What Will the Port of Baltimore Close Down? The Impact of a Short-Term Closure on Maryland’s Industrial Infrastructure and the Automobile Industry
We don’t know how long parts of the Baltimore port will be closed down. A prolonged closure would have short-term effects on industries, as they adapt to the loss of the port. It could potentially have serious consequences for Baltimore and Maryland as a whole.
General Motors says it is working to reroute shipments to other ports. Mercedes says it’s evaluating “several options” to adapt its supply routes. Stellantis, calling the Port of Baltimore “an important waterway for the automotive industry,” similarly said it’s working on contingency plans to ensure an “uninterrupted flow of vehicles.”
Disruption at the port will have consequences, experts say, and that can often lead to ripple effects. But it isn’t easy to project an economic toll yet, partly because we still don’t know how long the port will be closed.
The Baltimore Bridge and the Economic Impacts of the Baltimore-Salt-Marine Bridge and Port Disasters: The ‘Board of Baltimore’
The Professor at the Carey business school is familiar with the bridge. He can see it from his office window in Baltimore.
He says it’s a very important bridge. It’s part of an busy highway, I-695, and has symbolic resonance too. But he predicts that the economic impacts of the disaster will be relatively short-term and geographically limited.
Some people got lucky. Volkswagen and BMW both use a terminal by the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor, in a part of the port that is not blocked off, and expect no impact beyond short-term traffic snarls for trucks today.
But for those that need it, rerouting can be a challenge. Size constraints make it hard for some ports to accept every ship. Cars are often transported on a special “roll-on, roll-off” or “ro-ro” vessels, which take skill to unload (the port of Baltimore prides itself on its regular “ro-ro rodeo” trainings to teach those skills).
With the Baltimore port being closed, companies will have to find a different place to ship their products, which will create delays for auto imports and exports.
Still, the timing isn’t good. There has been an attack on the Red Sea and a shortage of water in the Panama Canal. A disaster that shuts down an American port — so abruptly that six cargo ships are now trapped there — only adds to the disruptions.
According to Chris Rogers, who is the head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, Baltimore handles around 3% of imports along the east and Gulf coast.
“Both bridge reconstruction and cargo delays are likely to be extensive,” he wrote in a research note. “However, some freight across containerized and bulk modes could reroute to nearby ports in Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
He said that he would do everything he can to help the workers who depend on the port.
The port has also received big investments to allow it to handle larger ships and more containers, as well as cut the carbon emissions from its equipment.
The arrival of large container ships to the port “continues to demonstrate Baltimore’s capabilities of handling supersized vessels,” Governor Moore said in the statement. The largest container ship ever to enter the port, as of February, arrived last year with the capacity to carry more than 15,000 20-foot containers.
Other materials transported in large volumes through the city’s port include coal, coffee and sugar. It was the ninth-busiest port in the nation last year for receiving foreign cargo, in terms of volume and value.