Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2018

TOLEDO, Ohio, October 18, 2018 – The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority is pleased to share the results of The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership’s Economic Impacts of the Port of Toledo, a report documenting the many contributions made by the Port Authority and Great Lakes Seaway Shipping to the City of Toledo, Lucas County, State of Ohio and Great Lakes region.

The study reports that in 2017 the Port of Toledo and maritime commerce supported:

• 7,083 jobs
• $669 million in economic activity
• $513 million in personal income and local consumption expenditures
• $180 million in federal and state tax revenue

“The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority had an exceptional year in 2017,” says Paul Toth, President and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. “One of our major initiatives was the launch of Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc.’s first hot briquetted iron (HBI) production plant at Ironville Terminal in East Toledo. This project will bring an additional 100 ships annually to call on the Port of Toledo, create up to 130 permanent jobs, more than 1,200 construction jobs, and represents a $700 million investment in the Toledo Region.”

This momentum continued throughout the year with general bulk and breakbulk cargo into the Port. “We expect to finish the 2018 Navigation Season with a busy schedule of international vessel traffic at the general cargo terminal operated by Midwest Terminals and continued activity at grain facilities,” says Joe Cappel, Vice President of Business Development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

The study reflects the important contributions the Port provides to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region,” says Steven A. Fisher, Executive Director of the American Great Lakes Ports Association. “The jobs supported by the maritime industry include not only those located directly on the waterfront – shipyard workers, stevedores, vessel operators, terminal employees, truck drivers and marine pilots – but also grain farmers, construction works, miners and steelworkers. Many of these jobs would vanish if not for a dynamic maritime industry.”

Economic Impacts of the Port of Toledo is a companion report to the broader Great Lakes-St. Lawrence study titled Economic Impacts of Maritime Shipping in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region, a year-long study of the economic impacts of the entire Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system.

The study reports that in 2017 in Ohio, maritime commerce supported:

• 33,168 jobs
• $4 billion in economic activity
• 40 million metric tons of cargo handled
• $2 billion in personal income and local consumption expenditures
• $839 million in federal, state & local taxes

The Economic Impacts of Port of Toledo full report can be downloaded by clicking here. The Economic Impacts of Maritime Shipping in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region Executive Summary and full report can be downloaded by clicking here.

About the Great Lakes Seaway Partnership

The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership is a coalition of leading US and Canadian maritime organizations working to enhance public understanding of the benefits of commercial shipping in the Great Lakes Seaway region of North America. The organization manages an education-focused communications program, sponsors research and works closely with media, policy makers, community groups, allied industries, environmental stakeholders and the general public to highlight the positive attributes of marine transportation. For more information, please visit http://www.greatlakesseaway.org.

About the Economic Impacts Study

The Economic Impacts of Maritime Shipping in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region, which uses 2017 data, was conducted by economic consultants Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a global leader in transportation economic analysis and strategic planning. Martin Associates was retained to perform this analysis by a coalition of U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes and St. Lawrence marine industry stakeholders, including: Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, the American Great Lakes Ports Association, the Chamber of Marine Commerce, the Lake Carriers Association, and the Shipping Federation of Canada. The analysis was developed from comprehensive interviews with more than 750 individual firms with 1,105 operations throughout the region. The report provides the navigation community, transportation planners, government policy makers and the general public with an assessment of the economic impacts of the entire Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system.

The mission of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority is to develop expertise and assets that drive and grow the region’s transportation and logistics infrastructure and its economic prosperity for all.

www.toledoport.org – 419.243.8251