An Icelandic shipping company says it will double its scheduled calls on the port of Portland, starting with weekly trips in December.
Eimskip relocated its U.S. headquarters from Virginia to Maine in 2013. The company's U.S. manager, Lars Insfeld, says since then the number of cargo containers moving through Portland rose from 5,000 a year to more than 10,000.
"We are shipping a lot of cod and haddock coming out of the North Atlantic and into the New England and further into the U.S. markets," Insfeld says. "And out of here we are carrying blueberries and cranberries, candles and chocolates."
Insfeld says the company is projecting a 50 percent increase in cargo moving through Portland in 2018.
He adds that projections for further growth depend in part on the construction of a new cold storage warehouse on the waterfront, and installation of a new cargo crane, thanks to a grant from the federal Department of Transportation.