The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to send shock waves across the U.S. economy, as a key shipping route for certain goods remains snarled for the foreseeable future, officials said Sunday.

“This is not [just] a Baltimore catastrophe, not a Maryland catastrophe. This is a national economic catastrophe as well,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The channel that’s now blocked by the wreckage is a primary access point for the Port of Baltimore, which Moore described as among the “busiest [and] most active” in the nation.

“This is going to impact the farmer in Kentucky. This is going to impact the auto dealer in Ohio. This is going to impact the restaurant owner in Tennessee,” he said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg echoed that sentiment.

“It’s important not just to the people and the workers of Baltimore, but to our national supply chains to get that port back up and running as quickly as possible,” Buttigieg said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The bridge collapsed Tuesday after a large cargo ship crashed into it, following a mayday call shortly before the collision. Two construction workers died; four are missing and presumed dead.

An operation to remove the ship, clear out debris and reopen the channel began Saturday, officials said.

“Parts of the non-federal channel are already being worked on and there is a 1,000-ton-capacity lift crane on a barge being put into place now,” Buttigieg said. There’s another 600-ton crane on the way, he added.

There isn’t yet a timeline for that salvage work to be completed, Buttigieg said. The time frame for the bridge to be rebuilt is also unclear, he said.

Federal and local officials reiterated that the operation would be lengthy and complex.

“We have a ship that is nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower that is now stuck within the channel that has the Key Bridge sitting on top of it,” Moore said. “And so this is going to be a long road. … But movement is happening.”

The Port of Baltimore processed a record 1.1 million containers of cargo in 2023, according to state data. That made it the ninth-busiest port in the nation based on U.S. trade volume, wrote Ryan Petersen, chief executive of Flexport, a supply chain logistics company.

It also handled nearly 850,000 shipments of cars and light trucks in 2023, more than any other port for the 13th consecutive year, according to state data.

“This port is the No. 1 port for cars and farm equipment,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

“So this matters to folks in rural North Carolina and Kansas and Iowa,” he added. “This matters to the global economy.”

Additionally, there are more than 15,000 people who work directly for the port, and thousands of others whose livelihoods depend on it, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Small Business Administration announced Saturday that it would make low-interest, long-term loans of up to $2 million available to local small businesses in the mid-Atlantic region affected by the bridge collapse.

The U.S. government awarded Maryland an initial $60 million in funding to clear the wreckage. The federal government will cover 90% of the costs to rebuild the bridge, said Van Hollen. He plans to introduce legislation along with Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., to cover the remaining 10%, Van Hollen said.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he intends for the federal government to pay for the entire cost of rebuilding the bridge, and expects Congress to support that effort.

Some lawmakers have balked at the idea, though. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., called Biden’s notion of using federal funds to cover the full cost “kind of outrageous.”

While the current Congress is divided, Buttigieg expressed confidence that lawmakers would approve bridge funding on a bipartisan basis.

“If we can see Republicans and Democrats cooperate to get President Biden’s infrastructure package through, surely they can cooperate to help America and Baltimore deal with this tragedy,” he said Sunday on MSNBC.

MSC, the largest ocean carrier in the world, has joined the list of ocean carriers terminating the delivery of diverted containers outside of the port for shipping clients as a result of the container ship accident near the Port of Baltimore that led to the tragic bridge collapse. With the Baltimore port indefinitely closed, the decision places the onus of cargo pick up at a diverted port and transport to its final destination on the shipper.

In an email to customers obtained by CNBC on Thursday, MSC explained that for customer containers already on the water bound for the Port of Baltimore, cargo will be rerouted and discharged at an alternate port where it will be made available for pick-up.

“For these shipments, the contract of carriage will be declared terminated at this alternate port and storage, D&Ds and on-carriage costs to the initially intended destination will be for the sole cargo’s account,” the MSC advisory said.

MSC added that “passage to and from Baltimore is at this time impossible and will not be reestablished for several weeks if not months.”

CMA CGM, COSCO, and Evergreen were the first carriers to announce similar moves and in some cases formally declare “force majeure,” a legal term which refers to the right to waive contract duties when events beyond a party’s control occur.

MSC said in its customer communication that it “apologizes for the disruption caused by this contingency plan which is required in response to events beyond our control, but which is taken in compliance with the terms of the contract of carriage.”

MSC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Maersk is the only major carrier to say it will provide transport from diverted ports for customers. 

Maersk was the charter of the Dali, 10,000-container capacity containership that lost control and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of Tuesday.

After the pandemic boom which led to historic profits, ocean carriers have been through a period of financial and operational challenges, with vessel overcapacity, declining earnings, and the Red Sea Houthi attacks and Panama Canal drought leading to costly diversions from major global trade routes.

Logistics companies have been scrambling since the accident to make alternate transport plans and keep up with carrier diversions, and executives told CNBC on Wednesday that the next few days will be critical in the movement of the diverted trade away from the Port of Baltimore.

The Port of Baltimore, the nation’s eleventh-largest port, is No. 1 in the U.S for auto/light truck and agriculture tractor imports and exports, in addition to handling clothing, household goods, construction materials, electronics and appliances, and produce.

Among the unresolved issues, logistics executives have cited ocean carriers not updating their vessel transits fast enough to alert them to the new diverted port so they can plan for their customer’s container pick-up.

Major ports up and down the East Coast, including Savannah, Brunswick, Virginia, Charleston, and New York/New Jersey, as well as the companies providing chassis for rail and truck transport, have told CNBC they have the capacity to ramp up operations to meet the needs of incoming cargo.

In a series of updates, MSC sent a list of 23 vessels arriving to the diverted ports from March 28-April 29. Eight have an unknown diverted port, 11 are headed to the Port of New York/New Jersey; three to Norfolk; and one to Philadelphia.

On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had a meeting with supply chain professionals about the crisis and how to mitigate any congestion. The meeting included ocean carriers CMA CGM, Maersk, MSC, Evergreen, and railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern. The Port of New York/New Jersey, Georgia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, South Carolina and Virginia were also in attendance. Shipping clients at the meeting included John Deere, Stellantis, Home Depot, Under Armour, and Volkswagen.

“We are much better equipped to mitigate supply chain disruptions than we were just a few years ago, thanks to increased coordination across the supply chain and new efforts to strengthen both our physical and digital infrastructure,” Buttigieg said, according to a readout from the meeting.

National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, who was also in attendance, noted that in previous disruptions, the lack of complete information across different components of the private sector and the public sector hampered the decision-making capabilities and responses. She cited the recent DOT FLOW initiative as a difference maker. “It has already been activated to bring the full capacity of all the agencies in the federal government to make sure that we’re helping ocean carriers, port leaders, railroads, shippers, and unions to all come together to assess potential supply chain impacts and then work together to address them.”  

Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics, said the greatest challenges may be experienced by smaller companies that coordinate the bookings themselves and may not have relationships at these diverted ports. “You want to get your diverted container out of the port as soon as possible so you don’t incur any detention and demurrage fees. For some of these shippers they are starting from scratch,” Brashier said.

Once a container arrives at a terminal, the clock begins ticking on the free time allocated to a container. Once that free time expires, detention and demurrage fees start unless ports agree to waive them.

“We are looking to see if terminals will either give an extension of free time or waive the fees,” Brashier told CNBC on Wednesday. “That’s the rub right now.”

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a container ship hit it early Tuesday.

Up to seven people may have fallen into the water after the crash, according to Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James W. Wallace. Two people were rescued, with one transported to a trauma center in very serious condition.

The bridge carries Interstate 695 across the Patapsco River, southeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area.

The crash by the large container ship occurred around 1:30 a.m. ET,  when contractors were working on the bridge, according to Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland’s transportation secretary.

Wiedefeld said the incident is an active search and rescue mission and that vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore is suspended until further notice.

“This is a very large incident, it involves a very large footprint,” Wallace said in a press briefing.

The fire department chief said sonar scans had detected the presence of submerged vehicles, but could not disclose the number of cars involved.

“The latest information we have on the crew of the ship is that they still are on board of the ship,” Wallace said, adding that rescue agents must first do a damage assessment of the vessel before being able to board. Asked if the ship was suffering any technical impairments, he said, “We do not have that information.”

“There is absolutely no indication that there was any terrorism, that this was done on purpose,” a Baltimore police spokesperson said during the briefing Tuesday. “There is absolutely no indication that this was intentional.”

Completed in 1977, the bridge took the name of Francis Scott Key, whose poem was the foundation of the U.S. national anthem.

The vessel that collided with the bridge has been identified by the U.S. Coast Guard.

“USCG confirms the ship is the 948-ft DALI vessel. USCG has deployed three response boats, and pollution responders are en route from the Sector Maryland-National Capital Region,” the U.S. Coast Guard’s Matthew West told NBC News.

Shipping data indicates that the Singapore-flagged container vessel is under the management of Synergy Marine Group, which said in a statement that all 22 crew members on board, including two pilots, had been accounted for.

“Whilst the exact cause of the incident is yet to be determined, the ‘DALI’ has now mobilised its Qualified Individual Incident response service,” the group said. “The US Coast Guard and local officials have been notified, and the owners and managers are fully cooperating with Federal and State government agencies under an approved plan.”

Marine traffic data suggests the ship was bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Maersk later confirmed chartering the vessel.

“We can confirm that the container vessel ‘DALI’, operated by charter vessel company Synergy Group, is time chartered by Maersk and is carrying Maersk customers’ cargo. No Maersk crew and personnel were onboard the vessel,” the company said.

“We are closely following the investigations conducted by authorities and Synergy, and we will do our utmost to keep our customers informed.”

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said in a statement it “will provide full cooperation to the US Coast Guard in its investigations.”

The office of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said emergency personnel remained on the scene after the bridge’s collapse.

“I have declared a State of Emergency here in Maryland and we are working with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration,” the governor said.

“We will remain in close contact with federal, state, and local entities that are carrying out rescue efforts as we continue to assess and respond to this tragedy.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the Francis Scott Key Bridge carries Interstate 695 and crosses the Patapsco River.