Jaxport’s TraPac Container Terminal at Dames Point welcomed the largest vessel to ever call on Jacksonville’s seaport. The 6,600 TEU (containers) Yang Ming Milestone travelled from Southeast Asia through the Suez Canal and called on other U.S. east coast ports before arriving at TraPac Tuesday afternoon.
The Milestone is more than 1,000 feet in length and a breadth of 131 feet is too large to fit through the current Panama Canal locks.
TraPac Vice President and General Manager Dennis Kelly says the Milestone and other post-Panamax sized ships calling on Jacksonville as part of a regular rotation through the Suez Canal clearly illustrate the opportunities ahead.
“ This says we have the big ships today. They are already coming here. What we need now is a deeper harbor to enable them to load and unload even more cargo, to bring even more benefit to this region. The opening of the wider Panama locks in a few years will, of course, bring greater opportunities for Jacksonville, but clearly the Milestone and the other ships we are seeing coming to us through the Suez Canal now mean the industry already views us as a significant player .”
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Dredging Today Staff, February 2, 2012; Image: jaxport