SeaPort Manatee reports record fiscal 2024 activity as hurricane recovery advances

While advancing recovery from damages caused by Hurricane Milton, SeaPort Manatee is reporting record cargo activity for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. At a meeting today [Tuesday, Nov. 19] of the Manatee County Port Authority, the maritime trade hub for Southwest and Central Florida also released a study showing the seaport’s annual economic impact has reached nearly $7.3 billion.

“The record levels of critical goods moving through SeaPort Manatee and the port’s overall major role in the regional economy underscore the importance of restoring severely damaged infrastructure and returning to fully normal operations as soon as possible,” said SeaPort Manatee Executive Director Carlos Buqueras, who appreciatively cited the $9.5 million recovery funding jumpstart announced Oct. 14 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

SeaPort Manatee sustained damages estimated at more than $200 million as a result of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall just south of the port on Oct. 9, but, through collaborative efforts, the port was able to resume crucial fuel distribution activities by Oct. 13.

Hurricane Milton hit as SeaPort Manatee officials were completing accounting of fiscal 2024 activity, which shows both total tonnage and containerized cargo units reaching their highest marks in the port’s 54-year history.

During the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, an all-time high of 11,810,062 tons of cargo moved through SeaPort Manatee, up 7.2 percent from fiscal 2023, while containerized cargo throughput reached a record 168,897 twenty-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs, up 1 percent from the preceding fiscal year.

Key commodities moving through SeaPort Manatee include fresh produce, fruit juices, construction and road-building materials, phosphate rock, and gasoline and other fuels.

“As we continue to work with private-sector partners and government authorities at all levels to get back to full-throttle business as soon as feasible, we recognize the imperative to do all we can to maintain the flow of a host of vital goods,” Buqueras said.

The newly released economic impact report, prepared by Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Martin Associates, shows SeaPort Manatee producing yearly economic impacts of $7,275,418,000 and responsible for creation of 42,094 Florida jobs. Those figures, respectively, are up 41.7 percent and 12.9 percent from two years earlier.

Located “Where Tampa Bay Meets the Gulf of Mexico,” SeaPort Manatee is a dynamic global trade hub, serving as the vibrant ships-to-shelves gateway for burgeoning Southwest and Central Florida markets, with convenient rail and roadway links, including to the distribution-center-filled Tampa/Orlando Interstate 4 corridor. The closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the expanded Panama Canal, SeaPort Manatee offers 10 deep-draft berths, proficiently fulfilling diverse demands of container, liquid and dry bulk, breakbulk, heavylift, project and general cargo customers. The self-sustaining port generates nearly $7.3 billion in annual economic impacts while providing for more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs – all without benefit of local property tax support.