SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
FLORIDA TRADE AND LOGISTICS platform The Observatory of Economic Complexity( OEC). Imports, including vehicles, aircraft and phones, totaled $ 117 billion in 2024.
It should come as no surprise that Port Tampa Bay continues to see doubledigit growth in its container business— it’ s the closest port to the Tampa Bay / Orlando Interstate 4 Corridor, the fastestgrowing region in the state.
The I-4 Corridor houses Florida’ s largest concentration of distribution centers, with more than 550 million square feet of space between Tampa and Orlando. Companies such as IKEA, Rooms to Go, PepsiCo, Lowe’ s and Kane’ s Furniture have recently constructed or expanded their distribution center capacity.
“ The I-4 corridor is the impetus for our container growth,” said Greg Lovelace, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Port Tampa Bay.“ The demand for shipping services has never been greater, and we’ re investing in our facilities to ensure that the container lines will deliver containers to the doorstep of I-4, at Port Tampa Bay.”
An expanding container gateway for distribution centers and manufacturers, this central location allows multiple roundtrip deliveries daily from Port Tampa Bay, compared with the traditional routes via congested out-of-state ports. Importers and exporters can save on truck drayage costs to serve the entire state and reach markets throughout the Southeast. The I-4 Expressway connector has a dedicated Port Tampa Bay traffic ramp.
“ Our proximity in Central Florida provides a geographic advantage to best serve the Florida market by reducing trucking costs and truck emissions,” Lovelace said.
Port Everglades’ location and multimodal connectivity give it a competitive edge in today’ s shifting supply chain landscape.
“ Few ports can match our multimodal integration. We have direct access to the interstate highway network, Florida’ s Turnpike and the Florida East Coast Railway’ s 43-acre intermodal container transfer facility,” said Joseph Morris, CEO and port director at Port Everglades.“ This means cargo can be on a ship, train or truck within minutes and in key consumer states within days. It’ s seamless and scalable.”
On the cargo front, Port Everglades anticipates sustained upward momentum driven by demographic growth in Latin
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America and the addition of new cargo service rotations calling at the port.
In March, the Seaspan Lima made its inaugural call to Port Tampa Bay, as part of Maersk’ s new America Shuttle 2 service. Maersk announced plans last fall to add a weekly container service connecting Port Tampa Bay with Cartagena, Colombia, as part of its new global East-West Network under the Gemini Cooperation.
This service dramatically expands the port’ s connectivity to West Coast South America, East Coast South America and the Caribbean via Maersk’ s worldwide network. The partnership will develop further as Hapag-Lloyd joins America Shuttle 2.
“ We’ re delivering the services that the market demands,” Lovelace said.“ We listen
to the BCOs [ beneficial cargo owners ] and pursue the trade lanes they want.”
Tampa Bay has also signed new leases, including one with Agunsa, a global ocean transportation and logistics solutions company headquartered in Chile. Agunsa is leasing 18 acres at the Eastport site to operate a multipurpose cargo terminal, and another 15 acres at Hookers Point to develop a transload warehouse distribution facility.
In addition, three tenants have debuted at Port Redwing, Tampa Bay’ s southernmost site, and brought new volumes of aggregates, including limestone, granite, crushed concrete and other cementitious products. Ajax Paving has leased a 10-acre parcel, Redwing Terminals leased a 14-acre site, and Pangaea a two-acre site.
However, with the Trump administration’ s tariff implications continuing to evolve, the state could see stunted economic growth as sourcing strategies are reshaped.
“ The current tariff environment is impacting customer behavior, as some are pressing pause on bookings or asking our team for alternate options,” Trailer Bridge CEO Mitch Luciano said.“ While we’ re feeling the tariffs’ immediate impacts, we anticipate that Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic could play a role in nearshoring as shippers look for alternate source markets.
Trailer Bridge has a strong focus on the Caribbean market, with a significant presence in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
“ We continue to invest in our assets, whether it’ s our fleet of oceangoing barges or containers and chassis, to provide customers with safe and reliable transportation modes for their freight,” Luciano said.“ We’ re also investing in technology to provide the information our customers want and need to ensure visibility and safety throughout their freight’ s journey.”
In addition, Trailer Bridge is expanding its service offerings in response to customer needs.
As of February 2025, Florida ranks as the No. 6 exporter and No. 12 importer among all US states and territories.
“ A few years ago, our customers in Puerto Rico expressed they wanted to expand their business with us so they could enjoy our level of service beyond their Puerto Rico-to-US trade lane,” Luciano said.“ We added a freight forwarding and NVO division to the business. Now, we can help customers ship freight all over the world.”
Trailer Bridge owns its oceangoing deck barges and containers, allowing the company to offer a direct, assetbased service between the US and the Caribbean. This ownership provides control over the entire transportation process, from pickup to delivery, and over schedules and costs.
“ Our asset-based services serve as the foundation of our business, but we also provide non-asset-based transportation services,” Luciano said.“ Combining the two gives us the flexibility to serve today’ s shipper with a solution that suits their needs. Floridabased shippers can tap into the fleet to get same-day or next-day service. We have the containers, chassis and a fleet of owner-operators ready to move the equipment where it needs to go.” n
email: nicole. rollender @ strandwritingservices. com
June 2, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 51