Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT) — Jacksonville, Florida

The Jacksonville Port Authority, operating under the brand name JAXPORT, is the dominant maritime institution in northeastern Florida and one of the largest ports on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Established as a public authority, JAXPORT governs three marine terminals situated along the St. Johns River within the consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County. The port's cargo mix spans containerized freight, roll-on/roll-off vehicle shipments, bulk commodities, and cruise passenger operations.

In fiscal year 2025, JAXPORT moved nearly 1.4 million containers, 506,000 vehicle units, and more than 10 million tons of cargo, according to CEO Eric Green's February 2026 State of the Ports address. The Florida Ports Council documents JAXPORT's trade network as extending to 140 ports in more than 70 countries. The port sits at the geographic center of Jacksonville's economic identity, operating along the same St. Johns River corridor that has anchored commerce in the region since the nineteenth century. Its terminals at Blount Island, Talleyrand, and the SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal collectively constitute a multi-commodity maritime hub serving both global supply chains and local distribution networks.

JAXPORT operates three principal marine terminals, each handling distinct cargo categories within the port's overall throughput system.

The Blount Island Marine Terminal is the port's largest facility and its primary hub for vehicle processing and heavy-lift cargo. Southeast Toyota Distributors operates a new 340,000-square-foot auto processing facility at Blount Island, according to JAXPORT's growth outlook. The terminal also accommodates ocean vessel calls for containerized freight and serves as a base for major ro-ro operators.

The SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal completed a $72 million modernization in 2025, expanding its footprint to 97 acres of paved capacity capable of handling approximately 650,000 TEUs annually, as documented by JAXPORT. With this expansion, JAXPORT reports total container handling capacity across its terminals approaching 2 million TEUs.

The Talleyrand Marine Terminal is the port's oldest active facility, located closest to downtown Jacksonville along the St. Johns River. It handles bulk, breakbulk, and general cargo, and also serves as the home berth for JAXPORT's cruise operations, where Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line vessels embark passengers.

JAXPORT's financial reports also reference a Dames Point Terminal acquisition as part of the authority's asset and capacity expansion activity during 2024.

JAXPORT's cargo portfolio divides into two primary segments: containerized freight and automobile processing. In fiscal year 2025, the port moved nearly 1.4 million containers, according to the February 2026 State of the Ports address. Container services include Ocean Network Express's East Coast 2 Asia service, established in 2024, and MSC's South America container route, documented by the Jax Daily Record as part of JAXPORT's broadening trade lane connectivity.

Automobile processing represents the port's other defining cargo segment. JAXPORT's financial reports document 509,061 vehicle units processed in calendar year 2024. In fiscal year 2025, that figure was reported as approximately 506,000 units at the State of the Ports address. Southeast Toyota Distributors, operating the new 340,000-square-foot facility at Blount Island Marine Terminal, is the anchor tenant for this segment. The port consistently ranks among the top U.S. ports for vehicle throughput.

In 2024, JAXPORT also secured a 30-year lease with Enstructure, a terminal operating company, as documented in the authority's financial reports. The Primark distribution center at Imeson Park South, referenced in the Jax Daily Record, reflects how port-linked logistics facilities extend JAXPORT's supply chain footprint into the broader Jacksonville industrial market.

The Talleyrand Marine Terminal hosts JAXPORT's cruise operations, which expanded to two operators in 2025. Carnival has operated from Jacksonville for an extended period; Norwegian Cruise Line joined as a second homeport operator when the Norwegian Gem began seasonal sailings to the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean in fall 2025, under a contract finalized in 2024 as documented in JAXPORT financial reports and reported by the Jax Daily Record.

In calendar year 2024, JAXPORT documented a record 206,720 cruise passengers, according to JAXPORT financial reports. This compares to approximately 195,000 passengers in 2023, as cited by the Florida Chamber of Commerce in its summary of the Martin Associates economic impact study. That study attributed approximately $211 million in local economic impact and roughly 870 jobs to cruise operations at the port.

According to JAXPORT's economic impact page, cargo activity through the seaport supports more than 258,800 jobs statewide and generates approximately $44 billion in annual economic output. These figures were presented by CEO Eric Green at the February 2026 State of the Ports address, as reported by News4Jax.

An earlier Martin Associates economic impact study, cited in JAXPORT's 2024 milestones, quantified the port's direct and induced statewide footprint at $33 billion and 206,927 statewide jobs, with 28,194 Jacksonville-area port-dependent jobs identified specifically. Direct employment at the port itself numbered 11,318 workers in 2023, per the Jax Daily Record.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce characterizes JAXPORT as the overall economic engine for northeastern Florida. The port's trade network, encompassing 140 ports in more than 70 countries according to the Florida Ports Council, provides Jacksonville-area manufacturers, distributors, and importers with direct ocean carrier access across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.

At the February 2026 State of the Ports address, JAXPORT CEO Eric Green described fiscal year 2025 as a transformational year for the authority, according to News4Jax. Two capital projects reached completion during 2025: the $72 million SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal modernization, which expanded paved capacity to 97 acres at approximately 650,000 TEUs annually, and the new 340,000-square-foot Southeast Toyota auto processing facility at Blount Island Marine Terminal, both documented by JAXPORT.

The Green presentation also highlighted a strategic initiative identified as the Jax Forward strategy, framing business diversification and new trade lane connectivity as the authority's primary growth vectors. Ocean Network Express launched its East Coast 2 Asia container service through Jacksonville in 2024, and the port secured the 30-year Enstructure terminal lease, both noted in JAXPORT's 2024 milestones summary. Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Gem began seasonal sailings from the Talleyrand cruise terminal in fall 2025, establishing Jacksonville as a two-operator homeport for the first time.

JAXPORT also received new crane equipment during 2024, documented in the authority's financial reports, as part of ongoing terminal productivity investments aligned with the expanded container capacity at the SSA facility.

JAXPORT operates within the broader context of Florida's seaport system, overseen at the state level by the Florida Ports Council, which coordinates policy advocacy and economic analysis for all of Florida's deepwater ports. Among Florida's 15 public seaports, JAXPORT is the dominant cargo handler on the Atlantic coast north of Port Canaveral, serving a hinterland that extends across the southeastern United States and into the Midwest via interstate highway and Class I rail connections.

The port operates along the St. Johns River, which provides the navigable channel linking Blount Island and Talleyrand terminals to the Atlantic Ocean via a federally maintained shipping channel. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the federal agency responsible for maintaining the channel depth, a recurring infrastructure concern for deepwater port competitiveness.

Jacksonville's consolidated city-county government structure — the only such arrangement in Florida, established on October 1, 1968 — means that JAXPORT operates within a single jurisdictional framework governing all of Duval County. The port authority's activities intersect with the City of Jacksonville's broader economic development priorities, including logistics and industrial land use along the St. Johns River corridor and at inland freight parks such as Imeson Park South, where the Primark distribution center reflects port-driven demand for inland warehousing. The proximity of Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport, two major federal installations documented respectively by NAS Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport, also shapes regional land use and the types of industrial and logistics tenants operating within the Jacksonville market.