It’s a “mutually beneficial” deal that stops a planned $300 million container terminal from being built in Jacksonville, but brings in new business instead.

“You can count on an increase in container volume and you can count on an increased awareness of Jacksonville,” says JAXPORT Senior Director of Communications Nancy Rubin.

JAXPORT and Hanjin Shipping Co. leadership have announced plans for a new terminal at Dames Point have been put on hold.  The reason cited was economic, that the investment just didn’t make sense at this time.

“They’ll still be committed to Jacksonville, they’ll still continually grow their volume here,” Rubin says.

In fact, a shipping alliance that includes Hanjin will be making weekly stops at JAXPORT.  Another alliance will also begin using JAXPORT for different routes from Asia.  Rubin says JAXPORT has been pushing more trade with Asia because of the value of that relationship.

“That is your consumer products and how they travel around the world, and that is a very lucrative part of the business,” she says.

More important that what is actually carried through the containers, however, is what the increase in business will mean to the ports.  There’s a wide net of jobs associated with each shipment, from dockworkers to truckers to warehousers and the logistics specialists that line everything up.

“We should have the benefits that come with cargo, we shouldn’t be leaving those jobs and dollars on the doorstep,” Rubin says.

Rubin says they’re looking at benefits like this coming from the deal which stops the terminal, even though they continue to work on growing container business.  She says there’s yet another benefit from not making the hefty investment that would come with the new terminal.

“This responsible, fiscally aware situation for the port is also a way that our leadership can put energy and resources in to the pursuit of a deeper harbor,” she says.

JAXPORT and other agencies are now working on deepening the harbor to 47 feet in an effort to bring in even more large ships