Port of New Orleans

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Freighters on the Mississippi River in New Orleans

The Port of New Orleans is a port located in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the 5th largest port in the United States based on volume of cargo handled, second-largest in the state after the Port of South Louisiana, and 12th largest in the U.S. based on value of cargo. It also has the longest wharf in the world, which is 2.1 miles (3.4 km) long and can accommodate 15 vessels at one time.^[1]

The Port of New Orleans handles about 84 million short tons of cargo a year. The Port of South Louisiana, based in the New Orleans suburb of LaPlace, handles 199 million short tons. The two combined form the largest port system in the world by bulk tonnage, and the world's fourth largest by annual volume handled. For its part, the Port of New Orleans refers to itself as being "at the center of the world’s busiest port complex."

1 Dock Board
2 Cargo and traffic
3 Trivia
4 External links
5 Notes

[edit] Dock Board

The port is governed by a Louisiana state agency, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. This entity is known colloquially and in some legal references simply as "the Dock Board."^[2]

[edit] Cargo and traffic

Cruise ship in downtown New Orleans

The Port of New Orleans is a major transshipment point for steel, rubber, and coffee. In fact, it is the largest port in the U.S. for rubber imports. Over 6000 vessels and 700,000 passengers pass through the Port of New Orleans annually, with most of the passengers sailing to destinations in the Caribbean Sea, Mexico, and up the Mississippi River in either cruise ships or steamboats.

About 5,000 ships from nearly 60 nations dock at the Port of New Orleans annually. The chief exports are grain and other foods from the Midwestern United States and petroleum products. The leading imports include rubber, chemicals, cocoa beans, coffee, and petroleum. The port handles more trade with Latin America than does any other U.S. gateway, including Miami.

New Orleans is also a busy port for barges and passenger cruises. The barges, approximately 50,000 annually; use the nation's two main inland waterways, the Mississippi River and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which meet at New Orleans. The port of New Orleans handles about 50,000 barges yearly. It also handled nearly 800,000 cruise passengers in 2004, making it one of the nation's premier cruise ports, with several ships from the Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian cruise lines based there.

The port was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but reopened and returned to normal operations for most cargo. The France Road container facility on the Industrial Canal remains closed.^[3]

See also: List of North American ports