Port Tampa Bay
Paul Anderson
President and CEO
“Port Tampa Bay is Florida’s largest port by cargo tonnage and land, and one of the most diversified ports in the Southeast. Our container business is growing exponentially as the explosive growth along the Tampa Bay/Orlando I-4 Corridor in Central Florida drives the desire for BCOs and container carriers to get closer to their customers. We envisioned this ability to provide greater efficiencies years ago and invested in cranes, road, rail and berth improvements to better serve this market. In the process, we have become Florida’s distribution hub and the most efficient port to serve the entire state.”
Port Tampa Bay has emerged as Florida’s new supply chain solution for container cargo—and in many cases, it’s most efficient.
Florida’s Distribution Hub: The addition of direct Asia container services last year provided a giant leap forward in serving Florida’s largest and fastest growing market— the Tampa Bay/Orlando I-4 Corridor. This Central Florida region is also one of the hottest industrial real estate markets in the country and Florida’s hub for distribution, logistics and manufacturing. Home to close to half of Florida’s population of 21 million residents, and welcoming a majority of the more than 126 million tourists who typically visit every year, the I-4 Corridor has the largest concentration of DCs in the state.
As the front door to the I-4, Port Tampa Bay is well situated to help businesses capitalize on the growth of the region, which is fueling demand for everything from retail, ecommerce, food & beverage, to energy products, and construction & building materials. To keep pace, the Port recently expanded terminal capacity with additional paved storage, and extended berths. Part of the expansion will also include additional cranes and equipment, and new transload warehouse facilities.
New Services Boost Efficiencies
Last year alone, Port Tampa Bay welcomed CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, APL, OOCL, Maersk and Sealand to its family of container lines offering new services, joining established carrier partners ZIM, MSC and Seacat. In 2020, Port Tampa Bay announced that ZIM Integrated Shipping Services will launch a new Tampa Mexico Shuttle container service. This new weekly, fixed-day service will provide importers and exporters a competitive new option to serve the expanding trade between the ports of Altamira and Tampa, reaching inland destinations throughout the Southeast and beyond.
For the beneficial cargo owners in the Port’s immediate backyard, these new services are especially good news. These companies are seeing significant savings in their supply chain/distribution costs as truckers can now make as many as 3 to 4 round trip deliveries per day from Port Tampa Bay to their DCs, which then service the entire state and reach into markets throughout the Southeast and beyond.
Together with partners like container terminal operator Ports America and cold storage specialist Port Logistics Refrigerated Services, Port Tampa Bay is expanding infrastructure and capacity to ensure it is well positioned for continued strong growth. In keeping with the Port’s master plan “Port Vision 2030,” it continues to align capital investment to sustain and grow its core lines of business, while also capturing new business through strategic diversification into additional new markets and commodities.
