Few places in international commerce hold the local relevance as the Port of New Orleans does in its home state of Louisiana—and to the US at large. It is estimated that port related activities generate one in five jobs in the entire state, paying 51% more than local salaries. Not to mention that it serves as a crucial exit route to US agricultural production—with some 34% of all US agricultural exports leaving the country through the Port of New Orleans alone.
In great part, this is due to the port’s strategic location. On the one hand, it allows southern agricultural producers to access the Gulf of Mexico, and ship their products across the world. On the other hand, the Port of New Orleans serves as a vital entry to the Mississippi river, enabling goods to flow further inland than at other Gulf of Mexico ports. Thus, it should come as no surprise that, in 2023 it ranked as the 26th largest in North America and 19th largest in the country—as well as the 5th largest in the Gulf of Mexico.
Given its importance, we at Desteia put together a list of the most important statistics about the port and its true impact on the US economy.
Where Is the Port of New Orleans Located?
The Port of New Orleans is located along the mouth of the Mississippi River, just little below one and a half miles away from Lafayette Square. In total, it occupies an area of 20 million square feet with five terminals for handling containerized cargo and 40 berths. To handle the hundreds of thousands of containers that arrive at the port each year, New Orleans has 12 cranes across its main terminals.
How Many TEUs Can the New Orleans Port Handle?
The specific number of TEUs—a common metric for containers—handled by the Port of New Orleans varies year to year. In our most recent report (The State of North American Ports by Desteia), we found that the port handled over 400,000 TEUs in 2023 alone. Although, we should note, that, at the time of writing our report, the Port of New Orleans had yet to release official figures for the year 2023, so we used a statistical approximation to better understand port dynamics
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(Data from Desteia)
Over the last six years, the port exhibited mild variance when it came to containerized cargo. Across the board, we found the port consistently handled over 400,000 TEUs per year, with the sole exception of 2021, when port activity decreased to 377,514 TEUs—likely the result of the COVID-19 pandemic which also pushed TEU activity down in 2020. So, since 2019, the port has grown by just 1.8%—a number that falls way behind the national average of 8.8% for that same period.
What Is Significant About the Port of New Orleans?
The port of New Orleans holds a disproportionate weight when it comes to the US agricultural sector. According to the most recent data from the US Department of Agriculture, the port alone exported roughly 40.79 million metric tons worth of goods per year—that equals some 34% of all agricultural production in the country. Soybeans accounted for the largest contingent of exports (approximately 20.5 million metric tons, or little over half of the total agricultural exports in the port), followed closely by grain products (an additional 16.4 million metric tons).
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(Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
The five largest destinations for goods exported from the Port of Louisiana (including other goods besides agricultural products) received well over $2.7 bn worth of goods. The largest destination was Canada, receiving $754 million in goods, followed by the U.K. ($607M) and China ($545M).
How Does the Port of New Orleans Compare to Other Ports?
The port of New Orleans remains crucial artery for US commerce—not to mention the state of Louisiana and the country’s agriculture sector. In total, it handles 0.65% of all containers in North America, and little above 0.8% of all US trade—resulting in billions of dollars of revenue for the port and the city of New Orleans. As a result, we found that New Orleans has the 26th largest in the region and 19th largest in the US, comparable to the ports of Mobile in Alabama and Ensenada in Mexico. However, it is worth noting that New Orleans is far from being one of the largest ports in North America and its total TEUs in 2023 only accounted for about 4.72% of those handled by the port of Los Angeles (the largest in the US).
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(Data from Desteia)