SESCO Cement welcomed the first two ships carrying bulk gray cement to its import terminal at Port Tampa Bay, bringing the facility’s major assets online and marking the start of full commercial operations. The arrivals come just months after the company celebrated the terminal’s opening with a ribbon cutting in June.
Each vessel is making a partial discharge at the Port Redwing terminal in Gibsonton before continuing across the Gulf to SESCO’s Houston terminal to complete delivery. The two-port route links SESCO’s Florida and Texas operations and gives the company added capacity and flexibility to meet current and future regional demand, building Port Tampa Bay into a key hub within SESCO’s global network.
The deliveries were made possible by the terminal’s custom-designed ship unloader and conveyor system, which moves bulk cement from the ship’s hold directly into SESCO’s storage silos. The unloader, the largest wheel-mounted cement ship unloader in operation, arrived in Tampa earlier this year after nearly two years of engineering and design.
Activating the silos also dramatically speeds distribution to customers across the region. The new automated silo system provides quick and efficient truck loading, significantly increasing throughput and allowing SESCO to move more cement to ready-mix producers and other customers each day.
“The arrival of our first bulk cement ships is the moment this terminal was built for,” said Rick Van Eyk, CEO, SESCO Cement. “With our ship unloader, conveyor system and silos now running together, we are fully operational and able to get cement to our customers faster than ever. These operations add capacity and flexibility that support both current and future demand across the region, and they establish Port Tampa Bay as a key hub within our global network.”
The Port Tampa Bay terminal is strategically positioned to serve Florida’s major construction markets via maritime shipping lanes, interstate highways and rail networks. Upon full build-out, it will be the largest cement terminal in Florida.
Established in 2014, SESCO Cement is a subsidiary of the SESCO Group, a vertically integrated manufacturing, shipping and logistics company with a global presence. In the United States, SESCO Cement has a 22-acre facility in Houston that has a 240,000-ton storage capacity, and a new 14-acre terminal in Tampa, Fla., with 100,000 tons of storage capacity. SESCO Cement’s Houston facility is the largest cement terminal in the country.
For more information about SESCO Cement, visit sescocement.com.
