JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — While some ports across the country are backed up with cargo ships, JAXPORT is inviting more business.
The Jacksonville port signed an agreement Monday with a terminal operator company that’s looking to increase ship traffic at its 158-acre TraPac container terminal.
Ceres Terminals CEO Craig Mygatt says he sees it as an opportunity to help alleviate some of the global supply-chain issues.
“We feel it’s underutilized today," Mygatt said.
The container terminal at Dames Point will be the company’s biggest in size of the 20 it operates.
Ceres is looking to bring in more services, such as automobile activity, with hopes of ultimately bringing in more customers.
“Customers need an alternative port, alternative gateway to distribute their products," Mygatt explained. "There's a lot of different types of activity that you can work with that can optimize a terminal and get a full use out of it.”
The deal that Ceres Terminals has signed is projected to bring in more than $46 million to the port over the next 20 years, which is an additional $31 million more than what was expected to come in from the current operator who Ceres bought the terminal from.
The company will also invest $15 million in terminal upgrades.
“What makes, you know, terminals efficient is the equipment, really being able to handle more boxes and turn times more efficiently," JAXPORT CEO Eric Green said. "Really what it’s about is making more investment into the terminal, more investment into the equipment that will create more efficiency and it will help alleviate the congestion within the supply chain that we see, you know, throughout our country,”
The more Ceres takes advantage of the large terminal, the more jobs local unions believe will follow.
“It’s a ripple effect. It’s not only jobs for the port workers, but it’s jobs for the trucking industry, the warehouse workers," Daniel Teague, President of Clerks and Checkers Local 1593 said.
However, Teague says, how many jobs depends on how many more ships come in.
Green says there is currently no wait time at JAXPORT, and he hopes to see more ship traffic at the TraPac and its other terminals sooner than later.
“We're open for business," he explained. “We can have much more, and we can continue to be efficient."
Also, later this month, JAXPORT representatives will join other members of the Florida Port Council at a major shipping conference in California called TPM22.
There they will meet face-to-face with shippers and retailers from around the world, and push for more cargo ships to come to the state to help ease global supply-chain issues.
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