MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — It’s a project that’s been years in the making and now an automobile terminal is being constructed at the Alabama State Docks.

The $60 million 57 acre terminal will handle shipments of finished automobiles. It will be able to handle 150,000 vehicles annually with access to rail service and highways.

The project is a joint venture between Terminal Zarate, S.A., a Grupo Murchison company based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Neltume Ports, based in Santiago, Chile.

This opens the door for the state docks to potentially do business with automakers that already have facilities in Alabama like Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Honda. Mazda-Toyota is in the process of building a factory in north Alabama.

Here along the Gulf Coast, the automobile terminal will mean more jobs.

“It will be another source of employment for all the longshoremen who work here as well as various service companies that are located here in Mobile, the agents, the line handlers, the tug boat companies. The multiplier effect is very good as far as additional jobs for the Mobile area,” said Jimmy Lyons, Director/CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority.

There’s no word yet on just how many jobs the automobile terminal will create or what it will look like. That’s the next step in this process.

Construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

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