Expanded Panama Canal to bring more business to Port Manatee
PUBLISHED JULY 14, 2016
By CARL MARIO NUDI
CARL MARIO NUDI PHOTO
Ships from around the world deliver and pick up cargo at Port Manatee.
The M/V Fermland was the first ship to dock at the newly opened Port Manatee on Aug. 7, 1970.
In the 46 years since then, thousands of ships have picked up local products or off-loaded a variety of cargo from around the world at the port located in North Manatee County, just south of the Hillsborough County line.
With last month’s opening of the expanded Panama Canal, shipping into and out of Port Manatee was expected to increase about 150 percent over the next 10 years.
“Port Manatee is perfectly positioned to gain increased cargo volumes as a result of the Panama Canal expansion,” Matty Appice, Port Manatee’s chief commercial officer, said according to a press release.
Appice attended inauguration ceremonies June 25 and 26 in Panama commemorating the completion of the $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal can now handle the mega-ships that carry as many as 8,000 shipping containers, which will double the amount of cargo that transverses the enlarged locks and channels.
“The Panama Canal expansion is a very positive development,” said Dave Sanford, deputy executive director of the port.
Sanford said although Port Manatee can accommodate the mega-ships, he does not expect them to be docking anytime soon.
The containers will be transferred to smaller ships at transshipment ports in the Caribbean before heading to their final destination.
Port Manatee is located off U.S. 41 in North Manatee County, just south of the Hillsborough County line.
Port Manatee administration has been preparing for the opening of the larger canal over the past several years, with the widening and deepening of the canals and berths, and construction of a 10-acre intermodal storage yard where containers and project cargo, such as huge turbine engines, can be held.
While the increased Panama Canal cargo container business is important, Sanford said citrus juice is the biggest import and export for Port Manatee.
Brazil sends orange juice to Port Manatee and Florida juice is shipped to Ghent, Belgium, he said.
“Europeans like the tartness of Florida orange juice, and the United States likes the sweetness of Brazilian juice,” Sanford said.
This fact highlights the diversity of cargo that flows across the docks at the port.
Cargo containers filled with products sit on the dock at Port Manatee, ready to be shipped out.
Ships from around the world docking at the 10 40-foot-draft berths take-on and off-load shipments of cargo containers; bulk products, such as phosphate and crushed granite; produce; and petroleum.
With the large phosphate mining operations in Manatee County and the surrounding area, Port Manatee historically has been a bulk port for the fertilizer, Sanford said.
“It continues to be a big part of the port’s exports,” he said.
Salt is one of the products shipped out of Port Manatee.
The deputy executive director said the three main areas of growth at the port are container cargo, imports from Brazil and petroleum.
Along with the citrus juice from Brazil, the port was handling more forest product and metal imports from that country and Argentina.
Petroleum also has been an economic driver for the port.
One of the port tenants, TransMontaigne, is the sole supplier of gasoline for the RaceTrac stations, Sanford said.
Gasoline, bunker fuel, and ethanol are imported from Texas, and then blended at the port.
Port Manatee also has played
