Jaxport Adds New Ro-Ro Service

Jaxport, the port of Jacksonville, Florida, says that it will soon offer direct service to New Zealand and Australia for ro/ro cargo through Höegh Autoliners’ new direct U.S.-to-Oceania service. JAXPORT's Blount Island Marine Terminal will serve as the last East Coast port of call in the rotation.

The monthly service is scheduled to begin in March with the Höegh Jeddah. The vessel rotation will include Auckland, Brisbane, Port Kembla, Melbourne and Fremantle.

Jacksonville is one of the nation’s busiest ports for total vehicle handling, moving a record-setting 693,000 total units in 2017. Construction has begun on a new automobile processing terminal on JAXPORT’s Dames Point Marine Terminal, the first phase of a multi-year project which will increase the port’s vehicle-handling capacity by 25 percent.

Giant heavy lifts

Heavy lift is also an important part of Jaxport's non-containerized cargo mix. Dockworkers at Blount Island Terminal recently offloaded one 150-tonne, $3 million diesel generator for a hospital in nearby Tallahassee. The giant unit came off the freighter Spaarnegracht, which arrived from the port of Rauma, Finland. 

The terminal is well-positioned for heavy lifts: it can handle loads of up to 1,800 pounds per square foot, with rail capacity of up to 78 kips per axle. For oversize loads, CSX's on-dock rail service can accommodate cargo clearances of up to 20 feet tall by 13 feet wide. Shippers may not have to charter a vessel especially to carry their heavy-lift loads, as Jaxport has direct cargo services to ports around the globe.