In a race to lure jumbo cargo ships up the Mississippi River, Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District has signed a preliminary deal with APM Terminals to build a 900-acre container terminal about 20 miles south of the Port of New Orleans.
Under terms of the agreement, Plaquemines Port will lease the land to APM Terminals for at least 30 years. The initial construction phase will begin with a 200-acre development that includes a container terminal with on-dock railing and a berth capable of handling ships that carry 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.
The land is on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, about 50 nautical miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico. The agreement includes options to expand the terminal and other logistics activities up to 900 acres.
“In time, this greenfield site has all the potential to evolve into one of the big ship gateways into the U.S.,” Wim Lagaay, APM’s senior investment advisor to the CEO, said in a recent news release. “This venture allows us to build from the ground up, integrating cutting-edge technologies and sustainable practices to create a modern logistics hub that prioritizes safety, efficiency, and productivity.”
Officials for Plaquemines Port said the new terminal will be the largest container terminal located closest to the mouth of the Mississippi River, offering potential for new business.
“This will truly make Plaquemines ‘The Louisiana Gateway Port’ … . [T]he geographic and strategic advantages are overwhelming,” Charles D. Tillotson, executive director of the Plaquemines Port, said in a statement.
The project is in addition to the $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal project underway at the Port of New Orleans. The container terminal will be capable of handling 2 million TEUs annually and ultralarge container vessels once it is completed in 2028.
The Port of New Orleans was recently awarded a $73.77 million federal grant to advance the first construction phase of the $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal project.
The project is a partnership among the Port of New Orleans, New Jersey-based Ports America and Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s investment arm, Terminal Investment Ltd. The partnership has already committed $800 million toward the Louisiana International Terminal.
Officials for the Port of New Orleans did not immediately return a request for comment from FreightWaves regarding the agreement between APM Terminals and Plaquemines Port.
APM Terminals and Plaquemines Port first signed a letter of intent in 2021 to develop the new container facility, announcing “external parties will be the investor in the new port.”
The 2021 initiative fell through when the external investor did not come to fruition. The current plans involve only APM Terminals and Plaquemines Port.
APM estimates the initial investment in terminal infrastructure will be $500 million, which will be privately funded. The company did not identify the source of funding for the project.
The Plaquemines site would become the fifth terminal operated by APM in the U.S., and its 64th globally. APM Terminals is based in the Netherlands and is a division of A.P. Moller-Maersk. The company operates in 38 countries and employs 22,000 people. In 2022, APM handled 30,000 vessel calls at its terminals.
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