Visibility platform GoComet: Norfolk-area ports gained most from Baltimore port closure

Data from supply chain visibility platform GoComet on shifts in East Coast shipping as a result of the closure of the Port of Baltimore shows Norfolk, Virginia, gained the most incoming ships on average since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse at the end of March.

In data provided to FreightWaves, GoComet notes that the 15-day average for vessel calls per day stood at 35 to 39 in Baltimore for the six days leading up to the March 26 collapse. It stays at 38 on March 27, even though the shutdown of the port was immediate, and slides from there until it gets to zero on April 12. No ships were coming in during that interim, but as the data is a 15-day average, it would take a few days to get the average down to zero.

As Gautam Jain, CEO of GoComet, noted to FreightWaves, the company’s platform records a ship when it goes to anchorage. So a ship that got inside the part of the harbor delineated by the bridge just before it collapsed might need a few days to get to anchorage, when it would be recorded by GoComet as having made a port call in Baltimore.

That is backed up by the individual data by day that shows Baltimore receiving 36 ships on March 26, followed by 28, nine and four before dropping to zero.

Source: freightwaves.com