Borderlands: Texas seaport completes $146M container terminal expansion

Texas seaport completes $146M container terminal expansion

Port Freeport has accomplished the expansion of its Velasco Container Terminal along the Gulf of Mexico, paving the way in which for it to turn into a regional shipping hub by accommodating larger container and tanker vessels, officials said.

The expansion included 1,600 feet of recent berths, including Berth 8, which was dredged to 51 feet to permit larger ships to call the port. The project also added an 85-foot roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) cargo platform to serve shipments of vehicles and breakbulk operations.

“Port Freeport is worked up to commemorate the completion of the Velasco Container Terminal expansion project and announce the brand new berth is able to receive vessels,” Phyllis Saathoff, the port’s executive director and CEO, said in a latests release.

“The deepening of the Freeport Harbor Channel and the addition of this berth puts the port in position to receive the larger deeper-draft vessels in service today and propel the expansion of commerce for existing and future customers.”

Port Freeport is positioned about 60 miles south of Houston.

McCarthy Constructing Cos., which oversaw construction of the $146 million Velasco terminal expansion, said the project included demolishing a 100-year-old dock and performing 700,000 yards of dredging to clear an approach to a brand new wharf.

The Velasco terminal expansion also adds two more cranes for post-Panamax vessels to Port Freeport, along with the 2 already there. The post-Panamax gantry cranes are able to serving the larger container vessels transiting the expanded Panama Canal. 

Port Freeport handled 85,630 twenty-foot equivalent units in 2022, in response to their latest annual report. With the Velasco terminal expansion accomplished, port officials said the power could see as much as 2 million TEUs per yr.

One other key a part of Port Freeport’s push to accommodate larger ships is the Freeport harbor channel deepening and widening project.

On Thursday, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. announced it had received a $157.4 million contract from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for the project, which incorporates deepening the Freeport channel from a depth of 51 feet to 56 feet.

The Freeport channel is 7.5 miles long, certainly one of the shortest channels on the Texas Gulf with direct access to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, in response to a news release. Work is anticipated to start later this yr on the channel deepening project and is scheduled to be accomplished in 2025.

“Great Lakes is pleased so as to add the above work to our backlog of capital and maintenance dredging projects,” Lasse Petterson, Great Lakes president and CEO, said in an announcement. “The Freeport project is certainly one of the primary capital projects to be awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers this yr, and there may be an important need for this project and similar ones to proceed to support the general improvement and resiliency of our country’s environment, coastlines and infrastructure.”

Chemical logistics provider expands Arizona operations

Supply chain provider Chemical Strategies Inc. is opening a 70,000-square-foot industrial constructing for chemical distribution and third-party logistics near Phoenix.

The Anthem, Arizona-headquartered chemical distributor provides warehousing, transportation, third-party logistics and provide management services for the semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries.

The Phoenix Business Journal reported that Chemical Strategies’ latest facility will help support the growing semiconductor industry in Arizona.

Chemical Strategies currently has about 23 employees, including six truck drivers and 7 power units, in response to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Bollore Logistics opens supply chain facility in Mexico

Bollore Logistics announced it has opened an automotive competence center in Mexico City geared toward providing logistics services to manufacturers and suppliers within the auto sector.

“The automotive industry is facing many challenges which we must reply to with a view to support our customers of their development strategy, which is now increasingly shifting towards the relocation of their production,” Olivier de Clerck, Bollore’s automotive director, said in a news release. “While pursuing our business development, our aim is to industrialize our automotive logistics approach and deliver ever more agile and optimized solutions.” 

The Mexico City facility is Bollore Logistics’ second automotive competence center. The corporate opened its first center in Le Mans, France, in 2020. The centers offer customers services starting from the implementation of multimodal transport solutions (air, ocean, road and rail) to the 24/7 management and monitoring of freight flows.

France-based Bollore Logistics is a worldwide logistics provider with 73,000 employees working at 603 branch locations in 130 countries. 

Border agents seize $38M value of meth hidden in kale shipment

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Southern California recently seized 5,788 kilos of methamphetamine hidden inside a shipment of kale arriving from Mexico. 

The case occurred May 28 on the Otay Mesa port of entry, just south of San Diego. CBP officers checking a tractor-trailer discovered 268 packages of methamphetamine concealed throughout the shipment. 

The narcotics were tested and identified as methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $38.1 million.

CBP officers turned the motive force over to Homeland Security Investigations.

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