Page 25 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 3 - 2022

One of PAC’s first improvements was the construction
of a new 50-foot-deep berth that made Baltimore one of the first ports capable of servicing the larger class of ships that emerged after the widening of the Panama Canal. (See Image 1)
Under the agreement, PAC also acquired four state-of- the-art Neo-Panamax cranes, which arrived in 2012 and became operational in 2013. (See Image 2) Together, these improvements attracted new shippers to Seagirt and made the facility vastly more efficient, allowing it now to average 40 container moves an hour, or 1.5 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers a year.
Ten years later, PAC embarked on another significant investment to the terminal to make it even more attractive to global shipping lines. In April 2021, dredging was completed on a second 50-foot-deep berth at Seagirt, which will allow Baltimore to service two ultra-large ships simultaneously. (See Image 3)
In September 2021, Seagirt welcomed another four Neo-Panamax cranes. (See Image 4) These cranes are 25 feet taller and 190 tons heavier than the ones that arrived a decade ago. They are also fully electric, which means they emit no diesel emissions. The cranes became operational earlier this year.
PAC’s investments have paid off for the Port already — in the spring, global shipper ZIM announced its first-ever service line through Baltimore. Other shippers, including Maersk and MSC, recently announced new service lines as well.
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