In case you missed it, Nola.Com released an interesting article on March 27, 2025 titled “Louisiana’s ports weigh investment, a new report shows tough road to recoup market share.“
The most important part of the article is that the State should exercise extreme caution in making an investment in another down river port facility because those costs may not be able to be recovered:
“If you don’t build it you’re basically out of the game,” Martin said. “But you have to be very cautious how you do these investments and not just ‘build it and they will come,’ but look at it from a pure market standpoint, from a rational cost-benefit relationship.”
MARCH 27, 2025 ARTICLE BY ANTHONY MCAULEY on nola.com
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However, Martin’s report says that even under the “most aggressive scenario” for container growth, it is unlikely on current trends that volume would reach even the Napoleon Avenue’s current capacity of a million units over that period.
In short, the proposed $1.8 billion dollar LIT development is likely to be a risky development and that the State may not recover its money.
And that is before the cost of the development is recalculated. The article alludes to the estimated cost of the proposed LIT development being “under review to take account of an agreement in January with the International Longshoreman’s Association” and “to factor in higher materials and labor costs since the project was first announced years ago.”
The full copy of the Martin report, courtesy of Councilman Everhardt, is available below:
Our personal experience with inflation and the exploitation by big business of this inflationary environment over the last few years will cause the costs to double at a minimum – and that is just to bring the costs up to today. Imagine what the costs might be at the end of this fight years from now. At some point, if we just keep up the fight up long enough, the project will become cost prohibitive.
We don’t have to beat the Port of New Orleans – we just have to stay in the fight long enough for them to give up. The only difficultly on our end is making sure Pomes and the Council (except Everhardt) don’t throw in the towel or do something else to sabotage everyone else’s efforts to stop the Port. To that end, we can all help by keeping the pressure on Pomes and the Council (except Everhardt) so that they don’t mess things up any more than they already have.
Day by day we get news showing that the proposed LIT container facility is not a done deal.
Keep the fight alive!
