BY GODFREY BIVBERE, who was in Washington

The port of Baltimore last year handled a total of 750,000 cars both import and export, the Trade Development officer of Maryland Port Administration, Larry Johnson, has said.

Johnson, who disclosed this in Washington during a tour of a Nigerian delegation of the Port of Baltimore to under study the implementation of the International Ships and Ports Facilities Security, ISPS code, said that a result of the value of the goods in the ports and the facilities there, they pay great attention to security.

According to him, “We did 750, 000 cars last year, that include import and export.”

On how much the state which owned the port made from the operation last year, he said “I cannot tell; that I do not know, but I can tell you it is a lot of money because the dollar value of a Mercedes car alone is about $80,000 and Mercedes Benz shipped a lot of cars.”

He said the state of Maryland owns the port through the Maryland Port Administration and leased the land to private firms that build and operate the various terminals.

He noted that the lease period for each of the terminals ranges from five to 10 years, while the security of the waterfront is handled by the United States’ Coast Guard.