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11/22/2024
SeaPort Manatee in Florida reported record high cargo activity for its fiscal-year 2024, which ended Sept. 30.
During the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, an all-time high of 11,810,062 tons of cargo moved through SeaPort Manatee, up 7.2% from FY2023. Containerized cargo movement reached a record of 168,897 20-foot-equivalent units, up 1% from the last fiscal year, port authority officials said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the port’s newly released economic impact report shows SeaPort Manatee producing yearly economic impact of $7.3 billion and the creation of 42,094 Florida jobs. Those figures are up 41.7% and 12.9%, respectively, from two years earlier, port authority officials said. The port’s annual economic impact has been critical to Florida’s ongoing recovery from damage caused by Hurricane Milton, they said.
The port — served by Port Manatee Railroad, which operates 7 miles of track and interchanges with CSX at Palmetto — sustained an estimated $200 million in damages from Milton, port authority officials said. The port is located 30 miles south of Tampa on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane made landfall south of the port on Oct. 9, but the port was able to resume critical fuel distribution by Oct. 13.
“The record levels of critical goods moving through SeaPort Manatee and the port’s overall major role in the regional economy underscore the importance of restoring severely damaged infrastructure and returning to fully normal operations as soon as possible,” said SeaPort Manatee Executive Director Carlos Buqueras.