ANNAPOLIS: Shipping keeps ramping up at the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore.
The port’s public terminals shipped a record 9.74 million tons of general cargo in the 2015 fiscal year ending June 30, it said. That was up about 1.5 percent from 9.6 million tons in 2014.
General cargo includes automobiles, forest products, farm equipment and construction machinery. It also includes containers, a key point of emphasis lately for port officials trying to grow traffic.
Container shipping set a record of its own over the 12 months ending in June. The port shipped 808,500 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, during the year ending in June. The previous record for a rolling 12-month span was 794,793 TEUs, set between June 2014 and May 2015.
A total of 79,644 TEUs were shipped through the port in June alone, eclipsing a single-month record set just months before. The previous single-month record was set in March at 77,772.
The port also set a general cargo record for most tonnage shipped in the first six months of a calendar year. It shipped 4.88 million tons, breaking an old record of 4.83 million tons set between January and June of 2012. The news comes after officials announced new automobile shipping records set earlier this year.
Automobile shipping has been a strength at the port, but a flooding problem at Dundalk Marine Terminal damaged hundreds of cars in the last year. Maryland’s Board of Public Works signed off on $9.5 million this month to fix the issue. Work is scheduled to start in October and wrap up in March, port spokesman Richard Scher said.
