The Port of Mobile is Alabama’s only deep-water port. It moves around 54 million tons of cargo per year — a volume that consistently ranks the port within the top dozen or so ports in the nation. The facility has easy access to two interstates, five Class 1 railroads and 1,500 miles of inland and Intracoastal Waterway connections. It is adjacent to the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, which offers air cargo freight forwarding services and two runways. The aeroplex is home to the Airbus manufacturing facility which receives aircraft components from the port.

Since 2000, the port has carried out nearly $500 million in improvement and expansion projects intended to serve containerized, bulk and break bulk commodities. Between 2010 and 2015, $360 million has been spent on infrastructure improvements like land acquisition, new rail and inter-modal yards, cargo terminal improvements, and enhancements to improve servicing of deep-water oil and gas field vessels and equipment.

The Port of Mobile features two harbors. The upper harbor’s channel is 40 feet in draft, has 2.4 million square feet for warehousing, and services Panamax ships carrying bulk, general cargo, roll-off/roll-on, heavy lift, and overseas cargo. The lower harbor, with a draft size of 45 feet typically services Post-Panamax ships carrying containers, steel and coal.