2 years after Key Bridge collapse, Port of Baltimore still eyeing return to top 10

The Port of Baltimore is not quite where its leader Jonathan Daniels wants it to be.

Before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Baltimore ranked No. 9 in the country in terms of total tonnage handled. In the two years since — Thursday marks the anniversary of the disaster — the port has largely bounced back, but is ranked No. 11 for the second year in a row.

“We still fell short,” he said. “We’re not back in the top 10.”

The port, a series of deep-water berths, cranes and heavy machinery operated on both public and private terminals, largely posted strong numbers last year. That included a container record and roughly 50 million total tons, second only to the 52 million tons in 2023.

However, Daniels said the port remains in “rebound and recovery” mode following the collapse. Daniels is executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, which runs the port.

When the cargo ship Dali toppled the 47-year-old bridge in the early-morning hours of March 26, 2024, killing six workers, it stunted port commerce. Shipping reopened in the months afterward, but it was a slow process to re-attract shipping lines, which had relocated in the interim.

“Going into 2026, things are in place allowing us the opportunity to enter into that top 10 tonnage port again,” Daniels said on a call with reporters. He had set that goal last year and acknowledged that the port fell short.

Baltimore has long been an automobile hub. Car carriers packed with thousands of vehicles regularly unload at the inland port. Its proximity to the Midwest gives it a leg up on other East Coast cities.

But a growing port in southern Georgia had become a formidable rival to Baltimore even before the bridge collapse. The Port of Brunswick handled 779,000 automobiles and light trucks last year, beating Baltimore’s total of 728,000.

Despite Brunswick’s smaller total than in 2024 (841,000), it marked the second straight year that it topped Baltimore. Georgia Ports CEO Griff Lynch had declared an intent to be No. 1, but wanted to do so fair and square, not because of the bridge collapse.

Across the country, ports handled relatively fewer cars last year as manufacturers navigated the tariff policies of President Donald Trump.

Baltimore’s total was smaller, even, than its 750,000 in 2024 — when bridge debris blocked the shipping channel for part of the time. In 2023, Baltimore handled a record 847,000 cars.

Daniels said the tariffs “played into” the decline in the number of cars handled.

“What we were hearing is the inconsistencies in the tariff programs led to a lot of indecision on where they were going to be producing the cars,” Daniels said.

Down the road, a couple of infrastructure projects could boost the port’s cargo numbers.

The expanded Howard Street Tunnel, slated to fully open within the next month or two, will allow goods to be sent more efficiently by freight train to the Midwest. And a container terminal at Tradepoint Atlantic is expected to be completed in the next few years, expanding the port’s capacity.