Portland’s International Marine Terminal is headed for another record-breaking year without the shipping-container congestion and delays that have plagued larger ports on the East and West coasts. The volume of shipping containers crossing the docks at the terminal has increased by more than 20 percent a year on average since the state started investing tens of millions of dollars to modernize and expand the terminal more than a decade ago.
Last year, the terminal saw a 32 percent increase in cargo for an annual record of 38,174 shipping containers. So far this year, the port is on track to surpass that.
Imports and exports are up another 31 percent for the first seven months of 2022, compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Maine Port Authority. Andrew Haines, executive vice president of Eimskip, the port’s only container company, said the company expects the 30 percent figure to hold through the rest of the year.