Richmond’s port is booming — and it’s about to get busier – Daily Press

The cattle pens that were once a mainstay for Richmond’s port are long gone. The ships that once brought aromatic tobacco for the Philip Morris cigarette plant’s secret blends are gone, too, as are the freighters to load the Virginia apples that Icelanders loved so much.

But the Richmond Marine Terminal is busier than ever, with barges coming up the James River from Norfolk every other day. And beginning this month, as shipments of soybeans via barge to seagoing vessels loading at Norfolk for Asian markets and stores stock up on goods for the holiday shopping season, it’s about to get a lot busier.

While a 12-hour trip up the winding James River no longer seems worth it to shipping lines, it turns out that the two-step ship-to-barge move for imports and barge-to-ship for exports is makin