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The Port of Jacksonville is slowly becoming a crucial point for US trade. In recent years, it has outgrown North America in its drastic growth in container-handling capabilities, with over 1.3 million TEUs arriving to its terminals in 2023 alone. Thus, it should come as no surprise that, in 2023 it ranked as the 14th largest in North America and 11th largest the U.S.—as well as the sixth largest in the U.S. East Coast.
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 Jacksonville Located?
The Port of Jacksonville consists of three shipping terminals taking up an area of over 1,500 acres. The port itself is located along the Saint Johns river, about 12.3 miles away from downtown Jacksonville. But, what’s most important is not where Jacksonville is located but rather where it is connected to. The port receives some 40 trains a day and has partnerships with 32 ocean carriers, allowing it to reach the bulk of U.S. consumers with products from around the globe.
How Many TEUs Can the Port of Jacksonville Handle?
The specific number of TEUs—a common metric for containers—handled by the Port of Jacksonville varies year to year. In our most recent report (The State of North American Ports by Desteia), we found that the port handled over 1.3 million TEUs in 2023 alone. Although, we should note, that, at the time of writing our report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not release official figures for the years 2018 and 2019. So, while most of our data set for other ports is far more expansive, that of Jacksonville is limited to just 2020 and 2023
Over the last four years, the port exhibited a greatly positive trend in its cargo management. Between 2020 and 2022, for instance, the total containers handled at the prot went from 1.02M to 1.29M. That means that, in the span of two years, container capacity at Jacksonville grew by 26.4% in the span of a year. In 2023, moreover, TEUs handled grew once more to 1.31M. Though, year to year, this means the port saw a decrease in the speed at which container volumes were growing to just 1.5% between 1.5%. Still, this means that, between 2020 and 2023, Jacksonville increased its container traffic by 28.4%—for reference across the entire North American region, TEU growth was just 5.9% for that same period.
How Many Tons of Cargo Can the Port of Jacksonville Handle?
Similarly to the number of TEUs, the total tons of cargo handled by the port of Jacksonville will vary year to year. However, it is worth noting that this metric reflects a different kind of trade than TEUs. When speaking of TEUs, we are focusing just on containerized trade—namely, the merchandise being transported in a multimodal shipping container. Other forms of cargo such as fuels or chemicals that are not often carried in containers, are left out of such a metric. As such, tons of cargo tends to look at the remainder of trade not brought into the Port of Jacksonville by conventional containers.
According to official figures from the port Jacksonville itself, the port handled over 10.47 million tons of cargo as of 2023. This, however, represents a very mild growth trajectory for the port. In fact, we found that, between 2019 and 2023—the earliest years for which data is available—, the total tons of cargo handled by the port fell by a rate of 3.8%. In total, cargo managed at Jacksonville went from 10.9M tons to 10.5M tons. An interesting pattern when considering that, in that same period, container trade grew significantly, suggesting Jacksonville has specialized in containerized trade over bulk cargo.
Where Does the Port of Jacksonville Import and Export?
Given the port of Jacksonville’s location in the Atlantic sea, and close to the Gulf of Mexico one could expect that the port of Jacksonville could serve as a natural connection between the U.S. and the Latin American market. And such, at least, is initially the case, given that both Mexico and Brazil rank highly in the number of trade routes they share with Jacksonville. Other prominent stops in the region include Colombia, Argentina, and Central American nations like Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras. However the country with the most connections to Jacksonville is actually Japan, suggesting a high degree of trans-atlantic trade with the port. Similarly, China and South Korea also have a number of routes that lead to Jacksonville, suggesting a growing connectivity between Florida and Asia.
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How Does the Port of Jacksonville Compare to Other Ports?
The port of Jacksonville is a point for U.S. commerce—both in terms of imports and exports as we saw above. In total, it handles 5.87% of all containers in North America, and little above 2.59% of all US trade—resulting in billions of dollars of revenue for the state of Florida. As a result, we found that Jacksonville was the 14th largest port in North America at large, and 11th largest in the U.S. comparable to the ports of Seattle in Washington, and Lázaro Cárdenas in México. However, it is worth noting that Jacksonville—despite its relative size—is far from competing with the top three ports in the region. Its total TEUs in 2023 only accounted for about 15.22% of those handled by the port of Los Angeles (the largest in the US).
FAQ
How many ports does Jacksonville have?
Jacksonville Port, also known as JAXPORT, has four main terminals, each have different services, functions and operations.
Blount Island Marine Terminal: This is one of the biggest vehicle-handling facilities in the US. It handles military and heavy lift cargo.
Talleyrand Marine Terminal: This terminal is in charge of handling breakbulk, containerized, and liquid bulk cargo. It is also located near downtown.
Dames Point Marine Terminal: This port terminal is in charge of handling container operations and modern cargo-handling equipment. One of its main focuses is international trade due to its important connections with global shipping line carriers.
JAXPORT Cruise Terminal: This terminal is in charge of handling cruise operations.
Is Jacksonville Port a big port?
Yes, Jacksonville Port is a big and major US Port. Jacksonville Port is one of the leading ports for vehicle imports and exports. This port also handles important cargo and break bulk shipments. The Port of Jacksonville is crucial for global trade, it has advanced logistics, high efficiency and cargo volume.
Does Jacksonville Port usually have delays?
No, Jacksonville Port is known to have efficient operations and logistics that usually helps maintain low levels of port congestion. JAXPORT is known to operate with minimal delays.
Port congestion is the result for vessels experiencing delays in loading or unloading, labor shortages, maritime traffic, bottlenecks, among others. However, the Port of Jacksonville is recognized for its reliability, and timelines.