Port Panama City Panama City, FL

Port Panama City is a growing regional port providing port facilities and handling services for a diverse mix of cargo. Port Panama City also supports a number of major manufacturers in the region with vital port services.

Over the last five years, the port has purchased a second deepwater facility and has completed construction of a new forest products export facility. Over time, the port looks to add a second berth and additional warehouses to this facility, increasing the total annual cargo throughput capacity for the port by 1.5 million tons.

The Panama City Port Authority is moving forward with the expansion of container terminal capacity at its West Terminal. In the next year, the port is slated to construct a 70,000-square-foot container freight station and purchase a third container-handling crane. Also at the West Terminal, the port has taken the first steps toward a $15 million expansion of its bulk storage facility, designed to support handling of an additional 300,000 tons in annual biomass exports.

Port Panama City is an active participant in regional economic development efforts. It works closely with the Bay County Economic Development Agency and Florida’s Great Northwest to support the expansion of existing industries and to attract new industries to the region. The port has developed its intermodal distribution center to promote warehousing and distribution services and to provide shovel-ready industrial sites for new industries.

Recently, the Panama City Port Authority has played a significant role in attracting cooling and heating systems manufacturer Airtemp of Mexico and custom kitchen cabinet importer Clark & Son Inc. to locate their U.S. operations to Panama City. Currently, the port supports 1,200 direct jobs and another 5,800 indirect jobs in Northwest Florida. The economic benefits of the Port of Panama City are estimated to be $1.4 billion a year.