Factbox: Baltimore port: from coal to cars and cruise lines

Volvo Car AB

26/03/2024 12:17

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - A major bridge collapsed in
the U.S. port of Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday after
being struck by a container ship, plunging cars into the river
below.
    Traffic was suspended at the port until further notice,
Maryland transportation authorities said.
     
    PORT FEATURES
    It is the deepest harbor in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay,
closer to the Midwest than other East Coast ports, with five
public and 12 private terminals, according to Maryland
government website.
     It is one of the smallest container ports on the
Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth
quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert
Lars Jensen. 
  
     The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2
million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in
Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore
can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.
  
     
  
    CURRENT STATUS OF CARGO SHIPS INSIDE PORT
    More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port, including
small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship
tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic shows. 
    At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was
Baltimore, the data showed.
     
    IMPORTS
    It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more
than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the
Maryland Port Administration.
The port handles imports and exports for major automakers
including Nissan  7201.T , Toyota  7203.T , General Motors
 GM.N , Volvo Car  VOLCARb.ST , Jaguar Land Rover  TAMOJL.UL 
and Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE , including luxury models for Audi,
Lamborghini and Bentley.
    It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm
and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.
    Imports of agricultural products totalled 3 million tonnes
last year, including 1.2 million of sugar and salt, as well as
gypsum, fertilisers and forest products, according to Ishan
Bhanu, lead agricultural commodities analyst at Kpler.
    Other top imports were paper/paperboard and
plywood/veneer/particle board, the Maryland authority website
shows.
        
    EXPORTS
    In 2023, the port was the second busiest for coal exports.
Its eight dry bulk terminals exported 22 million tonnes of coal
last year and small amounts of other metals and minerals,
according to Kpler's Bhanu.
    Other top export commodities by weight in 2022 were
liquefied natural gas (LNG), wastepaper, ferrous scrap, and
automobiles/light trucks, according to Maryland government data.
     Cove Point, which is upstream from the bridge, is the
nearest LNG terminal. ICIS ship tracking data show Cove Point
typically exports about 500,000 tonnes per month.
  
            
    CRUISE SHIPS
    It is also a cruise terminal, with operators Norwegian
 NCLH.N , Carnival  CCL.N  and Royal Caribbean  RCL.N , all
using the port for Caribbean, Canadian, and other Atlantic
destinations.    
    In 2023, cruises carrying more than 444,000 passengers
departed from the port, the Maryland government website says.
     
    LONDON METAL EXCHANGE WAREHOUSES
    In Baltimore warehouses registered with the London Metal
Exchange, there are 756 metric tons of nickel, 150 tons of tin
and 50 tons of copper, LME data shows.
     

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Nick Carey, Helen Reid, Jonathan
Saul, Nigel Hunt, Marwa Rashad and Eric Onstad;
Compiled by Josephine Mason; Editing by Nick Macfie)
((mailto:Josephine.Mason@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 7695;
Reuters Messaging:
rm://josephine.mason.reuters.com@reuters.net/))