Older Ports Are Still In the Competition
TLMT331
Professor Tommy Rector

The port business generates many jobs, economic output, and tax revenues. The port brings thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in federal and local investment. When ports like Baltimore and Philadelphia were originally built, they were not built to handle the amount of tonnage coming through now. Back then there were smaller shipments and the trading process was not at a high. The older ports were primarily used for shipping coffee, oil, and cooper. Trade is very important for the continued growth of the United States economy and size definitely matters. In order for the older ports to be able to compete they will need maritime access, updated equipment and technology, and land alliances to complete the overall mission.
Changing the maritime access is the number one way older ports like Baltimore and Philadelphia can stay in the competition. The older ports had to change the physical capacity in order to accommodate larger ships. The Baltimore port will have a bigger advantage over some of the other older ports. The reason being is that they will not be limited to the way ships come to them. Other ports have bridges that do not have the proper clearance for ships to pass underneath. In order to get through, they may have to reconstruct the bridges so that the top has a way to open when ships come. Ships arriving and leaving the Norfolk areas has the ability to get to the port due to bridge lifts.
Another way that the older ports can continue to compete with the newer ports is by obtaining new equipment and technology. The locations must have infrastructures such as piers, basins, stacking, or storage areas, and equipment such as cranes. In 2011, the port chief of Baltimore mentioned that they were building a 50 foot deep berth along with four new long-reaching cargo cranes at the Seagrit Marine Terminal. This would allow them to receive an increase of larger ships that will pass through the Panama Canal in order to get to them. The increase will not only allow the Baltimore port to receive larger ships, this would allow the ports to be part of the international trade with shipments coming from Asia and China. Larger ships would come through and the port would be able to offload and on load the thousands of units transported with their long reaching cargo cranes. Also if the ports could stack containers on top