US Ports Breakbulk & Project Cargo
Murray cited one instance from over the summer, when a Baltimore-bound vessel carrying 14,000 tons of refined copper from Hamburg, Germany, was diverted to the Port of New Hampshire so the shipment could reach a US port a day or two before a 50 % tariff on copper imports was set to take effect Aug. 1.
However, shortly after the shipment reached New Hampshire and started unloading so the cargo could be trucked to Baltimore, the Trump administration signed a proclamation indicating that the Aug. 1 tariffs would not apply to certain types of copper— including the product in the shipment. As a result, the cargo went back on the ship, and the vessel sailed on to Baltimore instead.
“ So, there are real, additional costs that are being put on shippers,” Murray said.
One upshot of these kinds of timing issues is that they have made smaller ports such as New Hampshire more appealing for certain shipments. Murray said the port has been receiving cargoes that previously would have gone elsewhere, as shippers and logistics companies have sought ways to avoid tariffs and minimize costs.
“ Typically, we’ re cheaper than some of the larger ports for our dockage and wharfage fees,” he said.“ There’ s a lot of free space and availability, versus some of the highervolume terminals and ports.”
But the tradeoff for these opportunities is uncertainty and an operating environment in which it is difficult to make plans. Murray said the port might receive an inquiry from a shipper, only to receive a last-minute notice that the cargo is heading somewhere else or delayed indefinitely.
“ They’ ll say,‘ We’ ll delay it until next year,’ or three or four years out, in some cases,” he said.“ Just wait out [ the Trump ] administration.”
LNG, Meta cargo windfall
Janine Mansour, director of trade development for the Port of New Orleans, told the Journal of Commerce there’ s been a sense of“ pervasive uncertainty” across the industry when it comes to cargo planning.
“ It’ s so difficult because of the market environment being so dynamic,” she said.“ Things can change very quickly.”
Mansour said the port has been courting more project cargo, as“ market fluctuations” contributed to a doubledigit decline in breakbulk volumes in New Orleans for the first nine months of the year. Through September, volumes fell 15 % to 1.1 million tons compared with the same period in 2024, according to port data. Container cargo tonnage, by comparison, rose 2 % to 240,482 TEUs.
Mansour said the breakbulk decline was largely driven by a decrease in raw materials, including steel, non-ferrous metals and rubber.
“ So, we have gone after project cargo activities more aggressively, and fortunately, we’ re getting some good traction in the state,” she said.
Pointing to a“ healthy market” for heavy-lift cargo related to US manufacturing investments, Mansour cited the $ 5.8 billion steel mill that Hyundai plans to build along the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana as a project that will generate significant cargo opportunities during construction, which is scheduled to begin in late 2026.
Mansour said the single-largest project driving heavylift cargo to the port has been Venture Global’ s $ 28-billion CP2 LNG export project on the Gulf Coast of southwest Louisiana. Another equally massive project is the $ 27-billion data center Meta is building in northeast Louisiana. Construction for the 4 million-square-foot facility, Meta’ s largest data center to date, began in December 2024 and is expected to continue through 2030.
Mansour said the Port of New Orleans has been working closely with its two heavy-lift terminal operators, Ports America and QSL, to plan for the port’ s involvement in handling the data center’ s project cargo.
“ There are real, additional costs that are being put on shippers.”
Several investments in Louisiana projects to support electric vehicle battery production have been another bright spot for the New Orleans port, Mansour said.
“ While we haven’ t seen a huge volume of freight yet, we’ re having discussions with the companies about setting up their logistics through New Orleans,” she said.
Adapting heavy-lift strategies
Wind project cargo has tapered off at New Orleans in recent years as shipments are trending more toward oil rig platforms and construction related to liquefied natural gas projects.“ Wind was pretty strong for us for several years,
Policy-linked declines in wind project shipments are forcing certain US ports to recalibrate. New Hamshire Port Authority
12 Journal of Commerce | December 2025 www. joc. com