Manatee County port setting records as shipping cargo business keeps growing
SeaPort Manatee appears to be on track to set a new record in total cargo, surpassing the 10,451,566-ton record set in fiscal year 2021.
It saw a 32% surge in containerized cargo tonnage in the six months ending March 31 over the same period last year.
The port’s growth has been in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, with imports of wood, fresh fruit, fuel and more moving unimpeded.
SeaPort officials have expanded facilities to encourage and accommodate growth. Unlike some other ports, there have been enough 18-wheelers available to keep the cargo moving once it arrives at SeaPort Manatee.
“SeaPort Manatee’s sustained growth in all sectors of cargo activity demonstrates continuing ability to adeptly meet the needs of consumers and industry throughout Central and Southwest Florida and beyond,” Carlos Buqueras, executive director, said in a press release.
“With completion of expansion of dockside container yard facilities and other infrastructure enhancements, as well as thousands of on- and near-port acres available for future growth, SeaPort Manatee is perfectly poised to keep moving even more commerce,” Buqueras said.
During the first six months of the fiscal year, SeaPort Manatee handled a record 660,847 short tons of containerized cargo, an increase of 32.2% from the first half of fiscal 2021.
The SeaPort also set a record for 20-foot-equivalent container units, with the 85,383 moving across SeaPort Manatee’s docks, a 26% increase from a year earlier.
The increase was facilitated by volume growth for both of the port’s primary containerized cargo carriers — SeaPort Manatee-based World Direct Shipping and Coral Gables-headquartered Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc.
WDS, in its ninth year importing produce and other goods from Mexico, has expanded its cross-Gulf service offerings, while the Del Monte unit has deployed eco-friendly container ships to bring Latin American fruit to the Southeast distribution center it has operated at the port for 33 years.
World Direct started business at Port Manatee in 2014 with a single vessel making weekly voyages to the Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos, to import agricultural goods into the United States.
In 2021, World Direct Shipping expanded its weekly services across the Gulf of Mexico by deploying a third company-owned vessel and adding a fourth Mexican port of call, Progresso, located on the Yucatan peninsula.
Other records set by SeaPort Manatee in the six-month period include:
▪ Total cargo tonnage of 5,365,359, up 10.4 % over a year earlier.
▪ Noncontainerized break bulk tonnage of 351,878, up 34.4% with strong volumes of wood pulp (much of it used in manufacture of toilet paper), lumber, plywood and other forest products, as well as aluminum and recycled steel materials.
▪ Dry bulk tonnage of 1,230,124, up 13%, with big gains in moves of granite and dry phosphate rock.
▪ Liquid bulk tonnage of 3,122,510, up 3.8%.
SeaPort Manatee’s first-fiscal-half high marks follow numerous full-fiscal-year records established in the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2021.
“The remarkable ongoing activity gains at SeaPort Manatee are a testament to our ability to provide leading-edge facilities for efficient movement of a wide range of vital goods,” Reggie Bellamy, chairman of the Manatee County Port Authority, said in the press release.
“Meanwhile, a team of expert consultants, in concert with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, is working to complete a blueprint for further growth and still-greater contributions to our region’s economy,” Bellamy said.
