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By PAUL DEMARCO  | Guest Columnist

The Nation’s economy is already seeing the effects of inflation.

The increase in prices is detrimentally affecting consumers and the cost to manufacture goods.

And Alabama is being hit tremendously hard on both counts due to the high inflation.

The supply chain crisis is a major problem in the country and the port of Los Angelos, where 40 percent of the Nation’s imports come through, has ships backed up off the coast.

The good news for Alabama is that our state port is seeing an increase in ships unloading material to the state. With so much congestion at ports around the country, shipping companies are taking advantage of Alabama’s gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of dollars have been spent and more contracts are in place to modernize the port for even more cargo to unload in our state.

And it has paid off, as this past year there has been a 27 percent increase in volume of containers being shipped through the port in Mobile. Refrigerated cargo products are up even higher at 47 percent from the same time last year

Alabama’s deep water port was first dedicated in 1928 and it now has a total economic impact of $25.4 billion for the state.

Hopefully, the national supply crisis will be solved soon and the Alabama Port of Mobile will increase its share of the United States supply chain.

Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives