The Baltimore Bridge: How the Collapse of a Baltimore Harbor Bridge will disrupt Cruises and Imports to the East and Gulf Coasts
The bridge’s collapse will also disrupt cruises traveling in and out of Baltimore. Norwegian Cruise Line last year began a new fall and winter schedule calling at the Port of Baltimore.
General Motors says it is working to reroute shipments to other ports. Mercedes says it’s evaluating “several options” to adapt its supply routes. The Port of Baltimore is important to the automotive industry and it is working on contingency plans to ensure an unimpeded flow of vehicles.
Disruption at the port will have consequences, experts say, and that can often lead to ripple effects. It’s not easy to estimate an economic toll yet because we have no idea how long the port will be closed.
A Professor at the Carey Business School, Dai is familiar with the bridge. He can see it from his office.
He says that it’s an 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 cars got lucky. There is a terminal by the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor that both Volkswagen and BMW use, and they are expecting no impacts beyond a short-term traffic snarls for trucks today.
It’s also about getting a car out of a ship. Facilities at ports do things like install accessories and inspect vehicles. You have to get them from the port to the dealership in order to have drivers in place.
The shutdown is likely to cause delays for auto imports and exports, as companies try to find alternative ports.
Still, the timing isn’t good. Global shipping has already been affected by attacks in the Red Sea and 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.
Chris Rogers, the head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, notes that Baltimore’s port handled 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.”
“We’re going to protect the jobs at that port, and we will do everything we can to help those workers”, he said in remarks Tuesday.
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.
A 948-foot cargo vessel carrying goods for a shipping giant slammed into a pillar of a bridge in the middle of the night. After taking a couple of days in Baltimore, the Dali set off towards the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Other materials transported in large volumes through the city’s port include coal, coffee and sugar. It was the ninthbusiest port in the nation in terms of volume and value last year.
