Port of Harlingen Moves Businesses Forward
business, port of harlingen, transportation,
Everything is shipshape these days at the Port of Harlingen.
The port remains vital to the overall economy of the city as well as the entire Rio Grande Valley, mainly because hundreds of products are imported and exported from its strategic point on the Gulf of Mexico. Shipments from Harlingen are mostly to and from destinations throughout the United States, although the port also does quite a bit of business with Mexico.
“An impressive statistic is that more than 95 percent of fertilizer shipped from Mexico to the United States is received here at Harlingen,” says Butch Palmer, director of the Port of Harlingen.
“Meanwhile, all of the sugar shipped out of the Rio Grande Valley – 100 percent of it – is shipped out of the Harlingen port. And one-third of all the fuel that is imported for the Valley comes through this port as well.”
Palmer says the port provides efficient and economical shipping transportation to points that are as near as Corpus Christi and as far away as the Great Lakes.
“We are an important link in the overall transportation network that is vital to the economy of the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas,” he says. “For truckers that deal with the port, we are conveniently located on Highway 106, just four miles east of the city of Harlingen.”
Palmer adds that railroad lines at the port also make access to the Gulf of Mexico that much easier.
“Southern Pacific Company has rail lines here, and there are switching capacities for Union Pacific Railways, so it is easy to keep products moving to Texas locations and on throughout the United States and Mexico,” he says. “We also have numerous terminal docks and other facilities set up for the easy transfer of cargo from ships to rail or trucks, and vice versa.”
The Harlingen channel can welcome most cargo ships and barges because it features a width of 125 feet and a depth of 12 feet.
“As for dealing with Mexico, the port is especially convenient for loading freight from ship to trucks, then hauling the cargo to Mexico over the Free Trade Bridge,” Palmer says. “The bridge is only 12 miles from the port.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
