Port of Baltimore

But two recently in May, they are proud to announce that their client, the state of Maryland, reached a $2.25 billion settlement with the owner and operator of the MV Dolly, which was that ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

And so they're in Baltimore Harbor, resulting in its collapse.

And many of us saw that on the news.

It was such a dramatic event.

Together, these strengths gave the firm the ability to extend credit to the new nation to support its military needs.

Didn't hurt that Ellie's brother, Otho, was commissioner of the Port of Baltimore and had access to Alexander Hamilton, the man who would soon become Secretary of the Treasury.

Although headquartered in Maryland, Elliot and Williams joined the Western movement of merchants following the Revolutionary War.

The firm established a store at Front and Ferry Roads in Pittsburgh, then eventually purchased an island about a mile down the Ohio River from Fort Pitt.

But estimates suggest this plan could only accommodate between 15 and 20% of normal cargo inflows.

And as the recent incident at the Port of Baltimore demonstrated, disruption to port operations can last months.

Of course, airports and roll-on, roll-off ships could provide a backstop for necessities in the event of major natural disaster.

But the concentration of infrastructure in the Port of Honolulu means that if it gets damaged or disrupted, it could take quite a while for life in Hawaii to get back to normal.

So we're...

Not only are we helping to revitalize the Port of Baltimore, um, with this, with this Sparrows Point project, but we made it easier for these big investments to happen.

So yes, there will be addit- additional permitting for the Navy and the shipbuilding centers across the country, but we're really trying to produce a model where the federal government can sort of do that baseline work and make it easier for a developer to choose to build in the United States.

So, so we're really excited to see Sparrows Point, this concept we developed here at the Permitting Council, uh, really, really come to fruition, um, with this investment from Anduril, and we're looking forward to helping them navigate the additional permits that are necessary for shipbuilding.

Here we go.

But I had the luxury to kind of be in and amongst your team with the work y'all did with the Port of Baltimore following the Key Bridge collapse several years ago and the catastrophe that that was.

Not only a loss of life, but the shutting down of a major port, national economy ramifications.

And I saw that y'all had these local Maryland pilots come in and I watched them as they were kind of making these runs on what was a bypass channel.

So I'm wanting you to tell the story here in just a second, but it was fascinating to watch them do these daytime runs or these nighttime runs and give you the feedback like, Can you make my ship do this? This is not how it works.

Or can we do it in this way? Talk a little bit about that particular project and how the ship simulator allowed them and these pilots to kind of hone in what was a very important and very quick project to reopen shipping in the Port of Baltimore.

And so, you know, we're...

That channel before the accident, that channel was straight.

Started off as a big hurry to get that back into production, 'cause it's a major s- um, need for the port.

It's a key, key feature of the Port of Baltimore.

Um, if that bridge is, if bridge isn't finished by the time this opens up and gets into operation, that's gonna have its own impact.

Just saying.

go.

So this past Tuesday, McLaren, the actual supercar maker, officially opened a brand new vehicle processing center at Trade Point Atlantic, right on the port of Baltimore.

Wait, processing center? That sounds like something you'd use on chicken, not a supercar.

I know.

McLaren America's President Nicholas Brown said the facility reflects a major investment in the America's market.

built to make sure vehicles in this region meet customer expectations.

And TradePoint's managing director, Kerry Doyle, said this reinforces the Port of Baltimore's role as a leading gateway for vehicle imports and automotive logistics.

So the lesson for Maryland owners isn't just, hey, a cool car company showed up.

Gotcha.

So give you a chance to brag a little bit about [laughs] Maryland and Maryland agriculture, but when we talk about the Port of Baltimore, um, not only is that huge for our farmers in Maryland who are exporting a lot, but it is the largest port in America for farm machinery.

That's right.

Uh, you had a couple exciting announcements, uh, recently about the Port of Baltimore.

I'll just give you a chance to tell our listeners at home all the great things that are happening with ag trade there.

Yeah.

Well, well, you know, the, the Port of Baltimore is not just one of the most important, uh, you know, ports in the region.

It's one of the most important ports in the country.

For more information on how to volunteer, call Brianna Lawson at 410-887-3101.

The Port of Baltimore's cargo terminals are closing in less than two hours at 7 o'clock, which is a big deal if you're one of the people who is expecting to come back to the Port of Baltimore aboard the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas, which is out in the ocean right now, headed for a return here that was scheduled for Sunday morning.

The port has announced that it's going to be closed from 7 tonight through Sunday, so the folks who are on the Grandeur of the Seas are being told they are not going to dock until Monday morning, one extra day at sea.

It's a bigger problem for people who are supposed to leave on the next cruise, which was supposed to depart Baltimore on Sunday afternoon.

But from one AI to another, China's DeepSeek is close to securing a more than $11 billion funding round of its own, backed by Chinese battery maker CATL and Tencent, and the move coming as the company prepares for a reported IPO next year, what could be the biggest Chinese market debut in years.

Well, President Trump is heading to Maryland today to speak at an Anduril manufacturing facility at 4:00 PM Eastern, unveiling what the company describes as, quotes, "The next chapter of our work to rebuild American defense manufacturing." The Anduril Maryland plant sits on a 3,300-acre logistics and industrial center near the Port of Baltimore that used to be owned by Bethlehem Steel.

Expecting some news from there today.

But if we turn back to the tech trade, NVIDIA-backed company Reflection AI unveiling a new open weight model last night that could bring new and cheaper competition to OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and others.