I would like to start by expressing how deeply honored and appreciative I am to have received the World Trade Center of New Orleans’ Eugene J. Schreiber award last month.

To my surprise, I was also bestowed the honor of receiving The Order of the Plimsoll Mark as well. I must say that any success I have enjoyed from promoting trade for Louisiana is due, in large part, to the hard work of my supporting team — the commissioners and employees of the Port of South Louisiana.

That hard work has paid off as the Port of South Louisiana celebrated several grand openings and expansions. In May, we held a ribbon-cutting ceremony that marked the official opening of the expansion to Warehouse #19 at Globalplex Intermodal Terminal.

The $9.6 million expansion was funded in part (approximately 90 percent) by LA DOTD’s Port Construction and Development Priority Program. The Port of South Louisiana planned this extension based on the needs of BARTON International, Globalplex’s long-time tenant. Associated Terminals will continue to provide the bulk logistics services (vessel unloading, storage of raw product, product processing, finished product storage, and finished product loading and distribution) as they have done in the past.

This ribbon-cutting event was held at the heels of Globalplex Intermodal Terminal marking its 25th year in operation!

In August, nearly two years after its groundbreaking, Pin Oak Terminals held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to signal the beginning of operations in the new multi-product liquid marine terminal. Announced in October 2015, the project entails a $600 million capital investment in storage terminals, docks and related infrastructure along the east bank of the Mississippi River at Mt. Airy, near the St. John the Baptist-St. James parish line.

Projects that are underway in St. James Parish: Yuhuang Chemical, Inc. is in the construction phase of its $1.85 billion facility and South Louisiana Methanol continues their due diligence to establish their $3.3 billion facility.

In late October, the Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport commemorated the official opening of its first transient hangar. The self-funded $739,000 project began construction in the summer of 2016. The Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport’s newest addition will allow the airport to better serve the needs of general aviation and corporate aircraft.

The Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport has been full of activity this year, hosting an array of fly-ins and community events throughout 2017, including a community breakfast celebrating St. John the Baptist Parish IEDC’s National Economic Development Week (May); a Pilots N Paws fly-in during which pilots volunteered to provide transportation of homeless animals to potential forever homes across the country (June); the Andouille Festival fly-in in conjunction with an FAA safety seminar [Note: the Andouille festival fly-in also attracted local television news program WGNO’s News with a Twist which filmed a segment about the local fair and the Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport] (October); plus the First Annual St. John the Baptist Parish Aviation Awareness Day (May), an educational outing for children in the community to learn about flying and aviation; an Aviation Appreciation Day (August); and the Pilots for Patients fly-in (November), which provided air transportation to people with medical conditions to out-of-town medical facilities at no cost.

Since mid-2016, the Port of South Louisiana has teamed up with Sean Duffy of Big River Coalition and Caitlin Cain and Jerry Hingle of the World Trade Center of New Orleans to release op-eds aimed to educate policymakers about the importance of the Port of South Louisiana to the economic well-being of the nation and the consequences from failing to dredge the mouth of the Mississippi River.

So far this year, Meltz Communication, based out of Washington, D.C., has published five op-eds for us in influential online publications that target Washington insiders, including Forbes, Bloomberg, Real Clear Policy, Cedar Rapids Gazette, The Hagstrom Report and Washington Examiner.

Year-to-date, facilities within Port of South Louisiana’s district handled over 228 million short tons of cargo. Tonnage data thus far seems to suggest that, once again, it is on course to surpass last year’s total throughput. If so, 2017 will be another record-breaking year.

The Port of South Louisiana consistently ranks above the ports of Houston, New York/New Jersey, New Orleans, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Long Beach, Greater Baton Rouge and Mobile, making us the largest tonnage port in the Western Hemisphere.

In addition, according to a new report by international shipping magazine Fairplay, the Port of South Louisiana was ranked 16th in the world. Of the nearly 5,000 ports, the Port of South Louisiana is the only U.S. port that ranks in the top 20 ports in the world!

Paul Aucoin is executive director of the Port of South Louisiana. For more information, call 985-652-9278.