and Savannah, Ga. are actively competing for the work.
Editor's Comment: The expansion of the Panama Canal is prompting ports all up and down the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico to spend billions on expansion projects, upgrades, and the dredging of ship channels, in preparation for the larger ships that are coming their way. The cheapest way to move cargo is still by floating it on the water. The West coast ports, rail lines, and trucking will all see drops in the amount of cargo they handle every year.
