The Port of Greater Baton Rouge moved more than 13,600 containers last year. That’s up 66% from 2017’s some 8,200 containers.
Jay Hardman, executive director of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, attributed the growth to increasing interest in the port by area shippers, such as Houma-based SEACOR Marine, which began using the port’s Inland Rivers Marine Terminal in July 2017.
To accommodate the increased activity, the port has ordered two pieces of equipment—a barge loader and a reach stacker—that should be operational by the end of the year. The combined nearly $2 million bill is being split with the U.S. Maritime Administration.
“The real help is that it affords local and regional shippers to get on the water economically with their products,” Hardman says, adding he expects container movement at the port to continue to increase.
The Port of New Orleans set a container traffic record last year, thanks in part to the Panama Canal expansion and growth in resin exports.
The port moved more containers in 2018 than at any time in its history, totaling 591,253 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs)—up 12.3% from one year ago.
