Port Tampa Bay
Paul Anderson
President and CEO
“Port Tampa Bay’s container business is growing exponentially as our location allows BCOs and container carriers to get closer to their customers with the expansion of DC capacity along the Tampa Bay/Orlando I-4 Corridor.”
Port Tampa Bay has emerged as Florida’s new supply chain solution for container cargo and one of its most efficient. Even with container volume up 29% over the past year, Port Tampa Bay has experienced no cargo congestion or delays, and stands ready to welcome new business.
Florida’s Distribution Hub: The addition of new direct Asia container services 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.
To keep pace, the Port recently expanded terminal capacity with additional paved storage and extended berths. The next phase will include three additional cranes and equipment, and new trans-load warehouse facilities.
New Services Boost Efficiencies
In 2019, Port Tampa Bay welcomed CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, OOCL, Maersk and Sealand to its family of container lines offering new services, joining established carrier partners ZIM, MSC and Seacat. In 2020, ZIM launched a new Tampa Mexico Shuttle container service, and in 2021, Dole Ocean Cargo Express began a new direct service from Central America. 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 benefit from attractive truck backhaul rates to 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.
