With Dredging Complete, Port of Mobile Gets Container Terminal Expansion

Hot on the heels of the completion of Port of Mobile's channel dredging project, Maersk-owned APM Terminals has agreed to build a new 1,300-foot container berth at its facility at the seaport, adding enough room to handle another ULCV alongside. The additional space will leverage the new channel to handle the largest boxships that call in the United States, enhancing Mobile's competitiveness.

The dredging project formally wrapped up last month, thanks to $366 million in funding from the federal government (secured by former Sen. Richard Shelby) and from the State of Alabama's new gasoline tax fund. The project took the channel to a control depth of 50 feet, making it the deepest on the U.S. Gulf coast, and added a passing lane. The objective was to make Mobile directly competitive with West and East Coast ports that can handle fully-laden post-Panamax boxships on their "first call," when they are drawing up to 50 feet of water.

APMT's terminal project (and a long list of additional improvements) will enable those port calls at scale. The $131 million project is co-funded by federal dollars, and will allow a total of three large boxships at the terminal at a time. Construction should begin next year and be completed in 2028. Together with other ongoing improvements, the berth will bring AMPT Mobile's nameplate capacity to about 1.4 million TEU per year.

The firm is also building out a 33-acre container yard expansion, a rail capacity upgrade, and construction of a rail bridge that will set the terminal up for on-dock rail access. All of the work is underpinned by a 20-year lease extension that takes APM's tenure at Mobile out to 2058.

“This expansion is about more than infrastructure - it’s about cementing Mobile’s position as the Gulf’s premier container gateway,” said Doug Otto, Interim CEO and Director of the Alabama Port Authority. “With the channel deepening complete, a new berth underway, the Phase IV expansion in progress, and APM Terminals’ continued partnership, we’re connecting businesses across Alabama — and across the nation — to global markets faster and more efficiently than ever before.”