North Carolina’s Port of Wilmington expanding capabilities as efficient U.S. Southeast gateway

With extensive public and private investments delivering enhanced on-and near-port infrastructure, the North Carolina State Ports Authority is building upon already enviable efficiencies, including furthering the attractiveness of its Port of Wilmington as an uncongested gateway to U.S. Southeast markets and beyond.

“The last couple of years have certainly brought a number of challenges for supply chains, but we’ve made a lot of progress, both on port and off, and we anticipate a bright future, based on the investments being made and coming online,” Brian E. Clark, executive director of NC Ports, told AJOT.

As a former APM Terminals executive who joined the NC Ports team as a chief operating officer in mid-2017 and was elevated to executive director in January 2021, Clark is no stranger to advancing marine terminal efficiencies, but achievements at the Port of Wilmington are likely the highlight of an industry career spanning three decades.

Public investments alone at the Port of Wilmington, as well as NC Ports’ bulk- and breakbulk-focused Port of Morehead City, have surpassed the $300 million mark, according to Clark, who is now sharing his expertise on a broad scale as a recent appointee to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Transportation System National Advisory “The last couple of years have certainly brought a number of challenges for supply chains, but we’ve made a lot of progress, both on port and off, and we anticipate a bright future, based on the investments being made and coming online,” Brian E. Clark, executive director of NC Ports, told AJOT.

A former APM Terminals executive who joined the NC Ports team as a chief operating officer in mid-2017 and was elevated to executive director in January 2021, Clark is no stranger to advancing marine terminal efficiencies, but achievements at the Port of Wilmington are likely the highlight of an industry career spanning three decades.

Public investments alone at the Port of Wilmington, as well as NC Ports’ bulk- and breakbulk-focused Port of Morehead City, have surpassed the $300 million mark, according to Clark, who is now sharing his expertise on a broad scale as a recent appointee to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee, or MTSNAC.

The latest funding boost for NC Ports comes with the August announcement of an $18 million USDOT Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, grant for the creation of a Port of Wilmington intermodal rail facility that, over the next decade, should divert nearly 250,000 containers from trucks to trains.

The most visible project completed this year at the Port of Wilmington is a new container interchange gate complex. Opened in February, the facility increases overall capacity, taking the combined number of inbound and outbound lanes to 13, while bringing new technologies, including a Navis N4 terminal operating system and a customer access portal for the trucking community.

“It has introduced some new levels of efficiency,” said Clark, noting that Wilmington is already known for superior East Coast truck turn times. 

Also in Wilmington, the ground has been broken for the second phase of a state-of-industry refrigerated container yard, complementing a first phase opened in 2020. By a year from now, the yard should offer 700 additional reefer plugs, bringing the total number of such plugs to more than 1,500.

Temperature-controlled cargos continue to represent a key sector at the Port of Wilmington, with private-sector development playing a crucial role.

Cold Summit Development looks to break ground by yearend on a 280,000-square-foot cold storage facility representing the first phase of a two-phase project on port-owned property situated about a mile from the front gate.

Now under construction is RL Cold’s development of a 300,000-square-foot facility on a 29-acre site 13 miles from the port.

“We’re extremely excited about the private investment that’s taking place, not just on our property but near-port as well,” Clark said.

On the non-refrigerated cargo side, Port City Logistics Inc. is embarking on a 150,000-square-foot cross-dock facility for dry commodities on port-owned property just outside the Port of Wilmington gate. And The Scoular Co.’s on-port grain transload facility is now entering its second season in operation.

Meanwhile, the Port of Wilmington’s rail connectivity is expanding. The Queen City Express, inaugurated in 2016 in conjunction with CSX, is on pace for another record volume year, and it is being augmented by the start-up of the Wilmington Midwest Express, serving Chicago, St. Louis, and Northwest Ohio markets via the new CSX hub in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

“Today, obviously with the congestion in other ports, carriers are looking for options,” Clark said, “and this is an option that is getting tested, and we are very confident in it, with our ability to deliver Chicago in five days.”

Carriers serving the Port of Wilmington include Sealand, which added its second weekly Latin American service last year; Crowley Maritime, with longstanding Central America service; Independent Container Line, with trans-Atlantic European service; Bahri, with fortnightly calls from the Middle East and India; and members of THE Alliance and Zim/2M Alliance, with weekly services from China and South Korea via the Panama Canal.

The Port of Wilmington also has received numerous ad-hoc calls, including a half-dozen trial calls from CMA CGM’s Chesapeake Bay Express service from China and South Korea via the Panama Canal. Clark said discussions are proceeding with CMA CGM in hopes of landing a regular spot on that rotation.

At the Port of Morehead City, which is currently operating at or near capacity, $30 million is being invested in berth reconstruction and a new 75,000-square-foot warehouse that should be ready in about a year.