b'2FLORIDA PORTS 2023ajot.comFloridas ports are growing fast. The States con-tainer ports are being buoyed by both the shifts toFLORIDA PORTSthe East Coast from Asia via the Suez Canal and proximity to the Panama Canal for Transpacific freight.AutoprocessingisalsogrowingandisPort of Fernandinabreakbulk cargo, especially forest products. And cruise ships are back, and the numbers are grow-ing past pre-pandemic tallies.JAXPORTAtlanticBy AJOT Staff OceanFloridas Gulf ports postPort of Panama City Port Canaveral records for 2022 Port Tampa BayP ortP anamaC ity Mexico.ForPortPanama ForPortPanamaCity,City that has translated into a like many of Floridas ports,10% increase in trade. Port Manatee Port Evergladesfiscal year 2022 was a recordInJanuary2023,the breaker. PanamaCityPortAuthor-ThePortsetanall-timeityboardapprovedaplanGulf of Mexicorecordhighof2.03milliontoexpandtheEastTermi-tonsofcargoafourper- nalbyaddinganadditional centyear-over-yeargrowth,27acrestotheexisting54PortMiamieclipsingthe1.95million(RECORDScontinued on tons handled in FY 2021. Andpage 8)itwasntjustcargo,asPort Panama City also set a rev-enue record of $19.04 million inFY2022,a9%increase over FY 2021. PortPanamaCity,like other Florida ports, benefited from clear terminal and a shift in freight as shippers tried to dodgesupplychaindisrup-tions occurring in other parts of the countrynotably the West Coast. Alex King, exec-utivedirector,PortPanama Citynotedinhisreviewof theresults,Whilemuchof thecountryspentlastyear dealingwithsupplychain disruptions,PortPanama City was focused on securing additionalcargothatwould normally move through gate-way ports in other states. Our port has become an attractive optionforbreak-bulkforest products and other cargoes. InmanyrespectsPort PanamaCitybecamea breakbulkportalternative formanyshippers.Indeed, PortPanamaCityhandled morethan450,000tonsof break-bulkforestproducts andlumberin2022,with 230,000tonsofthatcargo moving through the East Ter-minal which opened for oper-ation in 2020.BesidestheEastTer-minalwithits260,000sq/ftwarehouseand900foot bulkhead, the Port has made anumberofrecentinvest-mentsinitsinfrastructure. These include a biomass bulk domeonthe138-acreWest Terminal; an Intermodal Dis-tributionCenter(IDC)Site Developmentforadditional on-site tenants; development of a FedEx Ground Regional DistributionCenteratthe IDCanda70,000sq/fton portContainerFreightSta-tion (CFS) West Terminal to the growth in container busi-ness with Mexico. Mexico has been another brightspotforthePort.In 2022Kingrepresentedthe Florida PortsCouncil onan EconomicTradeMissionto'