Port Freeport is located on the in southwestern coast of Texas 60 miles south of Houston on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. It is part of the Houston-Sugarland-Baytown Metropolitan Area. Part of today’s Brazosport industrial complex, it was originally developed to be a deepwater port.
The treaty ending the Texas Revolution was signed in the nearby town of Velasco, which was annexed into the Port of Freeport in 1957. In 2000, almost 13 thousand people lived in the Port of Freeport. The area was settled in 1898 but not officially founded until 1912 by commercial interests wanting to exploit the local sulfur deposits.
Today’s Port Freeport’s economy is based on the processing and export of gasoline and chemicals. It also supports a sizeable commercial shrimp fishing industry and is home to one of the largest shrimp-trawler fleets in the world. Immediately to the east is a large saltwater conversion plant.
Port Freeport’s major employer is Dow Chemical, operating a large chemical plant there since 1939.
Port Commerce
A locally-elected Port Commission governs Port Freeport, which contains 186 acres of developed and almost eight thousand acres of undeveloped land. Convenient to rail, highway, and water routes, Port Freeport offers 14 public and private berths with an amazing 70-foot draft. The Freeport Harbor Channel is 45 feet deep. Port Freeport also contains a climate-controlled facility. In the future, Port Freeport plans to have a 1300-acre multi-modal facility, two multi-purpose berths with 50-foot draft, and two 120 thousand foot transit sheds at the docks.
Three thousand vessels call at Port Freeport each year representing trading partners from Brazil, Central America, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. The major import commodities entering Port Freeport are aggregate, chemicals, clothing, foods, paper goods, and plastics. The top exports leaving Port Freeport are automobiles, chemicals, clothing, foods, paper goods, and plastics.
Port Freeport handles about 75 thousand TEUs of containerized cargo each year and about 33 million tons of cargo. Trade moving through Port Freeport represents an annual $9 billion US, over 11 thousand direct jobs, and almost 15 thousand induced jobs.
Port Freeport is Texas’ second largest destination for containerized cargo. Three miles from deep water, it offers abundant container storage space and parcels of land for specialized container operations.
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