October Car Shipments Up At Port Of Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- There's some good news on the local economic front. Business is up at the Port of Baltimore.

As Pat Warren reports, it's a welcome change from months of lagging behind.

Like everything else, the Port of Baltimore has been feeling the weight of the recession.

"If you want to talk about where we were pre-recession--we still have a few years we estimate to get back to that level," said Richard Scher, Maryland Port Administration.

That makes any bit of good news all the more welcome.

"The tough economy that we're still in right now was very challenging and really bottomed out a lot of cargos," Scher said.

The Port of Baltimore rolls out a record level docks at the port. It set an all-time monthly record in October of 42, 830 cars. That's nearly 5,000 more than the record set in March.

'Which is a remarkable feat coming off a struggling economy, and it certainly shows a good sign as we go forward and try to rebound slowly from an economic downturn," said Scher.

In the three months between June and August, the port reported the most containers ever handled in that time period. And will end the year with a total of 8 million tons.

"That means those companies that ship all over the world are shipping here at this port as well, bringing their business here and keeping those jobs here as well," said Scher.

Add another 200 jobs to that figure. That's how many additional jobs a new contract with BMW brings  to the port.

Port officials say auto shipping generates 1,150 direct jobs at the port. The port generates more than 16,000 jobs in total.