In North Carolina, the officials at the Port of Wilmington hope that an infusion of $35 million will help the marine complex compete with others in the South Atlantic.
The multi-million dollar boost the port was recently given via annual state funding will be used to make numerous improvements, in hopes that the Port of Wilmington will be able to compete with complexes in Virginia, Charleston and Savannah, according to the Journal of Commerce (JOC). These enhancements include dredging the harbor and expanding container facilities, all in an effort to establish the North Carolina port as one of prominence in the coming years.
The Port of Wilmington currently handles a mere fraction of what other South Atlantic facilities can, and does not yet have the size to handle the large vessels that will soon be able to pass through the Panama Canal. Hopefully, though, $35 million can help change these drawbacks. There are other improvements being made as well.
Cold storage facility one of many developments in Wilmington
A cold storage facility is set to open in mid-April, for example. This building will store food set to be exported once it is completed, StarNews reported. This means that numerous companies that typically have to ship goods to another state for export can now send goods out from Wilmington. North Carolina ranks in the top five in the U.S. for production of turkey, poultry, sweet potato and pork, according to Cliff Pyron, a port spokesman.
"We can really save the producer a lot of money in exporting their product," Chuck McCarthy, president and partner of Wilmington Cold Storage, told the news outlet.
Other projects scheduled for the Port of Wilmington
The port is also waiting on the result of a feasibility study on the prospects of deepening Wilmington's 42-foot channel to 47 feet. This year's state funds will also go to widening the port's current 1,000-foot berth by 100 feet and adding another berth equipped to handle post-Panamax ships, which should be finished within two years. Currently, the largest ships that the Port of Wilmington can handle are Panamax vessels. Investments in projects such as these should help benefit a market that Paul Cozza, executive director of the North Carolina State Ports Authority (NC Ports), believes is underserved.
"We know that the opportunity is there," he told the JOC. "We have a market that's thirsty for an efficient means to move imports and exports."