Baltimore port's private and public terminals handled 847,158 autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any U.S. port.
The port also handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal, according to a Maryland government website.
“While Baltimore is not one of the largest U.S. East Coast ports, it still imports and exports more than one million containers each year, so there is the potential for this to cause significant disruption to supply chains," said Emily Stausbøll, market analyst at Xeneta, an ocean freight shipping rate benchmarking and intelligence platform.
"Far East to U.S. East Coast ocean freight services have already been impacted by drought in the Panama Canal and recent conflict in the Red Sea, which saw rates increase by 150%, so this latest incident will add to those concerns."
It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert Lars Jensen.
The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2 million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.
More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port, including small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic shows.
At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was Baltimore, the data showed.
The Port of Baltimore — the biggest handler of US imports and exports of cars and light trucks — looks to be out of commission indefinitely. The resulting bottleneck could accelerate a shift of goods through West Coast ports. Another crucial question: Which other ports have spare capacity to handle the Ro-Ro vessels that carry automobiles if Baltimore is closed for an extended period.
With the Key Bridge in ruins ahead of the Easter weekend, trucks and passenger vehicles that would normally take Interstate 695 will face long detours and delays along the busy highway corridor that links Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
I-695 was an alternate route for hazardous materials and oversized vehicles that are prohibited from going through the more direct drive through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.
An economic disruption along the US East Coast is unfolding with potentially tragic human consequences after a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, sending nearly the entire roadway structure crumbling into the water.
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