GNO, Inc. Sunday Night Highlights – LA Ports “All for One, One for All” 🚢

Collectively, the five deepwater ports of the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) are prodigious:

• Over 500 million short tons of cargo a year – more than any single U.S. port, and often described as the nation’s busiest port system
• 250+ miles of the Mississippi River ship channel, deepened to 50 feet to Baton Rouge, enabling full-laden New Panamax bulkers and tankers
• Handling over 60% of all U.S. grain exports (corn, soybeans, wheat) – moving down the Mississippi River system to the Gulf via this corridor
• Exporting >20% of the nation’s coal and petroleum cargoes
• Tied directly into 14,500 miles of inland navigable waterways, pulling freight from 30+ states into global markets

For decades, these ports – the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, Port of South Louisiana, Port of New Orleans, St. Bernard Port, and Port of Plaquemines – have operated independently. Now, under the recently created Ports and Waterways Investment Commission, this is changing. At its most recent meeting, the group identified collective priority investments, including:

• The Louisiana International Terminal in St. Bernard Parish
• The Peters Road Bridge in Plaquemines, to connect to Jefferson Parish
• A new deepwater dock in Ascension Parish to support Hyundai Steel ⤵️

Specifically, the Hyundai dock project in Ascension Parish, part of a $6 billion investment, is one of the first tangible results of this new collaboration: the Port of South Louisiana will build and operate a new $26 million deepwater dock on land controlled by the Port of Baton Rouge.

This synchronization comes at a time when Louisiana is doubling down on international trade. The Landry administration has launched a new global strategy that narrows Louisiana’s focus to Japan, Australia, and select European countries – markets where opportunities align with the state’s strengths in energy, aerospace, and logistics. To manage the effort, Louisiana has contracted with the World Trade Center of New Orleans.

You can read more about Louisiana’s port collaboration here.

You can read more about Louisiana’s international strategy and partnership with World Trade Center New Orleans here.