What gets shipped at NC’s Wilmington & Morehead City ports?

The N.C. State Ports Authority has invested heavily in improving its ability to move shipping containers, those big metal boxes that carry clothing, furniture, food and other consumer products.

But North Carolina’s two ports at Wilmington and Morehead City also move tons of bulk or general cargo, such as fertilizer, soybeans and wood pellets. The authority expects that 3.5 million tons of non-containerized cargo will move through the two ports in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

The General Assembly created the state ports authority in 1945, and the terminals at Wilmington and Morehead City were completed in 1952. Here’s a brief profile of each port:

Port of Wilmington

Location: On the east bank of the Cape Fear River, about two miles downstream of downtown Wilmington.

Size: About 284 acres, about 100 of which are dedicated to the shipping container operation.

Other property: Another 75 undeveloped acres at the north end of the port and 75 acres about a mile south. The ports authority recently leased the southern property to Cold Summit Development, which is building 440,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space for meat, fruit and other agriculture products.

Capabilities: Wilmington is the only one of the two state-owned ports that can handle shipping containers. The ports authority expects to move more than 330,000 20-foot container units or TEUs, the industry’s standard measurement, in this fiscal year.

The port also handles bulk cargo (commodities such as beans and wood chips) and what’s known as breakbulk cargo, such as lumber or bags of fertilizer or cement that are moved by the piece, often on pallets. The port can accommodate “Ro-Ro” shipments that roll on and off a ship with forklifts.

The port also offers “stuffing” and “stripping” services that put cargo in or take it out of shipping containers near the berth, giving customers more options for moving goods on land or by sea.

Primary imports: Furniture, building materials, consumer hardware, clothing, textiles, machinery, auto parts, fresh produce, lumber, fertilizers, cement and general department store merchandise.

Primary exports: Pork, poultry, sweet potatoes, produce, clothing and other textiles, paper, soybeans, cotton, chemicals, auto parts, logs and wood pellets, chips and pulp.

Berths: Nine, with 6,740 feet of wharf frontage

Cranes: Seven cranes for handling shipping containers, three of which can reach across the largest ships to call on the East Coast. Also, one multipurpose bulk cargo crane.

Rail: CSX

Channel depth: 42 feet

Miles to open ocean: 26

Port of Morehead City

Location: At the mouth of the Newport River, between downtown Morehead City and Beaufort.

Size: 128 acres

Other property: The ports authority owns about 200 acres on nearby Radio Island. About 150 acres of that property is available for port-related development.

Capabilities: Morehead City handles bulk and breakbulk cargo and has 1 million square feet of covered storage and 30 acres of paved open storage.

Primary imports: Sulfur, rubber, lumber, cement, scrap metal, fertilizers, asphalt, aggregate stone, specialty grains and legumes (for poultry) and military cargo.

Primary exports: Phosphate products, fertilizers, aircraft parts, wood chips and other forest products, grains and legumes and military cargo.

Berths: Nine, with 5,366 feet of wharf frontage

Cranes: One gantry crane

Rail: Norfolk Southern

Channel depth: 45 feet

Miles to open ocean: 4