Port of Baltimore expected to rebound quickly following dockworkers’ strike

Listen to this article

The Port of Baltimore is expected to recover quickly and could even see a temporary spike in vessel traffic rerouting from larger ports as dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports returned to work Friday after their union reached a deal to pause their strike.

The International Longshoremen’s Association suspended its three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, said in a joint statement that they had reached a tentative agreement on wages, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Each of the public marine terminals at the Port of Baltimore resumed working on Friday, and it won’t take long for operations to return to pre-strike levels, Maryland Port Administration spokesman Richard Scher said in an email.

“Fortunately, this was a short duration work stoppage, similar to a winter weather event for a few days that can impact cargo-handling activities,” Scher wrote. “We are scheduled to have ships in this weekend.”

RELATED: Port strikes extend a new era of American labor activism

The union has three local chapters at the Port of Baltimore, representing roughly 2,000 workers working at six public terminals, according to a 2023 economic impact study. The majority of cargo handled at the port goes through its private terminals, some of which don’t use union labor.

The Port of Baltimore’s major imports, including vehicles, containers and farm and construction equipment, go through the public terminals.

Brant Matthews, executive in residence of operations management at Loyola University Maryland, said in a phone interview that he expects the broader supply chain to stabilize “in a week or two.”

Ports may operate with longer hours to work through backlogs that have accumulated, he said.

Baltimore was scheduled to handle three container ships over the weekend at the Seagirt container terminal and five ships with roll on/roll off cargo at Dundalk, Scher said.

Ports America Chesapeake, which operates the port’s Seagirt container terminal and is normally open Monday through Friday, has also planned to open Saturday morning to process trucks.

During the brief strike, larger ports along the Eastern Seaboard accumulated backlogs that will take time to clear.

There were 14 ships queued outside the Port of New York and New Jersey and 15 outside the Port of Savannah as of Thursday, according to data from Everstream Analytics published in Reuters.

For shipping companies responsible for cargo that may spoil and those looking to avoid long queues at larger ports, Baltimore may be an attractive reroute option, said Robert Burdette, vice president of strategy for Shapiro, a global supply chain logistics company based in Baltimore.

“Baltimore might get busy,” Burdette said in a phone interview Friday. “This might be good for Baltimore in the short term.”

The Port of Baltimore is “notoriously efficient” and its vessel volume hasn’t fully rebounded since the Key Bridge collapsed, potentially positioning its terminals to handle rerouted shipments, Burdette said.

The port was partially closed for 11 weeks between late March and early June after the massive cargo ship Dali lost power and collided with a support pillar for the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the structure to collapse. The disaster killed six men who were working roadway construction on the bridge.

The number of steamship lines that will declare force majeure — a legal clause allowing them to suspend or alter their contractual obligations due to extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, including strikes — and consider unloading at Baltimore will become more clear around Tuesday, Burdette said.

By then, companies will have had time to determine where their cargo should go and, if necessary, to receive authorization from a different port.