DESANTISLAND
Port Everglades Uses Visit of Largest Boxship to Urge Channel Improvements
Port Everglades celebrated the arrival of the largest cargo ship to ever visit the port on August 12. While highlighting the continued growth in the port’s cargo operations, officials also used it as an opportunity to urge progress on the Port Everglades Navigation Improvements Project (PENIP), which was approved by the U.S. Congress a decade ago.
The MSC Vandya (182,000 dwt) made a brief port stop during which the port expected to offload approximately 1,300 TEU and load additional boxes bound for Asia. Built in 2012, the ship is 1,200 feet in length and has a maximum capacity of 13,050 TEU. The MSC Vandya stopped in Port Everglades as part of MSC’s Dragon Service to the Far East, and departed on Wednesday afternoon.
“Ships today are being built larger and more sustainable because they can carry more containers in fewer trips, thereby reducing their carbon footprint,” said Port Everglades CEO and Port Director Joseph Morris. “The MSC Vandya is a good example of why Port Everglades continues to operate at a disadvantage. Until we deepen and widen our navigational channel, ships will arrive lightly loaded or will be forced to call on another port, adding time and cost to the transportation of goods.”
The port achieved its best cargo year in FY 2025 with 1,167,552 TEUs, setting a new Port Everglades record. However, officials highlight that currently 8,000 TEUs is the highest number of TEUs that a ship coming into Port Everglades can carry due to current water depth restrictions.
MSC Vandya maneuvering in the port (Port Everglades)
They highlighted that for the past 30 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working on the Port Everglades Navigation Improvements Project (PENIP) to deepen and widen Port Everglades navigation channels to enable the safe passage of newer, larger, and more sustainable ships.
The PENIP calls for deepening the main channel from 42 feet to 48 feet with two feet extra overdepth for a total of 50 feet and widening the Intracoastal Waterway by the U.S. Coast Guard Station where there is a chokepoint. The project was authorized by Congress in December 2016.
Port Everglades reports it is continuing to work with its federal and state partners to move this project forward. It emphasized that the project remains critical to retaining global business partners and reducing delays in the supply chain that feeds, clothes, and fuels in South Florida.
Florida's Governor Backs New Shipyard Proposal in Pensacola
On Wednesday, the Pensacola shipyard proposal known as "Project Maeve" received a meaningful gesture of support from Florida Gov. Ron Desantis' administration: a $9 million city grant for infrastructure improvements related to the creation of the brand-new enterprise.
"We’re [making] a $9 million investment to support the construction of two boatbuilding facilities at the Port of Pensacola. These facilities will produce complex Navy ship modules for submarines and surface ships, and they are projected to create 2,000 jobs for Floridians in shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing," said DeSantis in a statement.
The grant underwrites site development, utilities and construction for two new shipbuilding facilities at Port of Pensacola. The port has also applied for $76 million in funding from the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement to help support the proposed operator, Australian defense shipbuilding firm Birdon. The total project cost is estimated at about $275 million in two phases: first, a panel line and module fabrication facility, followed by an assembly bay and office complex to support ship construction.
The envisioned project would be a significant Tier 2 operation with 400,000 square feet of new manufacturing space to support the U.S. Navy's distributed-shipbuilding enterprise. It would be the biggest single addition of new jobs in Pensacola's history, and would add new hiring demand in a competitive market for skilled welders and shipfitters on the Gulf Coast, drawing from the same labor pool as Ingalls Shipbuilding (80 miles to the west), Austal USA (50 miles to the west) and Eastern Shipbuilding (100 miles to the east).
In addition to modules, the Project Maeve site would be equipped to build vessels of up to 400 feet in length - an appropriate size for the Navy's MUSV unmanned-vessel program, which Birdon has joined in conjunction with Mythos AI. The consortium is one of seven finalists in the recently restructured MUSV competition.
The new shipyard project would be a big economic lift for Pensacola: it would bring in about 1,440 onsite jobs paid at an average of $68,000 a year, plus another 560 professional positions paying about $112,000 a year. In a city with a median household income of about $74,000 per year, that would be a big boost. "This project will change the trajectory of our city for generations to come," said Mayor D.C. Reeves in a statement earlier this year.
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