Port of Baltimore Closed as bridge collapses

[eriegz]

First thing I saw upon opening up my news site this morning; what an insane tragedy. Feel so bad for all the people affected by this. And I think everybody on this forum has respect for the full gravity of this situation.

I also feel for Baltimoreans — what a nightmare this will be for their economy, livelihoods, even daily traffic, for the next I don't know how many months & years. What a shitty situation.

 

[TomAce]

Absolutely horrible! What a nightmare.

 

[Time2Fly]

It was hit by the Dali container ship.

 

[JClem]

 

[brainf18]

The ships that have left the UK will need to go somewhere. Can’t imagine they’d still head to Baltimore

Port of Savanah most likely

 

[Nova]

Port of Savanah most likely

I wonder if they can discharge in NY. That's also a large RoRo port. Not as large as Baltimore, but larger than Savannah or Norfolk. Both NY and Norfolk are already on Atlantic Sea's schedule to call.

 

[Porter]

I wonder if they can discharge in NY. That's also a large RoRo port. Not as large as Baltimore, but larger than Savannah or Norfolk. Both NY and Norfolk are already on Atlantic Sea's schedule to call.

Definitely, as you said, NY and Norfolk are both RoRo ports and already on the current schedule. We don't know how difficult it would be for Lotus to shift their post-offload port process elsewhere, though. I would guess that Norfolk might be logistically easier in this sort of pivot situation than the (already extremely busy) port of NYC, but there are a million factors involved so it's anyone's guess.

 

[DF_Toronto]

Definitely, as you said, NY and Norfolk are both RoRo ports and already on the current schedule. We don't know how difficult it would be for Lotus to shift their post-offload port process elsewhere, though. I would guess that Norfolk might be logistically easier in this sort of pivot situation than the (already extremely busy) port of NYC, but there are a million factors involved so it's anyone's guess.

Lotus pivot 🤣. They don’t know the meaning of that word…not to be too pessimistic but this is another excuse for them to not ship out any more cars to North America for another 6 months 😔.

 

[CHEESE]

Probably misleading or inaccurate since CARB states currently have cars on the water towards Baltimore... well, who knows where they're going now, but you get the point.

 

[Porter]

I want to know what kind of cars Suzano Pulp & Paper are bringing in! Sounds lit.

 

[Lotustoronto]

This is terrible news, prayers for all the victims. Looks to be an unfortunate accident.

I imagine it will take some time (more than other auto manufacturers) for Lotus to pivot. Delays again....

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

I read somewhere in the news stories that VW's dock, or whatever it's called, is on the eastern side of the bridge. So not affected by the port closure other than ground transportation. Wonder if anyone knows the actually location of where Lotus unloads, east or west of the bridge.

 

[robrmon]

I read somewhere in the news stories that VW's dock, or whatever it's called, is on the eastern side of the bridge. So not affected by the port closure other than ground transportation. Wonder if anyone knows the actually location of where Lotus unloads, east or west of the bridge.

See the map on post 18 of this thread

 

[Finbarqs]

Lotus pivot 🤣. They don’t know the meaning of that word…not to be too pessimistic but this is another excuse for them to not ship out any more cars to North America for another 6 months or 36 months… same same

 

[Still gonna send it...]

I read somewhere in the news stories that VW's dock, or whatever it's called, is on the eastern side of the bridge. So not affected by the port closure other than ground transportation. Wonder if anyone knows the actually location of where Lotus unloads, east or west of the bridge.

I saw that as well, but one of the previous posts indicated that the offload point is west of the bridge, so ships will likely have to be diverted.

In addition to auto terminals in NYC and Norfolk, there is another terminal in Quonset Point in Narragansett Bay RI that may be able to pick up some slack. I'm not sure how much extra volume it could handle though.

 

[VL3X]

This is truly a terrible incident with shocking footage of it all. I've driven over this bridge many times and have many co-workers in the Baltimore area. Thankfully everyone I know is safe and sound. In my comic book and video game mind, I always envision the Avengers and Spider-man swinging into action when something like this happens, but Spidey wasn't there to keep the bridge together or suspend falling cars safely in the air.

Shout out to our forum members for keeping the conversation appropriately focused. 🫡

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

See the map on post 18 of this thread

Ah, thanks. Definitely a bit behind here. Thanks @Porter for that excellent port orientation. And yes, focus at this point needs to be on the victims and their families. Terrible tragedy.

 

[Porter]

I saw that as well, but one of the previous posts indicated that the offload point is west of the bridge, so ships will likely have to be diverted.

Sparrows Point (where the big VW yard is) is southeast of the bridge and was formerly a huge shipyard and steel plant that's been converted to a multimodal terminal facility with many tenants. Both VW and BMW have facilities there, and there is some Stellantis volume as well. It's collectively operated by a big outfit called Tradepoint Atlantic. Here's a map:

 

[Porter]

Current state of the ship Dali:

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

Current state of the ship Dali:

That's a scary impact, must have made quite a noise. Just horrible for the folks on the bridge at the time.