The Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission was created in 1952. Governed by 15 commissioners who serve four-year terms, the Port of Greater Baton Rouge was created to control commerce and traffic along the river and to build and operate port facilities for the public.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is an important part of the economy and the maritime industry of the State of Louisiana. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is located where the Mississippi River and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway converge, linking it to ports from north Florida to south Texas and the remaining inland Mississippi River System.

The US Army Corps of Engineers maintains a 13.7-meter (45-foot) deep-water channel from the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is located next to the Port Allen Lock, the northernmost point on the Mississippi where barges can get to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's jurisdiction stretches for almost 137 kilometers (85 miles) of the Mississippi from the ExxonMobil Refinery to the north to Sunshine Bridge to the south. Parishes (counties) included in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's jurisdiction include East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Ascension, and Iberville.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge borders US Interstate Highways 10, 12, and 100 and Louisiana Highway 1. Its location also facilitates easy access to US Interstates 49 and 55 and US Highway 61. Three major railways serve the Port of Greater Baton Rouge: Union Pacific, Canadian National/Illinois Central, and Kansas City Southern.

The economic impact of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge extends far beyond the metropolitan area. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge handles over 53 million tons of cargo per year, making it one of the country's leading ports. Port of Greater Baton Rouge activities generate more than $11.3 billion in state spending and more than 20 thousand jobs across Louisiana, including a total payroll of almost $119 million. Within the four parishes that make up the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, more than $118 million is generated each year in tax revenue.

Port of Greater Baton Rouge facilities include both shallow-draft and deep-water terminals. Port facilities offer intermodal access between docks, rail, and highways. The sea-shipping terminal in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge has container-handling equipment and value-added services like bagging and cross-dock stuffing. The London Metal Plastic Exchanged has approved the Port of Greater Baton Rouge as a delivery area, and the port offers a full range of Foreign Trade Zone services.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge owns the Inland Rivers Marine Terminal for handling containers, bulk cargoes, agricultural products, steel coils, bagged goods, newsprint, polypropylene and polyethylene pellets, and project cargo. The terminal has a four-acre public container marshalling terminal. Bagging and cross-dock stuffing services are available, and this Port of Greater Baton Rouge terminal is part of the Foreign Trade Zone. Located on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the Inland Rivers Marine Terminal in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge has a berth of 76.2 meters (250 feet) in length with alongside depth of 3.7 meters (12 feet). The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Inland Rivers Marine Terminal also has a Union Pacific rail spur.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Inland Rivers Marine Terminal is an 84-acre intermodal facility located where the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway meets the Mississippi River. This multi-use facility also offers property for development. The Inland Rivers Marine Terminal has a 61-meter (200-foot) barge dock and a 3.9 thousand square meter (42 thousand square foot) warehouse for bagging and packaging. A roll-on/roll-off ramp and staging area is available for project cargo.

The Inland Rivers Marine Terminal in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge is strategically located to connect the heartland of the United States with international markets. It is also a transshipment point between Gulf of Mexico seaports like Houston and New Orleans. Several companies are located in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Inland Rivers Marine Terminal. Mammoet USA South Inc. specializes in engineered heavy transport and heavy lifting. Katoen Natie Gulf Coast Inc. serves the area's petrochemical companies with polymer packaging services that include warehousing and transloading. The company has fully-automated packaging in bags, supersacks, and boxes. Angelle Concrete Group (operating as South Louisiana Cement) offers import, mixing, and distribution of cement. Dow Chemical Company leases a 10-acre marshalling yard for containers.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge owns the Baton Rouge Barge Terminal, where it handles aggregate, bulk products, coke, and wood chips. Kinder Morgan leases and operates a bulk terminal which has rail service and a coal-handling facility. This terminal has berthing space of 300 meters (985 feet) with alongside depth of 2.7 meters (12 feet) LWRP. Kanorado Corporation leases and operates another public bulk terminal.

The port-owned Petroleum Fuel and Terminal in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge is operated by the Petroleum Fuel & Terminal Company to handle cargo including petroleum products, fuel oil, and carbon black. With rail service, the terminal has storage capacity of more than 17 million gallons. This Port of Greater Baton Rouge facility has capacity to store more than 1.2 million barrels. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Petroleum Fuel & Terminal has berthing space of 263 meters (864 feet) with alongside depth of 13.7 meters (45 feet) LWRP.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge owns the Public Grain Elevator where cargoes include soybeans, corn, wheat oats, and other grain products. The facility has capacity to store 7.5 million bushels and can handle more than three million tons of cargo per year. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Public Grain Elevator has berthing space of 244 meters (800 feet) with alongside depth of 13.7 meters (45 feet) LWRP.

The public grain elevator in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge is operated by Louis Dreyfus Corporation. Serving Louisiana's agricultural industry, the facility handles about 25% of Louisiana's corn, soybeans, wheat, and other grains per year. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Grain Elevator has a US Department of Agriculture Inspection Agency on-site. In addition to transfer and storage of grain, the facility offers product transformation services like cleaning, mixing, drying, and loading.

The Bulk Flour Mill is owned by the Port of Greater Baton Rouge and operated by Horizon Milling Inc. to ship dry bulk flour to international and domestic markets. The dock at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge Bulk Flour Mill has berthing space of 302 meters (990 feet) with alongside depth of 13.7 meters (45 feet) LWRP. Horizon Milling is a limited-liability partnership between Harvest States Milling and Cargill Milling. Horizon Milling operates the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's Bulk Flour Mill. The mill grinds some 360 tons of wheat each day, 20% of that coming from Louisiana. The flour goes to bakeries and restaurants in the Baton Rouge region.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge also owns the Molasses Terminal operated by Westway Terminal Company to ship liquid bulk cargoes including molasses, high fructose corn syrup, and specialty chemicals that include caustics, acids, and glycol-based products. The Molasses Terminal has storage capacity of over 17 million gallons. Served by rail, the berth at this Port of Greater Baton Rouge facility has berthing space of 244 meters (800 feet) with alongside depth of 13.7 meters (45 feet) LWRP.

Westway Feed Products operates the Animal Feed facility in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to make feed mill liquids, liquid supplements, and supplement blocks for the animals.

The Sugar Distribution and Warehouse Complex owned by the Port of Greater Baton Rouge is operated by the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative on a seven-acre tract of land on the Mississippi River. The facility includes two warehouses that total 7.4 thousand square meters (80 thousand square feet) equipped with an underground hopper system that moves as much as 900 tons of sugar per hour of products to the general cargo dock for loading.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge offers several other services and facilities, including coffee-roasting and -packaging facilities and several public warehouse facilities. Value-added services offered by the Port of Greater Baton Rouge include bagging and packaging, stevedoring, and daily rail switching.

Several private docks are located within the jurisdiction of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. Companies like ExxonMobil, BASF, the Dow Chemical Company, and other petrochemical companies operate docks and ship both domestic and international cargoes from the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge leads other Gulf Coast ports in the United States for handling palletized or unitized cargo. The general cargo docks at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's 370-acre deep-water complex offer efficient damage-free handling of bulk cargoes that include pipe, logs, rail, lumber, plywood, and paper products.

General cargo facilities in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge offer 914 linear meters (3000 linear feet) of continuous wharf and 13.7-meter (45-foot) access for ocean-borne vessels. An unlimited turning basin is used by ocean-going vessels. General cargo facilities include 48.8 thousand square meters (525 thousand square feet) of warehouse space on the Mississippi River and 4.6 thousand square meters (50 thousand square feet) of shipside storage.

Covered rail tracks from docks to warehouses support all-weather operations at the deep-water complex of Port of Greater Baton Rouge's cargo docks, and there is truck and rail access to nearby transit sheds. In addition to 24-hours security services, the cargo docks at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge have conveyor systems from the landside to the wharf.

Bulk cargoes are stored and transferred at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge deep-water complex as well. The Inland Rivers Marine Terminal has facilities for agricultural and steel products. This 30-acre site includes a barge terminal with rail and highway access and a staging area for dry bulk materials. It also has a facility for storage and distribution of sugar that includes two 3.7 thousand square meter (40 thousand square foot) warehouses and a 274.3-meter (900-foot) conveyor system. Agricultural products handled here include grain, flour, soybeans, corn, and sugar. Ores include coal, coke, bauxites, and barites. Steel products handled at this Port of Greater Baton Rouge facility include coils, rail, and pipe.

Liquid Bulk products handled at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's deep-water complex include liquid chemicals, fuel oil, molasses, glycol-based products, carbon black, asphalt, and animal feed supplements. Westway Terminal Company Inc. is one of the United States' biggest bulk liquid storage companies. At the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, the storage capacity for liquid bulk is 22 million gallons. Westway also manufactures liquid animal feed supplements. The bulk liquid facility offers access for barges, ships, rail, and trucks. It serves the specialty chemical and industrial-grade molasses industries as well.

A subsidiary of Apex Oil Company, the Petroleum Fuel Terminal Company, operates the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's bulk petroleum storage facilities in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. The bulk petroleum storage facilities at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge offer capacity for over 1.2 million barrels of fuel oils, carbon black, and asphalt. Steam boilers operated at dockside are used to heat products.

The Midstream Transfer Buoys in the Mississippi River opposite the Port of Greater Baton Rouge's main cargo terminal and the pile anchor midstream buoys at the deep-water Port of Greater Baton Rouge facilitate cargo-to-barge transfers of cargo throughout the year. These buoys can accommodate Panamax-size vessels, offering 305 meters (1000 feet) of space between buoys with alongside depth of 13.7 meters (45 feet).

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