New Study Highlights Economic Impact Of Texas Ports

A new economic study released by the Texas Ports Association shows $713.9 billion in economic activity is generated annually by 23 Texas ports, making up 28 percent of the state’s gross domestic product.

The study, completed by Martin Associates for the 2023 calendar year, covers the economic impacts generated by marine cargo transiting Texas’ marine terminals, including those owned by the public port authorities within the state; private terminals owned by petroleum and petrochemical companies; privately owned barge facilities; and privately owned break bulk and dry bulk facilities within defined port and navigation districts.

Martin completed a similar study in 2019. Direct comparisons can be made since the same methodology was used in both studies. Since 2018, total freight tonnage handled by the public and private marine terminals increased by 130.3 million tons.

As a result of this growth in tonnage, the total number of jobs supported by the marine cargo activity within Texas increased by 728,741 jobs since 2018. Total economic value of the Texas marine cargo activity grew by $264.3 billion, and contribution of the Texas ports to the state’s GDP increased 3 percent.

The latest study captures the impact of 746.4 million tons of cargo handled at these ports and marine terminals in 2023.

Among other findings, the study concluded that $640 million in port infrastructure investment over the last two years supports a return to the state of $53.46 in state and local tax revenue for each dollar of state investment on an annual basis.

The average salary for direct port employees is $82,000, which is 34 percent higher than the mean annual salary in Texas. Some 2.5 million job opportunities are supported by ports, the study found.

Of the 153,840 direct jobs at the ports, the largest job impacts are with terminal operators, followed by shippers that are dependent upon cargo moving via the marine terminals. The trucking industry serving port is the third largest employment impact category, followed by jobs with maritime services, marine construction and ship repair.

Jobs generated by the receipt of crude petroleum and shipment and receipt of petroleum and petroleum products generated the largest number of direct jobs, followed by the handling of other liquid bulk cargoes.

“The majority of these jobs are with petrochemical firms and refineries,” the study stated. “The jobs are directly dependent upon the shipment and receipt of chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products via these ports.

Containerized cargo created the third largest direct job impact.

Separately, the study looked at cruise passenger activity and commercial fishing and marina activity. It found that 354 cruise vessel calls were recorded in 2023, with 2,979,275 passenger movements. The cruise industry supported nearly 4,600 jobs in Texas. An additional 300 jobs were generated by commercial fishing and marina activity.

The full study is available at www.texasports.org.