Focus on Manatee | Port Manatee meeting critical needs, helping region cope with COVID-19

Never has it been more important for Port Manatee to fulfill its mission of serving as a powerful catalyst of economic growth, and Manatee County’s seaport is responding by continuing to fulfill critical needs – from fuels to foodstuffs – while furthermore advancing employment opportunities.

At a challenging time when COVID-19 has led to many businesses slowing if not shuttering, leaving thousands out of work, Port Manatee is maintaining robust activity, with much of it supporting delivery of necessities to the people of Manatee County and beyond. In addition, a number of businesses at and around the port are actually looking to augment their workforces.

Indeed, the Bradenton Herald reported March 17 on one of the ways Port Manatee is helping, that being through the ongoing flow through the port of wood pulp to be made into such goods as much-coveted toilet paper.

Among the many other crucial demands being met by Port Manatee is the sustained movement of fuels used not only by private vehicles but also by trucks that bring essential goods to consumers.

Those goods include fruits and vegetables, many of which contain Vitamin C and other immune-system-supporting nutrients, as is also the case with orange juice imports that continue to cross Port Manatee docks. Even lumber keeps coming into Port Manatee, and some of that clearly is being used by homebound residents using this time to take on home improvement projects.

In short, Port Manatee’s waterborne operations remain unimpeded, while abiding by all protocols of federal and state authorities, maintaining as paramount the safety, health and well-being of workers of the port, its tenants and its business partners.

At Port Manatee, we continue to be in the “all hands on deck” mode. The most essential of us are still working at the port itself, exercising appropriate social distancing, of course, and a number of employees are productively conducting business from their homes, in compliance with the state’s safer-at-home mandate.

Not only have there been no layoffs among Port Manatee staff, but, notably, several businesses operating at and immediately proximate to the port are bringing on additional workers.

For example, Federal Marine Terminals, longtime provider of a broad range of cargo-handling services at the port, has put out a call to fill a number of positions, including operators of forklifts and other equipment. Port Manatee-based ocean carrier World Direct Shipping, which continues to provide the fastest short-sea link between Mexico and the U.S. Southeast, is looking for customs brokerage assistance. And welding technicians are being sought by Air Products and Chemicals, which manufactures liquefied natural gas heat exchangers at its fabrication facility immediately across U.S. 41 from the port.

In typical times, self-sustaining Port Manatee generates more than $2.3 million in economic impacts and provides 24,000-plus direct and indirect jobs, all without local property tax support. In these troubling times, the relative importance of Port Manatee is further magnified, to the benefit of the families of our county and beyond, as we look to get through current woes together.

Be safe and be well.