Business

In a boost for the Port of Baltimore, ocean carrier ZIM Shipping Line plans to expand to weekly service, bringing larger ships with cargo headed for customers throughout the U.S., Gov. Wes Moore announced Thursday. ZIM, one of the port’s major container shipping customers, will double the frequency of its E-commerce Baltimore Express from bi-weekly to weekly service at the end of February, the governor’s office said in a news release. ZIM plans to expand the size of its vessels by nearly 50 percent to carry more cargo. ZIM’s Baltimore Express, which started in the spring between China, Southeast Asia and the East Coast, offers customers the fastest transit time from Asia to Baltimore. The ships will use the Panama and Suez canals.

Industrial psychologists, information security analysts and biochemists weren’t six-figure jobs nationally before the pandemic. But they are now. Those are three of the 12 occupations for which median annual salaries reached six figures nationally between 2019 and 2021, according to a new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by The Business Journals. Those gains came as salaries soared since the economic recovery ramped up after the initial shockwaves of the pandemic, with a tight labor market and elevated turnover rates fueling significant raises and bonuses throughout much of 2021 and 2022. One of the biggest jumps was for industrial and organizational psychologists, which saw median annual salaries grow from about $92,880 in 2019 to about $105,310 in 2021 — a 13% jump.

The menu at the new Locust Point restaurant EAT is simple: It’s built around egg rolls and tacos, the staple comfort dishes that also happen to make up the acronym that is the restaurant’s name. “It’s just a fun concept,” co-owner Spike Owen said of the new eatery, which he opened with business partners Mike Leeds and Doug Campbell, who also happen to be the owners of Barfly’s, a nearby spot that’s known for pizzas and whiskey.

Exelon Corp. chose a Baltimore software company as its first investment from a fund intended to provide capital to minority-owned businesses. The $36 million Exelon Racial Equity Capital Fund invested $1 million in Baltimore software company Sweeten. The deal is the fund’s first investment since Exelon launched the initiative in 2021. Exelon (NASDAQ: EXC) plans to use the fund to provide equity investments of up to $1 million along with $100,000 to $300,000 loans to small minority-owned firms in Exelon’s service areas over three years.

Apartments at Baltimore Peninsula, the once-industrial South Baltimore waterfront that is being redeveloped, are now available to be leased, developers said Thursday. Leasing has started for 416 units in two mixed-income residential buildings, 250 Mission and Rye House. The first residents are expected to move in next month, said developers led by MAG Partners and MacFarlane Partners. Those firms, which joined the project last year, are working with joint venture partners Sagamore Ventures, the investment firm owned by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, and Goldman Sachs.

Andrew “Andy” McCormick, the head of T. Rowe Price Group Inc.’s global fixed income division, will retire at the end of 2023 after 15 years with the company. McCormick, who is one of T. Rowe’s (NASDAQ: TROW) chief investment officers, also serves as chair of T. Rowe’s fixed income steering committee. McCormick will be succeeded by Arif Husain, who is also a chief investment officer. Husain will take over McCormick’s position effective Jan. 1, 2024. At that time, Husain will also be named to T. Rowe’s management committee and will assume leadership of the fixed income steering committee.

The Walters Art Museum has agreed to consider a type of union election that would allow its employees to be represented by the labor organization of their choice — a development that could end the nearly two-year impasse between workers and management. After director Julia Marciari-Alexander sent an email to employees saying that she was open to an election conducted by an independent third party, members of the employee group Walters Workers United delivered a written election proposal to her on Friday.