Commerce, Transportation Secretaries note importance of water ports

Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore, Md., welcomed Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for a White House-led roundtable on the importance of ports in the national economy and for job creation on Monday (March 7).

The 3,100-acre multimodal industrial site features a unique combination of access to deepwater berths, railroads and highways, similar to those in Little Rock, Fort Smith and other areas along the Arkansas River.

Each of the cabinet secretaries, as well as many other officials and leaders of industry, toured Tradepoint’s facilities, which are best known for housing the Bethlehem Steel manufacturing plant that once served as a linchpin for the Maryland economy. The facility is now working toward becoming a modern crossroad on the East Coast for supply chain logistics, transportation, distribution and manufacturing operations.

“As we continue to realize our vast potential in the global transportation and logistics space, the continued and ongoing support of both the state and federal governments is absolutely vital,” said Michael Moore, CEO of Tradepoint Atlantic. “We feel the timing is appropriate for our government leaders to highlight the opportunities brought by projects such as ours, and the role U.S. ports play in economic growth, job creation and transportation development.”

Foxx, Perez, and Pritzker, issued commendations for Tradepoint Atlantic and the Port of Baltimore in a joint blog post following the event, remarking that the pair are “catalyzing economic growth in the Baltimore region and creating jobs.”

“In the last few years, logistics, shipping and manufacturing companies have started to make investments in the zone around the Port,” the trio explain. “For example, Amazon has invested in a major new local facility near the Port, which has created more than 3,500 jobs. A new manufacturing firm, Blueprint Robotics, will open this summer and  plans to employ more than 100 people in its first year. These new jobs build on the existing economic footprint of the Port, which supports 14,600 direct jobs and is responsible for $3 billion in combined wages and salaries.”