New Data: Baltimore Exports Moved To Other Ports After Bridge Collapse

The Port of Baltimore was one of the nation’s leading seaports for a number of exports prior to the containership Dali striking and destroying the main span of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in late March — coal, commercial vehicles, tractors and more.

The seaport had its worst month for exports in more than two decades in April, according to my analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released last week.

The good news is that the shipping channel has just reopened, a pretty amazing and quick turnaround for the nation’s eighth-ranked U.S. seaport by value and tonnage in 2023. The bridge’ span over the federal channel, which will be replaced and presumably raised to standards and needs of 21st Century shipping, will likely take years.

With the shipping channel open, the challenge is getting back the imports that shifted to the Port of Newark, the Port of Brunswick, the Port of Virginia and elsewhere on the Eastern Seaboard, as I reported last week, as well as the exports like coal, tractors and commercial vehicles that are the subject of this column.

One of the biggest declines in April — more than 97% — was coal, which had been the seaport’s top-ranked export by tonnage for 249 of the previous 250 months.

In ceding its top ranking to LNG exports, coal accounted for less than 10% of the total tonnage for April, a stunning decline. For all but seven of the previous two decades, coal had accounted for better than 50% of the port’s export tonnage. For 174 of the last 250 months, coal has accounted for more than 70% of the total tonnage.

In those first weeks of March, before the bridge collapse, coal leaving the seaport was shipped to countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, North America and the Caribbean.

In April, the port’s severely limited coal exports went to only one country, India.

The Port of Baltimore’s market share of coal exports dropped from 24% in 2023 to 0.67% in April. By tonnage, those exports dropped from 51% to 1%, according to the Census Bureau data.

Picking up those exports was the Port of Virginia, which saw its market share increase from 12% in March to 51% in April. On the import side, the Port of Virginia also saw an increase in self-propelled construction equipment, which had fallen at the Baltimore seaport.

Looking at a second export, as was the case with coal, the Port of Baltimore led the nation in tractors going into March. In 2023, it had accounted for 23% of all tractor exports by value. In the month of April, that fell to 0.5%.

The Port of Brunswick, Ga., increased its market share from 2.4% to 14%. The Port of Brunswick is a major passenger-vehicle port, particularly for imports, which had led me to predict that it would be the most logical alternative to the Port of Baltimore. That turned out to be the case.

A third export important to the Port of Baltimore that suffered was passenger vehicles. In 2023, its percentage of the highly dispersed export market was 6.4%, enough for a No. 5 ranking, third on the Eastern Seaboard. It fell to 0.32% in April.

Finally, commercial vehicles. The Port of Baltimore ranked third nationally last year, accounting for 7.3% of the total. That dropped to 0.78% in April. The second most important market by value in 2023 had been Sweden, accounting for 10% of all Baltimore’s commercial vehicle exports.

But with the collapse, exports from Baltimore, which had accounted for 54% of its total fell to zero, the shift going to the Port of Wilmington, Delaware, which captured not only those from Baltimore but the remaining 46% from the Port of Newark.

With its port now open, Baltimore should show a vast improvement in its numbers for May, the statistics for which will be released in early July.