From Coffee to Commerce: How Port NOLA Moves Global Trade

Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we go beyond pickup and delivery and dive deeper into the world of logistics, freight, and supply chain management. From industry trends to expert insights, we're here to help you navigate the complexities of modern shipping. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you watch or listen to your favorite podcasts. And now here's your host, Joe Greek. Welcome to Beyond Point to Point where we explore the people, technology, and strategies shaping modern supply chains. New Orleans has been a gateway for global trade since seventeen eighteen. Today, the port of New Orleans moves everything from coffee to data center equipment, and it's also in the middle of one of the biggest infrastructure build outs in US port history. My guest today knows that story from the inside. Amanda Coates is the vice president of cargo development for the Port of New Orleans. Let's jump into it. Well, Amanda, thank you very much for being on the show today. If you wouldn't mind, maybe could you tell me a bit about your role at Port Nola and maybe just a bit about the history of Port Nola? Yeah. Sure. So I'm Amanda Coates, vice president of cargo here at the port of New Orleans. I've been at the port for eight years handling business development in various roles. We really have, you know, relationships with ocean carriers, BCOs, NDOs, 3PLs, much like Averitt, and really staying in touch with the entire supply chain. We are handling, you know, growing cargo revenues, you know, supply chain issues on a daily basis for visiting customers, conferences, kind of one on one meetings with, with importers and exporters alike, and then also focusing on retention and then also our ocean carrier partners. And just for the history of the Port of New Orleans, so, you know, Louisiana have a central location geographically, and we serve the heartlands of America. And, you know, the port was really positioned in this place because of geographic, positioning of trade to Central America. We are very strong in Central American trade, but also that has grown to European trade. And, Louisiana actually has five lower Mississippi River ports that are moving five hundred million tons per year out of the complex, and that is five different ports. We're all self sustaining revenue generating agencies that all fall under the state of Louisiana. But, specifically, we handle, containerized cargo, break bulk, bulk cargoes. We're the sixth largest cruise port. We also own the short line railroad class one switching railroad, the New Orleans Public Bell. And we have twenty five hundred acres of industrial real estate where we attract added value partners and tenants here to move cargo across our docks, but also kind of transloading warehousing, and and just moving cargo across our docks. So we're essentially the front door of cargo that moves, into Louisiana and into the hinterlands of the US. Well, I know there's a wide variety of cargo that moves through the port. And in fact, one of my favorite morning rituals, Port Nola is a primary import destination for that product. I think you know what it is. So maybe if you could talk about that and maybe some of the other cargo and emerging markets that are really taking advantage of Portnollah. Yeah. So coffee's, coffee is the the, so the best part of waking up, right, is coffee. So part of New Orleans moves roughly fifteen thousand TEUs of coffee. We're importing coffee. So the journey of the coffee bean that's really it's really exciting. The coffee comes from different locations along the equator and thinking, you know, Vietnam, Central America, South America, Colombia, Brazil, even in places in Africa like Ethiopia. So we see coffee coming from all over the world. It starts with a cherry seed. It grows. It goes to the farm. It's been dried. It's put in trucks and sent to the local port in a container. It is also, put on, ocean ocean going vessels coming into New Orleans. It's offloaded by our ILA longshoremen and our terminal operators. It's then picked up by our truckers and then sent to the local, the local silo that's, operated by SiloCast and moved into these silos where it is then cleaned, graded, and blended. It's taken from cleaning and blending to a grounding and roasting facility. That from that point, it's then taken to a packaging and distribution facility. So, roughly sixty six percent of Americans are drinking coffee. That's two out of every three Americans in the household and a hundred and seventy five to a hundred and eighty million Americans. So imagine the coffee. So all of Folgers coffee comes through the Port of New Orleans. We also have PJ from the PJ's community and some of the specialty coffee. But, we we load quite a bit of coffee per year, about seven hundred million pounds of coffee. So, we've we're heavily invested, and there's about a billion in infrastructure here in Louisiana that supports the coffee industry. Well, I think I probably put a pretty big dent in those volumes coming in. So appreciate the work that Port Nola puts into helping getting getting that out to the American public. You know, aside from coffee, what are some of the other primary imports that are moving through New Orleans? Yeah. So we're seeing coffee imports. Obviously, it's our our first largest, but we we also have steel products, natural rubber. So we're the second largest actually, sorry. We're the first largest port for natural rubber. So imported natural rubber comes through New Orleans, and it's taken into the tire facilities for processing. We also see steel, metals, machinery, lumber, you know, retail products, furniture, granite, natural stone, and things like that that are importing on the export side. We're heavily heavily, heavily weighted on the petrochemical side, so thinking resin, chemicals, products that are, lubricants, products that are, you know, going off and and being manufactured and then coming back at finished goods, like cars and cell phones and laptops. So a lot of the the, the residents are moving from New Orleans. And some of the exciting, projects that are now moving in Louisiana. So Amazon and Meta have both announced projects in Louisiana and so has Hyundai. So Hyundai is building a six billion dollars steel mill. We've had over eighty billion in Louisiana announced projects that are for either expansion or new new projects. And, really, we've worked very closely with the state to align the port needs and also what the port capabilities can handle in order to support these projects. So for the the data centers, we're seeing generators and transformers that are coming across our dock. They're loading to either barge or rail or truck, and they're being sent into, the nearest location for those those sites. We're expecting cargo for the Hyundai steel mill to start moving pretty soon in containers. And so a lot of these plants that are upriver from New Orleans, even through Louisiana so we serve over thirty states. We're connected to thirty states by river, and then we're connected to the entire country by rail. So we're the only deepwater port in the United States where all of the class one railroads are converging, and so we really use that to, you know, offer seamless supply chain solutions and as a multimodal, multi modal strategy. And so, you know, many many different ex ex plant expansions are happening in Louisiana. We see, plants moving, big project pieces that are required to build out the plant. So it will be project cargo on the front end, but then also containerized cargo on the back end once they start manufacturing. So New Orleans is really a critical piece in not only Louisiana, but the heartland of America. Yeah. The the infrastructure that is set up in New Orleans is very fascinating. And, you know, because it was based off of back in the early seventeen hundreds being like that that that water trade way and to have seen it evolved over centuries literally to where you're also connected into, the rail system is incredible. And I I think one thing I read about that that the port of New Orleans is involved with is, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. Could you tell me a bit about what that is? Yeah. Absolutely. So that was an an exciting acquisition. And, you know, really, what that allows us to do is offer us packages and seamless supply chain solutions. So not only are we a port, we're, you know, we're front door. We're a landlord port, so we are we are leasing our properties out to our tenants. So we've we've we've we've worked really hard to attract tenants that add value to products like packaging, warehousing, cold storage, you know, transloading of liquid bulk products and things like that. And so the New Orleans public belt historically was owned by the city of New Orleans, and that was a strategic acquisition. It was actually a swap for a piece of property along the river to the city of New Orleans, and and we acquired the New Orleans public belt. So we are we are port owned and operating a, short line class one switching railroad. We're switching about twenty three hundred and twenty five thousand cars per year. We've worked with every class one rail across the country. So ENSF, UP, CPKC, CSX, NS, and also the CN. And so we have two intermodal services. So CPKC is running up to Dallas and Kansas City, and then we're also offering Memphis, Chicago, and into Canada through the CN. So long standing partnerships with the railroads, but, you know, as you can imagine, taking on the New Orleans public belt, while it was a heavy lift, it really allowed us to become kind of the seamless integrator from water side to land side, truck to rail to barge, and we really have control over the logistics of what's happening in and around the Port of New Orleans. So it's super exciting for us. And, you know, the New Orleans Public Health is actually the fastest growing line of business that we have today. And through, you know, strategic investments in switching and storage, it it allows us to continue, adding fluidity to our gateway, but also, you know, adding that supply chain piece saying, you know, we can we can store your rail cars, we can transload them, we can, you know, bring them across our dock. So, you know, really, our goal is to take our properties and maximize them as much as possible, meaning we're taking the the front door, that's the waterside properties, and we're moving them into the Inner Harbor Canal. So New Orleans is, you know, it's it's a bend around the river, and, we are we are strategically located in basically at three at three locations now. And one is the logistic hub of New Orleans, that's the Inner Harbor Canal where we have, we have, I think, seventy two tenants now. And most of those are, they're either FTVs, free trade zones, and they're also rail served. So any rail connectivity can come through and to New Orleans and access any any any crack one or, you know, switch to a transloading facility or cold storage. And so really, you know, the the NOPV is adding value to our supply chain. So very strategic acquisition and, and and, like I said, the fastest growing line of our business. It's incredible. There's a lot going on, a lot that's already been done in Portnolla. Is there anything big on the horizon as well? Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, we've grown a lot over the the past couple of decades, and, you know, that really have you have to have foresight. Right? And so the foresight that supporting New Orleans has is that we we have to adjust for the future. So we have a little bit of a restriction. It's a challenge for us. It's the Preston City connection, and so that bridge goes right across our actually, it's right outside of our office here, but it goes right right across the river at mile marker ninety five. So our current container terminal, existing terminal, are located at mile marker one hundred. So one hundred miles from the gulf the gulf inlet where the gulf the Mississippi River connects the gulf at mile marker zero. The vessels enter the river, and so at mile marker one hundred, vessels today are coming to the container terminals and to the breakwater terminal. Vessels have gotten bigger over the the past few, you know, decades, and we are seeing vessels up to ten thousand TEUs and above. And so we can accept up to a ten thousand TEUs vessel today, and we know that for the future, we have got to move our container terminal below the bridge to have no air draft. And so that that that kind of started many years ago. Let's call it thirty years ago. This is you know, there there were studies that were done about where a container terminal should be located along the Mississippi River. And our current terminal is kind of a you know, it's it's it's a container terminal that's been shoehorned into a brick vault facility. Now we've we've made about a billion in infrastructure improvements we have for new cranes. You know, we're we're an efficient port. However, in order for us to grow for the future, we have to look further. Right? And so back in, let's call it, twenty fifteen, twenty seventeen, we started, evaluating the the the possibility of moving our terminal downriver below the bridge so that there was no air draft restriction. That led us to looking at five sites. So five sites had a criteria that were required for us to go to the next phase. That was it needed to be navigable from a waterside aspect. You think, you know, the Mississippi River, all of the sites are navigable. Well, there's currents in the river that bounce back and forth from bank to bank, and that's really important. So we needed to have navigational approval. We also needed back land for for building out maritime assets such as transloading and warehousing that support all of the container cargo that's coming across the dock. It needed to be able to accept above fifteen thousand TEU vessels without any air duct restrictions, naturally deep, and then also within the hundred year federal flood protection. So after hurricane Katrina, the federal government spent fourteen billion dollars in a flood protection system. Today's dollars, that would be about twenty four billion, so we're fully protected. And so the site that we purchased back in December of twenty twenty one, we it it checked all the boxes, and it's also naturally deep by the berth. So it's within the federal flood protection. You have twelve hundred acres. So just to give you give you a kind of context on size, our current container terminal is about is about two hundred acres in total with about a hundred acres of that being usable container storage and space. And so this terminal, we actually will build out to four hundred acres. So the site is twelve hundred acres. We have plenty of land for maritime supporting activities and companies to come in. And so supporting that, you know, transloading, warehousing, 3PL, and so the twelve hundred acres will continue to master plan out. Back in twenty twenty one, we purchased the property. We moved forward with our navigational studies, which then were approved by our pilot association and through a navigational simulation. We entered into our permitting process, which has been a three year permitting process with the army corps of engineers. We have, several teams that are working on it day and night. We've invested over a hundred million in this site, and we are getting ready to receive our permit for Louisiana International Terminal where we'll build a new container terminal. And we will break ground in the fall, and then we'll go straight into construction. So we're super excited. You know, it's it's definitely, it's definitely foresight of what what is needed for the future. It's a resilient location. And and I have to say, you know, Louisiana is really one of the most resilient states that I have seen in terms of readiness for, you know, natural disasters and hurricanes and things like that, and resiliency means, you know, supply chain planning and risk mitigation. So in the big in the big picture, it's super important to have that resiliency, you know, noted as as a positive for our container terminal that we're building, but but the existing one as well. Right? So we're, even speaking of, hurricanes and hurricane season, we are preparing every single day for hurricanes, in the Gulf. We are federally federally flood protected, and, our operators are operating on a daily basis, and they're planning for, you know, resiliency and things like that. So that's an incredibly large expansion that you're talking about. And, part of being able to to grow, to support the the the market demands with that expansion, you know, that also comes back to, your partner carriers like Averitt, I would imagine. So how how do carriers like Averitt and our partnership and ability to work closely with the port of New Orleans, how does that benefit shippers in the area and beyond? Well, I'll tell you, cargo does not move without companies like Averitt. You know, Averitt's been in New Orleans over twenty years, and so there's a parallel there. And the parallel is that if if if Averitt isn't here, cargo doesn't move. And so we have to have companies like Averitt who work very closely with the team at Averitt to be sure that we are making the right connections with customers to Averitt for transloading or, you know, moving cargo inland, and we rely on our partnership. You know, Averitt can, you know, call me at any time, and and we call them quite quite honestly and kind of rely on each other to keep up with how things are going. But cargo doesn't move without trucking companies and or without warehousing. Right? And that's an important part of our supply chain is what happens after it leaves our port, our terminals. And in the hands of a company like Averitt, our customers are able to build relationships and make phone calls and have, you know, immediate access to moving cargo into Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, anywhere that it's going. And really, Averitt is has been an integral part of us our growth. It's like the arteries, right? Averitt is a part of one of those really important arteries of the port of New Orleans. Well, we are excited to be a part of that system and to grow with Portnolla. So I really appreciate the kind words there. You know, last question I'm gonna ask you. You know, for shippers that haven't moved cargo through the port of New Orleans, what is one thing you would want them to take away from this discussion? I think it's important for for both importers and exporters to take another look at New Orleans. You know, as I mentioned, resiliency is huge. Right? You have to be planning for supply chain resiliency constantly because once it's a crisis, it's a crisis. And you can't, they can't really look at solving the crisis within the crisis, and so resiliency planning is really important. And I think that New Orleans has a lot to offer in terms of multimodal, multi multimodal activities and moving cargo by river, by rail, and by road. And so a lot of a lot of new customers that come through the Port of New Orleans, they really see that we're able to, you know, call customs and help them kind of troubleshoot any issues that they might be having. We're very hands on port. We, have relationships with our customers and our truckers alike, our terminal operators. And so looking at the port of New Orleans, you know, a lot of the a lot of importers and exporters have a four corner strategy and and most in the Gulf as well. But the fact that we are the most connected port in the United States, we're the the only deepwater port where all of the class ones are converging, that gives you optionality. So you can, you know, discharge a container and put it into a railcar. You can put it into a truck, fifty three foot truck. You can discharge container and go directly to the location. You could take it to Averitt and translate it into a fifty three. I mean, we we have, you know, all of the optionalities that, that Customs Direct needs to be able to pivot in times of need. You know, the East Coast has, their challenges on the winter side. The Gulf has, you know, hurricanes and fog. The East Coast also has fog. So we are all really subject to volatility of weather, and it's important to not have their eggs in one basket. And I think that, you know, New Orleans has has not been looked at in the past. But, you know, we've we've worked very closely also with the state of Louisiana to kind of remove the red tape and, move at the speed of business. So in permitting, give site selection, and, you know, we have a a bunch of, we have a few programs, Ready Sites, Fast Sites that are helping the development of new site and and, you know, making the site selection process and permitting process a lot easier. You know, we actually, we actually worked with, the Averitt team and saying, hey. We want you guys to be a part of our story in the future. So, you know, customers like, Averitt Averitt's customers moving to the port of New Orleans, there's only room for expansion. So I would say take another look at New Orleans. We are hungry. We are hands on, and we are actively looking for a VIP importer to land here in Louisiana and allow, you know, allow them to to grow with us with a district a new distribution center and offer, you know, those efficient fees that maybe they would not usually look at for New Orleans for. Amanda, thank you very much for the conversation. Very insightful. And I I just honestly, I learned a lot about Portnola that I that I didn't know, and, know, the investment in infrastructure is just, really eye opening. So thank you very much for your time today. Thanks a lot for having me. We look forward to doing this in the future, and we continue to support Averitt however we can. If this conversation has you thinking differently about how Gulf Coast ports can fit into your supply chain strategy, that's exactly the point. To learn more about how Averitt's port side services connect your freight from port to destination, visit Averitt dot com slash port side, and be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you listen or watch your favorite podcast.