Port Manatee has extended its agreement with World Direct Shipping to maintain its swift weekly service between the Florida Gulf Coast port from the Mexican state of Veracruz for as many as five more years.
Under a lengthened pact approved April 20, by the Manatee County Port Authority, World Direct Shipping has committed to bring refrigerated produce and other goods into Port Manatee from the Port of Coatzacoalcos through at least Dec. 31, 2019, with a pair of one-year options extending through the end of 2021.
Since begun in November 2014, the weekly World Direct Shipping service has carried increasing volumes of refrigerated produce from Mexico while returning from Port Manatee with paper, recycled materials and oversized cargos.
World Direct Shipping has moved nearly 300,000 tons of cargo through Port Manatee to date and last July deployed the 430-foot-long M/V Queen B to accommodate steadily growing trade.
Located “Where Tampa Bay Meets the Gulf of Mexico,” Port Manatee is the closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the expanding Panama Canal, with 10 40-foot-draft berths serving container, bulk, breakbulk, heavylift, project and general cargo customers. The port generates more than $2.3 billion in annual economic impact for the local community, while supporting more than 24,000 jobs, without levying ad-valorem taxes.