PORTLAND, Maine — The International Marine Terminal in Portland is an intensely busy worksite that few get to see.
Andrew Haines showed NEWS CENTER Maine around the massive working waterfront. As executive vice president of Eimskip USA, the shipping company that operates in the terminal, he’s excited to have new neighbors.
The Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Port Authority broke ground Monday on the Maine International Cold Storage Facility, part of a long-term plan to bolster shipping.
When completed in February of 2024, the 107,000-square-foot building will store perishables offloaded from nearby ships, or those ready to head out into the Atlantic.
"We try to make sure that we have the same amount in every week that goes out; that way, we don’t end up with an imbalance," Haines said. "Otherwise, things get busy really quick."
A total of 52 ships -- one each week -- will dock at the port this year, Haines explained, loading and unloading some 25,000 containers filled with goods. About 40 percent of those containers are refrigerated and hold a wide range of perishable goods, from Maine seafood to medicine.
Currently, that means the sensitive cargo must stay in individual refrigerated containers and be trucked to a cold storage building -- the closest of which is in Boston. But, Haines says the trucks that carry his freight sometimes travel as far as New Jersey before unloading.
"Right now, about 90 percent of what we export internationally, and virtually all of what we export domestically, leaves our state by truck," Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, said during the groundbreaking ceremony.
According to Mills' office, the University of Southern Maine estimates the storage facility will generate between $500 to $900 million for the state's economy.
In this corner of the country, within a global economy, the state is banking on a simple idea making a load of difference.