The Port of Wilmington has seen some cargo arrive since the span of the Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed, but Delaware may see more transportation of goods on the highways. | PHOTO COURTESY OF GULFTAINER
WILMINGTON — While cranes were lifting a 200-ton section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of the Patapsco River in Maryland on Sunday, Trinity Logistics down in southern Delaware was still fielding a slow trickle of calls from prospective customers.
“Around mid-day, we were hearing from shippers and receivers that typically would use the Port of Baltimore. Our largest food shipper had about 27 containers at the Port of New York and New Jersey, and that couldn’t wait,” Trinity Logistics Senior Vice President of Agent Development Greg Massey told the Delaware Business Times.
When a container ship lost power and struck a supporting pier, causing a major span of the Key Bridge to collapse, major shockwaves were sent in the distribution network beyond Baltimore. While the Port of Baltimore remains blocked from the rest of the Chesapeake Bay, freight and export movements now have to find new paths of travel to their end destination.
Seaford-headquartered Trinity Logistics may be one of many freight and intermodal companies that could see more referrals as the supply chain is reset and other cargo vessels re-routed to New York, Norfolk and Philadelphia. Trinity has offices in seven other states, including Maryland. Massey said that most of the calls are from people with unfamiliar networks.
But while that’s good for building connections with new partners, it ultimately could drive costs up.
“About 75% of the freight received through the Baltimore port stays in the mid-Atlantic region. Now that it’s being re-routed to other ports, it will cause delays to getting to its final destination and raising freight rates,” Massey said. “Moving freight 15 miles compared to 150 miles will impact costs to shippers and receivers… and when you could have done 15-minute trips 10 times in a day for a client, you could only do three trips that are a half-hour.”
The Port Network
The Port of Baltimore is one of the 10 largest ports in the United States, with anywhere between 30 to 40 container vessels calling it every week, according to logistics analytics firm Everstream. Roughly, there are 21,000 containers that had to be re-routed once the bridge collapsed and blocked passage in and out of the port.
That port is also a critical hub for steel, aluminum, sugar, agriculture equipment and cars from General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and Honda. It handled about 847,000 cars and light trucks last year, according to the Maryland Port Administration.
Early analytics from Evestream estimated at least four container vessels were scheduled to arrive at the New York port within the first five days of the bridge collapse; Norfolk was to expect three while Philadelphia was predicted to receive one vessel.
In comparison, the Port of Wilmington, operated by Enstructure, is smaller and handles an estimated 215,00 20-foot container vessels per year, according to Everstream Analytics. It also has the largest cold storage complex on site, working with companies like Dole Fresh Fruit Company and Chiquita Fresh North America weekly.
Others include “roll on, roll off” cargo ships on a regular basis, serving as a prime outbound port for finished cars to the Middle east and the Mediterranean, Everstream Analytics Senior Manager of Intelligence Solutions Jena Santoro said.
“Most finished vehicle exports are bound for the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia,” Santoro told DBT. “However, most container shipments are likely to divert south to Norfolk and most automotive shipments are likely to divert north to Philadelphia, just due to both ports having larger operations with more capacity than Wilmington. As no one port on the east coast can absorb all of Baltimore’s diverted cargo, shipments will have to be dispersed among all nearby ports.”
Enstructure President Bayard Hogans told DBT that the Port of Wilmington has handled around eight vessels, with a couple with automotive cars and the other major goods that comes through the Delaware gateway: forest products like pulp and paper Since those were existing customers, they were the first to call, Hogans said.
“There’s been some diversions of bulk commodities like steel,” Hogans said. “We just want to accommodate anyone we can, knowing that we’re the closest gateway to Baltimore knowing that cargo can come here and still service the market from a geographic perspective.”
The future of Delaware’s Gateway
The major supply chain rupture comes at a time when Port of Wilmington leadership is just getting its sea leds. Delaware officials terminated a longstanding contract with Gulftainer after facing financial struggles. Estructure signed a 55-year deal for an annual fee of $1 million to operate the port, and in exchange, the Massachusetts-based shipping company would invest $200 million in improvements.
As it stands, the Port of Wilmington is shallower than other surrounding ports, with the Christiana River at a maximum draft of 38 feet. Most large container ships need at least 40 feet up to 50 feet. But Delaware’s port also has access to rail through Norfolk Southern, and Hogan said he expects to add more rail cars in the coming weeks.
Among the millions in planned improvements include upgrades and a future-build out of the Edgemoor container port. Enstructure has already agreed to invest $21.5 million to move the 100-acre Edgemoor project ahead and include its adjacent 25-acre, waterfront parcel to the project. But for now, the unimproved land could be an immediate asset while cargo looks to be rerouted.
“Right now we have the additional land next to the port to utilize as a buffer,” Hogans said.
“So if we continue to handle vessel cargo, we have a place to load it. If you think of other ports, many are built against cities and don’t have anywhere to go,” Hogans continued. “Since Estructure has taken over, we have doubled the footprint. It’s a great opportunity to grow in the long run.”
Freight ways
Meanwhile, Delaware freight companies will see an impact from the fall out of the bridge collapse, but what it will look like remains to be seen.
With the loss of I-695 that went over the Key Bridge, so vanished an easy route to Washington D.C. Truck companies will have to use I-95 or other highways and some like Trinity Logistics will have to handle almost double the cargo needed to get back on track.
Trinity Logistics handles 560,000 shipments per year, with 400 people out of its seven offices – with half of them employed in Seaford. After the first few days, the company worked to get truck containers out of the Baltimore terminal, particularly with its largest food client that is minutes outside the city. That has led to some more outreach from companies who may not be used to the roadways near the ports they may be now shipped to.
Massey said he saw some trickle down effect possible for Delaware, but not at the port – and maybe a slight increase along I-95.
“You could potentially see an increase in freight moving along the 95 corridor that would originally come directly into Baltimore but now is in-gating to New York. I don’t foresee that volume taking a direct route up or down the U.S. Route 113 or Delaware Route 1,” he said.
