Key Companies that Depend on the Port

Baltimore Spice, Owings Mills	Reliable Churchill, Pasadena
Ann’s House of Nuts, Beltsville	FILA, Glen Burnie
McCormick & Co., Sparks	Teruma Medical, Elkton
Evapoco, Taneytown	Independent Can, Belcamp
Mack Truck, Hagerstown	Alcoa, Frederick
Solo Cup Company, Reisterstown

The Ripple Effect …

Based on data developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, for every $1.00 earned by Maryland residents holding the direct jobs as a result of activity at the Port of Baltimore, an additional $1.01 of income and consumption expenditures are created as a result of workers spending their paycheck to purchase Maryland-produced goods and services.

Jobs and how they affect local and state economies

Activity at the Port Drives Maryland's Economy

The work at the Port ripples throughout Maryland’s economy like a stone thrown into a lake.

Operations at the Port include both public and private marine terminals that handle goods entering and leaving the nation.  In 2007, these terminals handled a total of 30.7 million tons of cargo.  This cargo included automobiles, farm equipment, coal, petroleum, clothing, furniture, steel, electronics, forest products and paper, ore, sugar, soybeans, and grains.

Because of such heavy activity, the Port has to employ and pay a large number of workers. In 2006, 16,500 people worked at the Port handling cargo and ship activities.

Think about the ways all these jobs affect the economy:

• Because these workers need other services, their work at the Port actually creates more jobs outside the Port. This is the so-called “ripple effect” of the Port on the statewide economy. The activities at the Port create jobs in places that are both nearby and many miles away.  
• Port workers need to eat lunch, go to the doctor, pay rent or a mortgage, buy or rent a car, buy food for their families, etc.  They also need office supplies and fuel for vehicles they use at the Port.  All these services are supplied by people working in other careers. The Port estimates that about 23,000 more people work in jobs that provide support services like these.
• Workers pay taxes to local, state, and national governments.  These taxes help support schools, the police, fire departments, and other public services, such as libraries and road building and repair.
• The work the Port employees do also allows businesses that use the Port to make money as well. These businesses also pay taxes to the local, state, and national governments.  In addition, they also pay people who have invested in their companies through stocks, hire more people, and buy goods and services from other companies.

Because of all this, the Maryland Port Administration says that the Port is a major source of personal and business revenue in the state, shown by these statistics:

• The Port was responsible for $3.6 billion in personal wage and salary income in 2006.
• The Port generated $1.9 billion in business revenues in 2006.
• Local purchases by businesses directly dependent on port activity amounted to $1.3 billion.
• Activities of the Port generated state, county and municipal taxes of $388 million.
• The U.S. Customs Service collected $507 million in duties in 2005.