Bridge collapse halts ships at busy Baltimore Port: Local, national businesses react to service disruptions

BALTIMORE, Md. (DC News Now) — Inside LP Steamers crab shack near Baltimore’s tourist-driven inner harbor, lunch hour is steady as employee anxiety grows after the Fort McHenry bridge collapse shuttered ships from entering the Charm City.

“No one knows right now,” said Alexi Rogers, a server at the crab shack where Old Bay seasoning dominates the dining room air.

“A lot of our income and a lot of our business is through tourists, and people staying at the hotels or like people down in Fort McHenry right down the street,” she said, adding, “

Access to The Port of Baltimore south of downtown is shuttered, as mangled metal protrudes from the city’s main thoroughfare to the Chesapeake Bay.

Obviously, your first concern is like people that were injured or passed away or whatever from the accident, but then the fallback of everyone, that is so, so many people are employed through there,” Rogers said before returning to her Tuesday shift.

The Port of Baltimore said some operations remained online despite the blockade toward the Chesapeake Bay, saying, “trucks are being processed within our marine terminals…’ ‘at this time we do not know how long vessel traffic will be suspended. As soon as that is determined we will provide an update. Until then please keep those involved in your prayers.”

At least six cargo ships remained docked at the port midday Tuesday, according to tracking data from MarineTraffic.

More than 80 billion dollars in foreign goods, and 1 million shipping containers came in and out of the Port of Baltimore just last year, according to the Maryland Port Administration.

Vehicle, alone account for a large portion of what’s processed; over 800,000 reported by the state in 2023.

Business Professor Ayman Omar from American University says shipping delays in Baltimore could make an already dried-up supply of vehicle demand matters worse.

“Short term, we’re not going to see it that quickly, long-term if that trend continues, if we don’t have a resumption in operations at the port of Baltimore, now we start seeing that shortage even expand as we move forward and that’s where you see the cost of the products go up,” Omar said via Zoom.

Companies are already responding to potential shipping disruptions. In a statement provided to DC News Now parent company of the Domino Sugar refinery–adorned by its towering red signage–said they expect “no short term impact” thanks to “6 to 8 weeks of raw sugar supply on hand.”

“ASR Group [Domino parent company] also owns a network of production facilities and has warehouses across the U.S. that all currently have healthy inventories of finished products and can be utilized if necessary,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for Amazon told DC News Now, the online retail giant is “assessing the immediate and future impacts to employees and delivery partners, as well as the surrounding community, and will make any adjustments or operations that are needed.“

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