A new route to South America, a new cruise line and a new international business partner are among highlights at JaxPort this year.
Here is a look at some of the recent news from the port:
• After moving more than 1.3 million containers in 2023 and maintaining its status as one of the 10 biggest container ports in the U.S., JaxPort announced in February 2024 that MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company added weekly calls at the port under a merger of two existing container services.
MSC’s newly formed Ecuador-NWC and San Baltic-USA rotation became JaxPort’s first and only direct container service with the West Coast of South America. The upgraded service established new connections between Jacksonville and ports in Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica.
• In March 2024, JaxPort finalized a deal with Norwegian Cruise Line to begin offering seasonal cruises from the Cruise Terminal to the Bahamas and Eastern Caribbean through 2028.
The cruise line will homeport its Norwegian Gem in Jacksonville from November to April. It is the second cruise line to operate in the city, following Carnival.
• Also in February 2024, European fashion retailer Primark opened a nearly 550,000-square-foot distribution center in Imeson Park South, with plans to import cargo through JaxPort.
It is Primark’s second center in the U.S. and first in the Southeast.
“Everything that we saw in Jacksonville, as well as JaxPort, led us to believe this is the ideal location for us to open our second distribution center and unlock the ability to go after more leases in the South,” said Kevin Tulip, president of Primark US.
• The year began with JaxPort signing an agreement with Enstructure, a marine terminal and logistics company, to expand into acreage being vacated by Southeast Toyota Distributors for its move to the Blount Island Marine Terminal.
Enstructure is the parent company of Seaonus Stevedoring, which operates 35 acres adjacent to the Talleyrand terminal.
In other news, the port announced that its $72 million SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal modernization project is halfway complete and that it is expanding two vehicle berths at Blount Island as Southeast Toyota progresses on construction of its 250,000-square-foot auto processing facility.
In addition, the port’s electrification program continues.
After adding three environmentally friendly cranes in 2023, the port began purchasing electric forklifts, low-emission diesel equipment and what are known as RTG (rubber tired gantry) cranes.
JaxPort officials say that the port enters midyear 2024 having faced limited effects of several issues affecting global shipping, including a drought that has reduced passages through the Panama Canal, terrorist attacks on ships in the Suez Canal and the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after being struck by a containership.
Meanwhile, JaxPort reported an increase in its workforce. The port says that in 2023, 11,318 people were employed directly in jobs related to the movement of cargo through the port, such as longshoremen, vessel repairers, warehousing staffers and pilots.
That’s up 4.07% from the 10,875 workers who were employed at the port in 2018.