Baltimore faces a logistics and trade nightmare after Tuesday morning’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge along I-695 in Maryland into the Baltimore harbor.
After the disaster, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore issued a state of emergency and vessel traffic was suspended in and out of the Port of Baltimore.
Baltimore ranks among the nation’s top-20 busiest ports.
Logistics companies operating along the Eastern Coast are scrambling to reroute containers after the bridge’s collapse.
“Our first priority is engaging clients to make plans for containers that were originally routed to Baltimore that will be discharged at other ports on the Eastern Seaboard,” said Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal for ITS Logistics, according to CNBC.
“These diverted volumes will impact the ports of New York/New Jersey, Norfolk and the Southeast and we have to prepare trucking and transload capacity to get that freight to its intended network,” Brashier added.
The bridge’s collapse also creates havoc for trucking routes.
The majority of the city of Baltimore’s ports are now blocked, this city moved $80 billion in cargo last year
The bridge also served highway 695 which is a useful connector to circumvent the city.
A traffic and logistics nightmare and likely a covert act of war.
Staggering. https://t.co/mJcGKDtcKI pic.twitter.com/8Ea9ZI7JwZ
— Drew Marshall | hydrate.eth (@cryptohydrate) March 26, 2024
The Baltimore Bridge collapse is going to cause massive logistics disruptions. Not just for the Acela region, but for the whole American economy. The Port of Baltimore is one of America's busiest & most important, and it's now cut off.https://t.co/ESfsd2tmSs
— Colby Badhwar 🇨🇦🇬🇧 (@ColbyBadhwar) March 26, 2024
Fox Business reports:
The I-695 is also a critical link for trucking and motor vehicles linking Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York and the disaster comes ahead of the upcoming Easter Weekend.
The port is the busiest in the U.S. for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.
It handled a record amount of cargo last year, making it the 20th biggest port in the nation ranked by total tons, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Chloe Demrovsky, the executive in residence in global economy at New York University, tells Fox News Digital that the port has grown significantly over the last few years and the bridge collapse is going to have a devastating impact on the area.
“Since the widening of deepening of the Panama Canal in 2016, it just became that much more important and capable of docking some of those really large container ships coming out of Asia that could now come through the Panama Canal and go to Baltimore,” Demrovsky said.
Baltimore bridge collapse to bring trade and traffic chaos https://t.co/8X3gcrZFld
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) March 26, 2024
“This is a MAJOR infrastructure hit. The Port of Baltimore is the major port serving Baltimore and Washington DC. All of the shipping north of the bridge is now trapped in place. No other shipping can get in. The tunnel shown has height and hazardous cargo restrictions, it can’t take the heavy trucking traffic that used the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which took YEARS to build back in the 1970s,” Matt Bracken commented.
This is a MAJOR infrastructure hit.
The Port of Baltimore is the major port serving Baltimore and Washington DC. All of the shipping north of the bridge is now trapped in place. No other shipping can get in. The tunnel shown has height and hazardous cargo restrictions, it can't… pic.twitter.com/igVpYJcaEn— Matt Bracken (@Matt_Bracken48) March 26, 2024
Per CNBC:
Retailers like Home Depot, Bob’s Furniture, IKEA, and Amazon are just some of the companies that use the port to import goods. Other top imports include sugar and gypsum.
“This will have an impact for trade all along the East Coast and it will continue until we know how quickly” the port can reopen, said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.
Vessels were already being diverted to New York and down to Virginia on Tuesday, said Meade. “There will be dozens of diversions in the next week and hundreds in the coming months as long as Baltimore is shut down.”
Matt Castle, VP for Global Forwarding at C.H. Robinson, explained to CNBC that there should be minimal delays for trucks coming into the port area from the north. “But for trucks coming into the area from the south, they’ll have to take the I-95 or I-895 tunnels or navigate around the harbor. That puts them closer to metro Baltimore and adds potentially an hour to their trips.”
There could also be disruptions to gasoline availability in the Baltimore area, since some ethanol comes in by barge and rail.
“Gasoline shipped from Gulf Coast refineries by pipeline is blended with 10% ethanol which is delivered into the Baltimore area via train and barge,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. “The oil industry will have to find alternate supply routes for those barge deliveries which in the short term can be met by trucking it in from Philadelphia.”