Port of New Orleans
Gary LaGrange, president and CEO

FTZ No. 2
Big Ship Ready: No
Rail: BNSF, CN, CSX, KCS, NS, UP
Highways: I-10, I-12, U.S. 55, U.S. 59, U.S. 90
Days to Panama Canal: 15
Top Exports: Forest Products, Steel, Food
Cargo Types: Bulk, Containers

What infrastructure additions has the port made to support shippers over the past two years?
We continue to develop incrementally our Napoleon Avenue container terminal, a 12-acre site with a near-dockside rail facility that will take us from our capacity of 640,000 TEUs to 840,000 approaching the magical million number. In fact, we have a footprint for 1.7 million.

What’s your most under-appreciated asset?
I think the Mississippi River. It’s a God-given gift for us. No other port anywhere can boast of a river that has navigable waterways for 14,500 miles into 33 states and three Canadian provinces; that’s our market area. Because of the Mississippi, all six class-one railroads came here, giving customers direct access to a 133,000-mile rail network.

What’s your elevator pitch?
I think the fact that we’re a multi-purpose, general cargo port. I’d talk about all the improvements, the $20 billion in flood gates since Katrina, the fact that we’re a value-added port with $80 billion of indirect foreign investment and that New Orleans is not a Louisiana port, it’s a port of national significance in the global community.

Port Tampa Bay
Paul Anderson, president & CEO

FTZ No. 79
Big Ship Ready: No
Rail: CSX
Highways: I-4, I-75, I-275, U.S. 41, U.S. 301
Days to Brazil: 12
Top Exports: Phosphates, Citrus Pellets, Scrap Metal
Cargo Types: Containers, Break Bulk, Liquid Bulk

What infrastructure additions has the port made to support shippers over the past two years?
A new dedicated truck ramp directly into and out of the port, so that we have direct ramp onto the interstate system, which greatly reduces truck time from dock to the interstate. No traffic lights, very seamless. Number two, we have on order for delivery in early 2016 two brand new Post-Panamax gantry cranes. That was a critical factor in our container expansion strategy.

What’s your most under-appreciated asset?
It’s our proximity to this huge and expanding local market that is currently 8 million residents and over 60 million visitors last year.

What type of cargo does your port specialize in and what assets offer shippers advantages with this type of cargo?
Our strength is our diversity in cargo. We’re the largest port in cargo tonnage in the area. We have a diverse mix of bulk, break bulk and container traffic to a huge and expanding global market. We’re a major fertilizer port—one of the largest in the nation for phosphate. It’s very strategic for us and, I believe, for the nation.

PORTMIAMI
Kevin T. Lynskey, chief operating officer

FTZ No. 281
Big Ship Ready: Target of July 2015
Rail: Florida East Coast Railway
Highways: I-95, I-395
Top Exports: Woven knitted Fabrics, Machinery, Food
Cargo Types: Containers

What infrastructure additions has your port made to support shippers over the past two years?
PortMiami will be a 50 feet of water depth come August of this year. The second major investment came online last year and it was a tunnel that connects PortMiami to the highway system. And the third major access project is the intermodal rail program that we’ve put together with our partner FEC Rail. That includes a $50 million investment to create an on-dock intermodal yard at the port of Miami.

What’s your biggest locational advantage?
We are the shopping cart of America when it comes to containerized cargo trade, whereby by we import goods from all over the world and re-export them into the Americas. Secondly, we’re the first port for a vessel transiting the Panama Canal heading up the East Coast of the United States.

What exciting developments are on the horizon?
After we’ve improved our three modes of access for ships, trucks and intermodal rail, we plan on improving our crane capacity and density of our cargo yards. As the ships planning to call on Miami are getting larger, we have to be more efficient on the dock and in the terminal.

Alabama State Port Authority
FTZ No. 82
Big Ship Ready: No
Rail: BNSF, CN, CSX, NS, Kansas City Southern, CG Railway, Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks
Highways: I-10, I-65, U.S. 43, U.S. 45, U.S. 90, U.S. 98
Top Exports: Coal, Metals, Forest Products
Cargo Types: Containers, Dry Bulk, Ro/Ro

PORT MANATEE, FLORIDA
FTZ No. 169
Big Ship Ready: Yes
Rail: CSX
Highways: I-75, I-275
Days to Costa Rica: 3
Top Exports: Phosphate, General Cargo, Containerized Cargo
Cargo Types: Break Bulk, Dry Bulk, Liquid Bulk

PORT CANAVERAL
FTZ No. 136
Big Ship Ready: Yes
Rail: Florida East Coast Railway
Highways: I-95, U.S. 1, SR 528
Days to Bahamas: 1
Top Exports: Concentrate/SS Juice, Cars/Trucks, Heavy Equipment
Cargo Types: Break Bulk, Liquid Bulk, Dry Bulk