A new grain transloading facility has opened at Seagirt Marine Terminal in the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, providing agricultural producers in the US Mid-Atlantic with a new route for exporting commodities in containers.
The facility has been developed by commodity trading and logistics company Frey Commodities in partnership with Ports America Chesapeake. Construction began in April, with the nearly four-acre site officially opened on 27 August.
More than 100 farmers and truck drivers attended the opening, which also marked the start of operations at the new facility.
Frey said the full-service grain elevator has annual export capacity of approximately 275,000 tonnes and is designed to load more than 200 containers a week. Three grain silos provide combined storage of 60,000 bushels, with the facility able to receive grain by both truck and rail.
The terminal is designed to handle a range of agricultural commodities, including soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum, soybean meal, corn gluten meal and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS).
Shortline rail connections to both CSX and Norfolk Southern provide access to the wider US rail network, allowing grain to be moved into the facility from production areas before being loaded into containers for export through Baltimore.
Frey said the rail connections would improve access to international markets for farmers in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, while also providing an export outlet for products from soybean crushing facilities in the US Midwest.
The project is aimed at strengthening Baltimore’s role in agricultural exports while providing producers with an alternative to bulk vessel shipments. Containerised grain can be moved through the port using existing container shipping networks, potentially opening access to a wider range of overseas destinations and customers.
The development comes as containerised agricultural exports continue to form an important part of the US logistics chain, particularly for commodities moving to markets that are not served efficiently by conventional bulk shipping services.
Ports America Chesapeake funded the project on land leased from the Maryland Port Administration. Frey will operate the facility exclusively for a minimum of six years.
Seagirt Marine Terminal opened in 1990 and is operated by Ports America Chesapeake under a 50-year public-private partnership agreement signed with the Maryland Port Administration in 2010.
Headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, Frey Commodities is an agricultural commodity trading and logistics company backed by Maersk Growth.
*This story first appeared in the October 2026 print issue of WorldCargo News. Subscribe to gain access to all news Already have a subscription? Log in.
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