With the Port of Baltimore still effectively closed because of last week’s bridge disaster, the Port of Brunswick now expects a surge of shipments — and if the diversion of shipping goes on a long time, it could be “a challenge,” officials say.
Brunswick will not see many more ships, but there will probably be more cargo on the ships that do sail in, according to a statement from the Georgia Ports Authority.
More than a week after the tragic accident that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the picture is emerging of a massive supply chain adjusting to losing use of a major port. Massive amounts of cargo that was originally bound for — or meant to depart from — Baltimore is going elsewhere.
Savannah, one of the nation’s busiest ports, specializes in handling the 20-foot long containers that carry many types of cargo and materials. As busy as it is, Savannah could handle more containers, officials said. But the vast majority of container cargo usually handled by Baltimore — especially aluminum, sugar and gypsum, and coal — is apparently headed for other ports in the Northeast.
However, Baltimore has also historically handled a huge number of vehicles and heavy machinery on wheels, cargo that can roll on and roll off. Those “Ro-Ro” shipments generally go to ports that are designed for that kind of traffic.
Like Brunswick.
Baltimore has been handling the most Ro-Ro cargo in the United States, including 847,000 autos and light trucks last year. But Brunswick is Number 2, handling 775,000 autos and heavy machinery units.
Some diverted shipments from Baltimore are expected in the immediate future, according to the Georgia Ports Authority statement. “GPA does not expect a notable increase in Ro/Ro vessel calls related to the diversions but anticipates more cargo volume on the vessels that do call.”
Officials said it is still too early to predict how much cargo will come south to Brunswick. “However, this situation will be a challenge to all Ro/Ro ports if this is an extended period before the Port of Baltimore reopens. We are monitoring the situation daily in Baltimore to see when the channel will reopen.”
The system overall has been resilient, said Glenn Richey, an expert on supply chain management in Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business. “Being responsive is the name of the game in today’s economy.”
Thus far, only about 8% of the diverted cargo has gone to ports outside the Northeast, he said.
However, an extended closure of Baltimore’s port could push the limits of ports in the Southeast to handle outbound traffic, Richey said. “We could see product stack up in outbound lanes at our ports.”
Meanwhile in Baltimore, crews opened a second temporary channel Tuesday allowing a limited amount of traffic to bypass the mangled wreckage of the collapsed bridge, which had blocked the vital port’s main shipping channel.
Workers continue laboring to open a third channel that will allow larger vessels to pass through the bottleneck and restore more commercial activity, Maryland and Baltimore port officials said. But currently, passage is restricted mainly to vessels involved in the cleanup effort, along with some barges and tugs that have been stuck in the Port of Baltimore, according to the Associated Press.
A tugboat pushing a fuel barge was the first vessel to use an alternate channel late Monday. It was supplying jet fuel to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base.
That means the giant container ships are still blocked from either entry or exit.
