SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Eastern Shore business leaders can expect an insightful tutorial on the integral role shipping plays in the local and state economy when Jimmy Lyons presents “Alabama State Port Authority Today” April 12.

As part of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce Business Academy Business Brief series, the port authority’s director is expected to bring into focus the impact the investment of more than $500 million has had in strengthening Alabama’s economic base and boosting the state’s presence in the international trade arena since 2005.

Alabama’s initial $80 million investment in the State Docks included a $300 million marine container that — when opened in 2008 — quadrupled capacity to more than 130,000 containers and contributed to the creation of more than 67,000 jobs.

The improvements have been undertaken, in part, to prepare for the 2014 completion of the $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion expected to double the 50-mile canal’s capacity over the next two decades. Lyons has stated the Port of Mobile sits poised to capture at least a portion of traffic redirected from Pacific coast ports.

But with local business leaders still reeling from Carnival Cruise Lines’ recent announcement that departures will be shifted permanently from the Port of Mobile to New Orleans in October, Lyons’ insight is of particular interest to Baldwin County residents such as Raleigh Hawkins, who lives in Spanish Fort and works for a booking agent in Mobile.

“Everybody’s still in shock, I guess, but I hope (Lyons) can give us some idea of where things stand,” Hawkins said.

News of the loss of cruise traffic — a mainstay in the Mobile metropolitan’s area’s tourism industry — came less than one month after the U.S. Air Force selected Chicago-based Boeing Co.’s bid to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers over the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. EADS had planned to build a $600 million assembly plant at Brookley Aeroplex and would have represented an immediate impact on the Port of Mobile, the ninth largest in the nation based on total volume.

Want to go?

What: Alabama State Port Authority Today, an installment in the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce Business Academy Business Brief

• Featured speaker: Jimmy Lyons, director of the Alabama State Port Authority
  
  
  
• When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 12
  
  
• Where: The Original Oyster House on the Causeway in Spanish Fort
  
  
• Cost: $15 for chamber of commerce members, $20 for non-members
  
  
• To register: visit www.eschamber.com/academy or call 251-928-6387; space is limited