Gulfport port highlights deepening project, $43 million terminal deal and annual economic impact to subcommittee

John Nass, executive director of the Mississippi State Port Authority, told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee No. 7 that the authority is not seeking state operating funds but outlined several capital projects and a long-term channel-deepening effort intended to expand vessel size and regional trade.

Nass told the committee the port at Gulfport is an enterprise agency that pays its own operating costs and only occasionally requests state discretionary capital funds. “I’m not coming to ask for any money,” he said, adding the port does seek support for specific capital projects.

The port recently completed an economic-impact study Nass said showed about a $3.8 billion annual impact to the region, roughly 36,100 direct jobs and about 53,100 indirect jobs. Nass said the port’s freight mix ranges from refrigerated fruit imports to high‑tech manufacturing, and that partners include Dole, Chiquita, Chemours, Crowley and federal and university programs tied to the “blue economy.”

Nass described a multiyear U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study for deepening and widening the Gulfport channel. He said the Army Corps selected a 46‑foot preferred depth; the study and authorization process will be lengthy. “This is going to be at least 8 years from beginning to end,” Nass said, and the deeper channel would permit larger vessels and, he said, increase work hours for International Longshoremen’s Association labor.

On maintenance dredging, Nass told the committee the federally authorized channel receives annual dredging by the Army Corps that ranges from about $9 million to $11 million and is covered by the federal government. He said the port is responsible for dredging immediately adjacent to piers; the port performed one such maintenance dredge this year at a cost of about $5 million.

Nass described recent private investment on the terminal, including a $43,000,000 agreement with Ports America to occupy a vacant terminal and make capital investments, among them an additional gantry crane expected to appear on the waterfront in about six months. He also noted the presence of Ocean Arrow on the terminal, which he said employs roughly 65 staff and markets an unmanned-vehicle product called the Triton.

Nass outlined new services and logistics links the port is developing, including a short-sea service to Tuxpan, Mexico, and an intermodal connection via Canadian National Railway that has completed two test runs between Gulfport and Chicago in about 22 hours. He said those services aim to increase cargo velocity and reduce trucking distances.

Nass and committee members also discussed capital and operating estimates in the port’s submission: a $5–6 million warehouse rehabilitation that includes roof and fire-suppression work on a 200,000‑square‑foot facility; a slate of capital projects sized in the port’s two‑year plan that could total roughly $59 million if federal grants and matches are secured; and salary-line changes reflecting retirements, health‑insurance and retirement‑system cost pressure and new business‑development hires.

The committee asked follow-up questions about dredging frequency, permitting and Corps authorization. Nass repeated that annual federal maintenance dredging occurs under the federally authorized channel and that the deeper-channel authorization remains a multiyear Corps process.

The port’s presentation closed with committee members thanking Nass and posing no formal motions or votes.