Refrigerated cargo is a growing opportunity for North Carolina ports, and cold-chain cargo has already brought new commodities through the Port of Wilmington, according to Brian Clark, executive director of the North Carolina State Ports Authority (NC Ports), who recently spoke at the 2026 North Carolina World Trade Association Summit in Charlotte. NC Ports oversees sea ports in Wilmington and Morehead City, as well as an inland port in Charlotte.
“Over the last six years, we’ve seen unprecedented impacts to global supply chains,” Clark said. “Disruptions like that seem to have become more of the norm; 30 years in the industry, and the last 6 have been completely, you know, upside down.”
“Fiscal year 26 saw flat general cargo volumes across both of our ports, but we saw a 30% decline in containerized traffic,” Clark said. “We were directly impacted by the dropping of transpacific trade into the small reports; those trades continue, they consolidated their volume and their capacity into the larger ports. Obviously, it had a direct impact on a smaller port like the Port of Wilmington. Despite the decline, refrigerated container volume grew 5% year over year…, and it now represents almost 15% of our overall trade.”…