Jaxport Celebrates Another Record Year for Cargo Growth

The port of Jacksonville (Jaxport) reports that its terminals achieved record growth in containers, vehicles and overall tonnage during its 2017 fiscal year. In total, the port’s public terminals moved than one million TEU, a seven percent increase over 2016, marking a second consecutive year of record growth. 

When combined with the containers handled through private terminals, more than 1.3 million containers move through the Port of Jacksonville annually, making it Florida’s largest container port complex. The Asian container trade continues to be the fastest-growing segment of Jaxport’s container cargo business, achieving 19 percent growth in the past year with nearly 400,000 Asian containers moved.

The Asian sector now accounts for nearly 40 percent of Jaxport’s total cargo container business, up from 24 percent in 2013. The port says that a federal project to deepen its shipping channel to accommodate Neopanamax ships is scheduled to begin later this year.

Jaxport also moved a record-setting 693,000 total vehicle units, maintaining its position as one of the nation’s busiest vehicle handling ports. Strong auto sales in the U.S. Southeast and the continued growth of Jaxport’s three auto processors, AMPORTS, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and Southeast Toyota Distributors, contributed to the growth. A project to expand Jaxport’s auto and vehicle handling capacity by more than 25 percent to support further volume increases is underway.