CLEVELAND — A port in Northeast Ohio said it’s smoothly getting ships in and out.

The Port of Cleveland has seen more and more companies looking at the port for imports and exports, which can be beneficial to the entire Great Lakes region.

 “We have the capacity of both workers, we have the capacity of both space and we have the capacity of both equipment here in the Port of Cleveland. We could probably handle upwards north of 100,000 containers here at the Port of Cleveland. We’re handling a little more than 15% of that right now,” said Jade Davis, vice president of external affairs for the Port of Cleveland. “And so we have the capacity, we’re growing, we’re trying to make sure that the market knows we have that capacity, so we can try to keep the jobs flowing and the goods flowing here in our region and our part of the country as well.” 

The Port of Cleveland said that for the last seven years it’s been developing out its capacity to handle big containers. 

Many of the items imported through the port are steel for auto manufacturing and energy products like turbines and electrical conductors. Many of the ships are coming from parts of Europe with some coming from Asia. 

However, when it comes to items you want for Christmas shopping, those products mostly come from Asia and usually use West Coast Ports. The Port of Cleveland is seeing some ships from Asia, but not a major amount to make a dent in those backups, and that’s mostly because of geography. 

“If they do come around through the Port of Cleveland, they have to go through the Panama Canal, go around the rest of the North American continent, come back up and come down to the Great Lakes. We have the capacity to handle some of those ships. However, the ships that we can get here in the Great Lakes are limited by the size of the locks on the Saint Lawrence River,” said Davis.   

The port also tells us it’s the only active container port in the Great Lakes.