The Maryland Port Administration has extended a partnership with the Panama Canal that is intended to draw large cargo ships from Asia once a key port project is finished in 2012, Baltimore Business Journal reported.
The MPA added five years to a memorandum of understanding with the Panama Canal Authority. The agreement allows the two bodies to do joint marketing activities, research, planning and training.
The Port of Baltimore is readying for the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014. The port administration signed a 50-year lease of Seagirt Marine Terminal to Ports America Chesapeake in 2010 to pay for a new 50-foot ship berth needed once larger ships start coming through the canal.
“We are very happy to renew this agreement with the Panama Canal Authority as we get closer to one of the key datelines in the history of container shipping,” MPA Executive Director James White said in a statement. “Once the Panama Canal project is completed, the largest container ships in the world will be able to transit through and bring that business to East Coast ports that have the capabilities to handle those huge ships.”
The MPA added five years to a memorandum of understanding with the Panama Canal Authority. The agreement allows the two bodies to do joint marketing activities, research, planning and training.
The Port of Baltimore is readying for the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014. The port administration signed a 50-year lease of Seagirt Marine Terminal to Ports America Chesapeake in 2010 to pay for a new 50-foot ship berth needed once larger ships start coming through the canal.
“We are very happy to renew this agreement with the Panama Canal Authority as we get closer to one of the key datelines in the history of container shipping,” MPA Executive Director James White said in a statement. “Once the Panama Canal project is completed, the largest container ships in the world will be able to transit through and bring that business to East Coast ports that have the capabilities to handle those huge ships.”