Port of Mobile
Encyclopedia
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is the only deep-water port in the state, and was the 9th largest by tonnage
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
in the nation in 2008. It is located along the Mobile River
Mobile River
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the...
where it empties into Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
. The Port of Mobile has public, deepwater terminals with direct access to 1,500 miles of inland and intracoastal waterways serving the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, the Ohio
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
and Tennessee
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
river valleys (via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway
The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway is a 234-mile man-made, artificial waterway that extends from the Tennessee River to the junction of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system near Demopolis, Alabama, United States. The Tenneessee-Tombigbee Waterway links commercial navigation from the nation’s...
), and the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. The Alabama State Port Authority owns and operates the public terminals at the Port of Mobile. The public terminals handle containerized
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
, bulk
Bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...
, break bulk
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
, roll-on/roll-off, and heavy lift cargoes. The port is also home to private bulk terminal operators. The container, general cargo and bulk facilities have immediate access to two interstate
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
systems and five Class I railroad
Class I railroad
A Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...
s. Additionally, the CG Railway
CG Railway
The CG Railway is a terminal railroad as reported by the Association of American Railroads. The CGR is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama and is owned and operated by the International Shipholding Corporation. The railroad operates an approximate train ferry between the Port of Mobile at Mobile,...
operates from the port as a rail ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
service to Coatzacoalcos
Coatzacoalcos
Coatzacoalcos is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, on the Coatzacoalcos River. Coatzacoalcos comes from an indigenous word meaning "Site of the Snake" or "Where the snake hides"...
, Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
In 2008, the Port of Mobile had a trade volume of 67,635,501 tons. The Port of Mobile is the largest break bulk forest products port in the United States, and the Alabama State Port Authority's McDuffie Terminal is the second largest coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
terminal in the United States and largest import coal terminal.
The Alabama State Port Authority has announced $360M to be spent over five years to improve infrastructure at the port. Improvements may include land acquisition, new rail and inter-modal yards, cargo terminal improvements and enhancements to improve servicing of deep-water oil and gas field vessels and equipment Since 2000, the Port Authority has undergone nearly $500M in capital improvements and expansion projects to serve containerized, bulk and break bulk commodities. Improvements include a new rail ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
terminal, steel terminal to service ThyssenKrupp Steel USA's new $4.6 billion steel facility in Calvert, Alabama
Calvert, Alabama
Calvert is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 277. It is located in the extreme northeastern corner of the county near the Tombigbee River, along U.S. Route 43...
, new warehousing, a new container terminal, and expansions at McDuffie. The Port of Mobile has an estimated state wide economic impact approaching $8 billion annually.