Also known as the gateway to the Americas, this imposing port has become a logistics reference in the world; the large size of the operations that are executed there, their operations, the large investments they make in their infrastructure and the millions of tons of cargo that move there, are just some data that make the Port of Miami a protagonist of development in the global logistics industry.
A flashback to his story
To speak of one of the main ports in the world is to speak of one of the great dreams of Henry Flager, a tycoon of the time who was obsessed with extend the railroad all along the Florida peninsula and over the sea to Key West, a city Cuban with some influence from the United States and the Bahamas that during the time was the most important in the state of Florida above cities such as Miami, St. Augustine or Pensacola.
Although there were few contemporaries who believed Flager’s dream possible, since most described it as utopian and impossible to build, on January 22, 1912 he witnessed how some 10,000 people began to congregate in the recently completed train station to observe the arrival of the first train to the island of Key West, An idea that went down very well, because soon it spread to the east of Miami.
Photo: turoliense.blogspot.com.co
It was in this way that the need to connect Florida with the world became the new challenge of Flager, which is why this millionaire financed a project on the coast of Miami which the following year ended up bringing cruise passenger service to Nassau, capital of The Bahamas. This is how the Port of Miami ended up emerging, a port that would end up becoming one of the key sources for the economy of Florida and the United States.
Your capacity:
The Port of Miami has characteristics and size of high level. Every year this port receives all kinds of cargo, ranging mainly from fruits and vegetables, clothing and textiles, non-refrigerated products, groceries, paper, stone, clay and cement tiles, construction material, industrial equipment, electronic equipment and even trucks, buses, and automobiles.
However, in the Port of Miami four types of loading operations are executed: Roll-on / roll-off (Ro / Ro), for container operations; Lift-in/take-off (Lo/Lo), for container operations; It carries out bulk cargo operations that are mixed-use and finally vehicle exports are made. In addition offers Super Post-Panamax gantry cranes which can handle cargo ships with up to 22 containers wide and up to nine containers on deck and eleven containers below.
According to data provided by the management of the Port of Miami, during 2015 there was an increase of 15% in container cargo movements. Total 1,007,800 TEUs were mobilized. Of these data, trade with Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for about 50% of maritime traffic.
A new high-speed tunnel connecting the port directly to the U.S. highway system was recently inaugurated, speeding up the time for the movement of import and export goods.
All or nothing!
In a bid to become one of the largest ports in the United States, in Port Miami made an important investment that reached 1,300 million dollars that allow it to seek benefits in the greater or long term and that not only make it worthy of the title of the Cruise Capital of the World, but that make it a great economic gateway of America.
Currently this is the only port between Miami and Norfolk, Virginia, which has a depth of more than 50 feet, which becomes a determining factor when it comes to receiving a greater number of ships that have a large bottom. In addition to the improvements that have been made to this port, it is also expected to increase passenger traffic, which according to data from the Royal Caribbean company, it is estimated that this new terminal will contribute 1.8 million passengers to the annual sum of visitors who transit through Port Miami, which would represent an increase of 20%, compared to the approximate figure of 4 million that this port has achieved in recent years, which would reaffirm the Port of Miami as the first cruise port in the world.
Port Miami is now among the fastest growing ports in the United States. For example during fiscal year 2015, containerized cargo handling increased by 15%, which would be equivalent to 1,007,800 TEUs; It also broke the passenger record, with nearly 4.9 million travelers passing through the port last year, more than at any other cruise port in the world.
However the average cargo arriving at the port of Miami continues to be low compared to the large ports of the east coast of the United States, such as the Port of New York, which exceeds 5 million TEUs or the Port of Savannah that exceeds 3 million or the Port of Virginia that exceeds 2 million.
Today the trend of cargo ships is to share fuel costs, maintenance and even employees, which is why many companies in the sector bet on container ships, ships that exceed 8,000 TEUS and sometimes exceed the not inconsiderable figure of 19,000 TEUs, as is the case of MSC Oscar, which only makes its arrivals to Large European ports.
Logistically speaking, what’s better? Have three ships of 4,000 TEUS, with their respective expenses or bring one with 10 or 12,000 TEUS? That is precisely what the Port of Miami is aiming at, in creating the conditions to facilitate the arrival of a greater amount of goods and thus meet the new needs of ships.
A fact: today the economic injection that can provide one of these ships is 27,000 million dollars and it is estimated that a boat of these generates about 207,000 direct and indirect jobs. Just imagine unloading a ship with about a thousand containers, think of the number of workers needed for that cargo to be handled, transported, stored and distributed; And that we do not mention the maintenance required by the different facilities in which the cargo will be stored, among other things that move millions of dollars within this economy and that make it necessary for a number of Products can reach more than 100 countries and about 250 ports around the world, because they have to make their stopover through this great maritime terminal.
Source: https://www.zonalogistica.com/
