Ceres Terminals will lease and operate a 158-acre container facility at the Dames Point Marine Terminal at JAXPORT in Florida for the next 20 years.
JAXPORT’s board of directors, which oversees the port in Jacksonville, Florida, unanimously agreed to the $60 million deal between Ceres and the port in which Ceres will modernize the TraPac Jacksonville container terminal. A separate transaction calls for Ceres to purchase the terminal’s previous leaseowner, TraPac Jacksonville, from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines at an undisclosed price.
Ceres will begin operating the terminal March 1. The company has also operated the JAXPORT intermodal yard at Dames Point, which is adjacent to the TraPac terminal.
“We are excited about our long-term commitment to JAXPORT and the local community. Our significant investment in Dames Point Terminal provides an excellent gateway for South Atlantic-based distribution centers well into the future,” said Ceres Terminals CEO Craig Mygatt in a release.
The agreement, which is subject to the completion of the sale, consists of a $45 million lease with JAXPORT as well as $15 million in upgrades to cargo-handling equipment and systems that Ceres will provide for the terminal.
The TraPac Jacksonville terminal, which has two 1,200-foot-long berths as well as six post-Panamax container cranes, handles vessels coming from Asia and South America through The Alliance. But the terminal also handled Hapag-Lloyd’s AL3 European container service for nine weeks as the carrier sought to avoid port congestion elsewhere, according to JAXPORT.
“The ongoing supply chain disruption underscores the significance of this agreement and the importance of the capabilities offered by the TraPac Jacksonville facility,” said JAXPORT CEO Eric Green. “When we put together JAXPORT’s strategic master plan, our focus was growing cargo volumes and the private sector jobs they support. This agreement is a major step forward in the evolution of that plan. We thank MOL for their partnership over the years and look forward to growing the economic impact this facility has on our community under its new ownership with Ceres.”
JAXPORT said operations and ocean carrier services would remain the same during the transition.
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