World Report

Ports on the Mississippi are not only huge export terminals but also host major enterprises

or more than two centuries the great Mississippi River has been the main artery along which the produce of America’s mid-west has been transported. This huge river and its tributaries connect with two-thirds of the North American market. Sprawling over 54 miles of the river, between New Orleans and the Louisiana state capital Baton Rouge, is the Port of South Louisiana (PSL) – the third largest port in the world after Singapore and Rotterdam. Some 60 per cent of all US grain is exported from here; petrochemicals are the second main export.

Joseph Accardo
‘We have maintained a stable position despite the global recession’

More than 50,000 barges and 4,000 ocean-going vessels call at PSL each year, making it the top-ranked port in the US for export tonnage. It also hosts four major oil refineries that refine more than one million barrels of oil daily.

“Most of what we ship is either food or fuel-related and there’s a need for both in the global market, which is why we’ve maintained a stable position despite the recession,” says Joseph Accardo, Executive Director and Chief Executive of PSL.

He says that ten “outstanding” industrial sites with deep-water facilities have been identified for further dock construction. “We can offer tax-exempt or taxable bonds to help finance development. We have a lot of land available for industries from anywhere in the world that want to build a plant or plan a joint venture with a domestic company. Our speciality is heavy industry; we can offer excellent facilities for refineries and so on.”

Gary LaGrange
‘We want to build on the new logistic concepts like containerisation’

Robert Scafidel
‘During the next couple of years, we should double our tonnage’

The Port of New Orleans (PNO) is the largest importer of coffee, plywood, steel and rubber in the US. But Gary LaGrange, Executive Director of PNO, says: “We are a port in transition.
We want to build on the new modes of transportation and logistic concepts like containerisation.”
A new £64-million cargo container terminal has recently been completed, and a new terminal for cruise liners is under way.
PNO has opened an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s great industrial city. According to a recent study, trade between Latin America and 13 south-eastern US states will increase sixfold by 2020, and PNO wants to capitalise on this growth.

St Bernard Port is the region’s only port on the Mississippi River that can provide industrial land and the services of a deepwater port. It has recently undergone rehabilitation to provide a superior dock for heavy cargo and state-of-the-art warehousing.
The port’s Chalmette Slip is the only calm, deep-water slip on the river.
The attraction of St Bernard’s hundreds of acres of industrial land recently secured a new long-term tenant, a steel manufacturer.

Executive Director Robert Scafidel says: “We’ve increased our capacity – we now handle one million to 1.5 million tonnes a year. And in the next couple of years, we should double our tonnage.”