The remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, hit by a container ship, in Baltimore (Maryland), March 26, 2024 (AFP/Jim WATSON)
The American port of Baltimore, a nerve center for international maritime trade, was at a standstill on Tuesday after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge, hit by a container ship.
President Joe Biden said he “intends that the federal government will pay the entire cost of reconstruction” of the structure located in the state of Maryland, in the northeast of the country, on which 34,000 vehicles travel every day .
“And I hope that Congress will support my efforts,” he said Tuesday during a speech from the White House, warning that “it will take time.”
Because behind this bridge is the Port of Baltimore, an important arrival or departure point for container ships. In 2023, 1.1 million containers, or, in maritime transport jargon, TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, the sector’s reference unit), were loaded and unloaded there.
However, after the collapse of the bridge, maritime transport was suspended in both directions until further notice, which risks causing significant economic damage.
“The Port of Baltimore is one of the largest maritime hubs in the country,” Joe Biden further underlined, promising to “put it back into service as soon as possible”.
He announced that the Army Corps of Engineers was “on site” to help “clear the way” on the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay, which connects Baltimore to the Atlantic Ocean.
“There is no doubt” that the temporary shutdown of the port “will have a major and prolonged impact on supply chains,” warned Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a press briefing Tuesday after -noon.
“It is too early to have estimates as to the clearing of the channel and the reopening of the port,” he added, specifying that “the majority of the port of Baltimore is of course inside the channel which been blocked.”
– 800,000 new cars –
The port of Baltimore, created in the 17th century to export tobacco to England, was in 2023 the gateway to the United States for more than 52 million tons of foreign goods, worth more than 80 billion dollars, according to a recent press release from the state’s governor, Wes Moore.
“With the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016, to allow larger ships to pass through”, these gigantic boats loaded with goods can directly, from Asia, reach the Atlantic coast, details the website of the State of Maryland.
Baltimore has been, for 13 years, the American port through which the most new cars pass, more than 800,000 last year. Whether these are vehicles manufactured in the United States and exported internationally, or, conversely, foreign vehicles imported into the United States.
Joe Biden during a speech at the White House in Washington, March 26, 2024 (AFP/PEDRO UGARTE)
This is also where most imports of sugar and gypsum – a mineral used to make plaster – arrive and where a significant quantity of American coal sold internationally leaves.
It now ranks ninth among U.S. ports in terms of foreign cargo handled and value of foreign cargo.
The goods, once unloaded in Baltimore, are then only one night by train or truck from a third of the American population.
Several cruise lines also offer departures from Baltimore, or stop there.
Thus, more than 15,000 jobs directly depend on the Port of Baltimore, and, indirectly, nearly 140,000 additional jobs.
© 2024 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends using the buttons below.
