Reporting to the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority, Executive Director Roger Guenther announced the completion of maintenance dredging of the Bayport channel. The channel will be maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at a depth of 48.5 feet mean lower low water (MLLW), enabling the Bayport Container Terminal to receive 45-foot draft vessels.
During his report, Mr. Guenther also announced that Barbours Cut recently established a new record for container lifts from one vessel: a total of 4,198 moves was completed working with the 5,000 TEU COSCO Boston. This bests the previous vessel record, 4,153 container lifts just set in March at the Bayport Container Terminal on the Maersk Atlanta.
Port Houston continues handling more than 16 million tons of cargo for the year, an increase of 12 percent over last year. Mr. Guenther credited the increase in general cargo largely to the 15 percent growth in container volume, for a total through June of 1,023,159 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Mr. Guenther said that the container increase in turn was driven by “loaded” containers, which increased by 17 percent compared to this time last year.
Th port is also committed to investing in people. Since the inception of Port Houston’s maritime education program in 2009, 1,209 local high school students have taken maritime classes, and in May, Port Houston commissioners helped celebrate five maritime graduation classes from independent school districts.
