Ports of the Americas
Special Report
2023. The spending is expected to peak at close to $ 440 billion in 2028.
While Virginia leads the US in already installed data centers, Texas is seeing the most growth in new data centers and related power generation, according to 451 Research. As measured in power demand, Texas data centers are expected to grow 37 % this year, a faster rate than Virginia.
Outside of those two, other states are seeing more investment as data center builders opt for lower-cost land and energy, according to the report. SpaceX is looking to build a fourth data center near Memphis, part of a $ 20 billion investment planned across Tennessee and Mississippi. Louisiana is the site of Meta’ s planned $ 50 billion Hyperion data center, the company’ s largest, which will take the power equivalent of 5 million homes. Amazon is looking to add three more sites in central Ohio by 2030.
“ Especially in Midwest, mid-south, we’ ve seen a lot of industrial buildout and construction projects,” De Montigny said.“ Some are data centers, some are power generation tied to data centers, and power generation that goes to support the grid.”
“ When you look at their map and what we have, it’ s almost like a perfect puzzle.”
Outside of project and breakbulk cargoes, Enstructure’ s traditional bulk commodities business is also experiencing significant gains of late. De Montigny said shipments of aggregates such as cement have seen sharp growth, thanks in part to major infrastructure projects and highway construction.
The boom in data center investment comes as another area of US infrastructure investment, offshore wind, faces a slowdown. The Trump administration has paid for $ 4 billion to cancel leases for major offshore wind projects and has paused further permitting of offshore wind.
Denmark’ s Orsted, which is developing several large offshore wind projects out of Enstructure’ s New London, Conn., terminal, has won legal injunctions to keep its work going. Satnick said those current projects have a pipeline through 2028, but offshore wind faces a“ gap” after that.
Even so, he added that Enstructure’ s diverse cargo profile and newly enlarged terminal network will offset any slowdown in specific markets.
“ Any given year, you’ re going to have pockets of strength and weakness,” Satnick said.“ This network is able to support a wide range of industrial end-markets. We’ re not going to be in a situation where the business is riding one market.”
email: michael. angell @ spglobal. com
Prince Rupert’ s big bulkto-container transload facility debuts
By Michael Angell
Canada’ s Port of Prince Rupert has completed work on a major export transload facility that will provide ocean carriers more backhaul freight and advance the country’ s new focus on diversifying trade away from the United States. In a joint statement Aug. 28, Ray-Mont Logistics, Canadian National Railway, and the Prince Rupert Port Authority said the Canxport transload facility, which the three sponsored, has opened three years after breaking ground. The C $ 750 million project covers 115 acres on Ridley Island and includes grain silos and other agriculture storage, dedicated transload sites for bulk commodities, a container and intermodal yard, and three rail tracks. Canxport, which will be operated by Ray-Mont, will initially provide 400,000 TEUs of transload capacity for bulk commodity exporters, with the ability to increase to 750,000 TEUs. Resins, grains, minerals, lumber, and pulp products will be the main exports handled at the site. Canxport would provide a boost to throughput at Prince Rupert’ s Fairview Container Terminal, which can handle 1.6 million TEUs annually but has been underutilized. Fairview saw container volume reach 885,797 TEUs in 2025, which was up 20 % from the year before but below the 1.2 million-TEU mark the terminal hit in 2019, according to the Prince Rupert Port Authority’ s annual report. Prince Rupert has served primarily as a faster intermodal gateway for imports via Canadian National’ s service into the US Midwest. Import containers outweigh laden exports three to one, with empty containers making up the remainder. Prince Rupert port has said offering laden export containers would be critical in attracting and retaining ocean carriers. Canada’ s trade war with the US has also given the country extra incentive to help find new overseas markets for its products, with the federal government pledging incentives to help boost the nation’ s trade infrastructure.
Charleston looks to deepen rest of shipping channel
By Michael Angell dypics / Getty Images
The Port of Charleston is taking the first step to bring big ships into its smallest container terminal by agreeing to a dredging study alongside the US Army Corps of Engineers. The South Carolina Ports Authority( SC Ports) said on Aug. 28 it signed an agreement with the US Army Corps to study dredging the Cooper River from its current 48-foot depth to 52 feet. The river leads into the North Charleston Terminal( NCT). Charleston dredged its main harbor to 52 feet in 2022, allowing the port to handle two-way vessel traffic at its two other
42 Journal of Commerce | October 5, 2026 www. joc. com