Maersk breaks ground on Sparrows Point terminal, boosting Baltimore port capacity 70%

A 165-acre container terminal at Sparrows Point is finally breaking ground, a buildout Tradepoint Atlantic says will lift Baltimore’s container capacity by 70% and redraw the freight map around the former Bethlehem Steel site. The earliest gains are likely to fall to port workers, drayage firms, warehouse operators and the manufacturers that depend on faster East Coast service, while nearby communities and truck routes absorb more freight pressure.

The project sits at Coke Point on the Patapsco River and will include on-dock rail inside a 330-acre redevelopment footprint. Backers say that rail access is central to the terminal’s appeal because it can move containers inland more efficiently and help Baltimore compete for cargo that now flows through larger ports farther north and south.

Tradepoint Atlantic and Terminal Investment Limited first announced the partnership in October 2022, alongside a memorandum of understanding signed by state, county and city leaders. Then-Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski and Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott stood behind the effort as a major bet on the old steel peninsula. Tradepoint Atlantic, which bought the former Bethlehem Steel site in 2014, says it has already turned Sparrows Point into a 3,300-acre logistics center with deepwater berths, rail and highway access, and more than 50 companies operating there.

The numbers attached to the terminal are large enough to matter beyond the waterfront. A 2024 economic assessment projected $1.54 billion in annual economic benefits to Maryland by 2035, more than 8,000 direct and indirect jobs, and more than $305 million in employee compensation. SPCT materials project about 499,000 TEU in 2028 and 2.0 million TEU at full capacity, enough, the companies say, to make Baltimore the third-largest East Coast port by container capacity, behind only New York and New Jersey and Savannah.

The federal permitting process reached a key milestone on Dec. 18, 2025, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its Section 404, 10, 408 and 103 permit decision after leading the review under FAST-41 and NEPA. Maryland’s environmental regulator also lists the site as an approved 330-acre terminal on the Coke Point peninsula.

Tradepoint Atlantic and the terminal backers have also tied the project to environmental mitigation. In March, Sparrows Point Container Terminal and Oyster Recovery Partnership sent 20 vessels and 40 watermen to remove derelict fishing gear from the upper Chesapeake Bay near Hart-Miller Island and the Patapsco River. The terminal is being pitched as the last major phase of redevelopment at Sparrows Point, where the old steel mill is giving way to a logistics hub with a much larger role in Baltimore’s supply chain.