Ship that hit Baltimore bridge moved. Business continues back at active port.

The cargo ship at the center of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse moved back to the Port of Baltimore on Monday for the first time since the March 26 crash. The return of the once-crashed container ship, which is the weight of D.C.’s Washington Monument, is symbolic of the continuation of commerce at one of the nation’s most economically productive ports.

Signe Pringle, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce, called the clearing of the ship from the channel and its return to the port a “very positive movement” for commerce during a May 21 interview.

“The port is obviously a very important economic engine here in the state of Maryland,” she said. But how important the locale is did not become clear for some until earlier this year.

After the bridge collapse in March disrupted operations at the port (which set multiple records, including for foreign cargo, in 2023), state lawmakers of both parties testified to the port’s importance in Annapolis.

“We really realized how important this port is,” said state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, R-Baltimore County, during an April 2 bill hearing on emergency legislation designed to help businesses and port workers.

REVIEW: Bridge collapse: Limited channel opens near port. Senate committee passes emergency bill.

Disruptions at port creates ‘work around’ for Hagerstown company

In Hagerstown, Dwight Clark, president and CEO of Jamison Door Co., checked that March day to see if his company had any door kits coming from Italy in containers en route to Baltimore.

“As soon as the bridge dropped, we’re on the phone calling to see: Do we have anything coming?” Clark recounted months later in a May 17 phone interview. “Is it coming to the Port of Baltimore? What’s going to happen?”

“Fortunately for us, we didn’t have one on the water,” he said.

The Port of Baltimore, Clark says, is the closest port to the Hagerstown-headquartered company, which has been in operation since 1906 and now manufactures doors for temperature-controlled environments everywhere from Costcos to the basement of the United States Capitol.

“We’ve been able to work around the port closing,” he said. In the past, the company has received door kits about every other month, and recently the containers coming through Norfolk, Va., instead of the Port of Baltimore have “probably added a day” to operations, Clark said.

More: Maryland lawmakers launch effort to aid workers impacted by Baltimore bridge collapse

Over 100 companies receive funding from the Md. CommerceDepartment

Pringle, the state's department of Commerce and other government agencies have been aiming to minimize the effect of the bridge collapse and the subsequent disruption of port activities on businesses.

A $15 million Maryland Department of Commerce program, allowing businesses “directly impacted by the disruption of Port operations” up to $100,000 in grant funding, was stood up soon after the bridge fell.

“We have had over 100 companies (participate) to date,” said Pringle, on May 21.

Not all businesses in the state have seen a disruption based on the reduced size of the channel into the port as the stuck ship and bridge debris have clogged the Patapsco River waterway.

A John Deere dealer, Atlantic Tractor, which operates in 14 locations across Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, indicated no operational disruptions due to the bridge collapse.

“Atlantic Tractor has had no impact to our knowledge from this unfortunate tragedy that occurred,” said Lynn Malkus-Lyons, the company’s marketing manager, in a May 20 email. Multiple inquiries to a representative at one of the Maryland locations on the lower Eastern Shore of the state for a request for comment were not returned by the time of filing.

Similarly, inquiries to the Tractor Supply Co. locations in Salisbury and Berlin, Maryland on the Lower Eastern Shore were not responded to by the time of filing either.

John Deere (the agricultural machinery company) and Caterpillar (a construction equipment manufacturer) are “key customers” of the Port of Baltimore, according to Richard Scher, a spokesperson for the Maryland Port Administration.

“Among all U.S. ports, Baltimore ranks first for autos/light trucks and roll on/roll off farm and construction machinery,” said Scher, in an email.

He said the “total economic impact” of the port to Maryland’s economy is “about $70 billion” and the “total economic impact” of the port to the national economy is “about $101 billion.”

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‘This truly signifies the next chapter’

Less than two months after the bridge collapse, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stood near the bridge site and the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, looking back at what has been accomplished so far.

“We’ve recovered all six victims,” said Moore, alluding to the six construction workers who lost their lives in the bridge collapse, during a May 21 morning press conference. The ship that hit the bridge had been refloated the previous morning, allowing more wreckage to be cleared.

“This is an example of what it looks like when government is coordinated, and when government is working,” he said, with the clearer waterway behind him. “Over the next week, we expect another 20 vessels and barges to come through the port’s public terminals.”

Among them, a Royal Caribbean cruise scheduled for a May 25 departure from the port.

After the crashed ship was moved on May 20, the Unified Command, comprised of both federal and state agencies who are working to clear the federal channel, shifted their headquarters from the Maryland Cruise Terminal to allow to for the restoration of commerce.

“This marks the resumption of commercial vessel transits in and out of the Port of Baltimore,” said the Unified Command, in a May 20 release, once the crashed ship was back at the port. “This truly signifies the next chapter in restoring the waterway commerce in this region, which also serves as the economic engine for thousands of workers and their families who depend on commerce traveling through the Port of Baltimore.”

The release also said the cleanup effort “will continue until the federal channel is restored to its original width of 700 feet and all steel below the mudline is removed.” (The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers timeline from April indicated the permanent channel would be open by the end of May.)

Days before the removal of the ship, the Unified Command’s release, and the governor’s press conference, Clark put forward his company’s plan for bringing its business back to Baltimore.

“We’re going to keep shipping from other ports or receiving other ports until we know that we can actually get to the Port of Baltimore,” he said, on May 17. “It’s such a critical part of our commerce for the state.”

The Jamison Door Company’s chief executive officer also put forward his assessment of how the efforts have proceeded in the weeks since the frantic call for the company to check on cargo.

“At this point, it’s nothing we’re concerned with — it seems like everybody’s on this,” said Clark, mentioning the governor and other government officials, “They recognize how serious this is, and they’re working at it.”

More: President Joe Biden visits victims' families, surveys collapsed bridge, promises rebuild

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: With ship that hit Baltimore bridge moved, port business picks up