Port of Savannah is looking to raise its container capacity by 60% according to expansion plans announced by Griff Lynch, Georgia Ports Authority’s (GPA) executive director.
The plan will bring the Port of Savannah's annual capacity from six million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) to 9.5 million TEUs by 2025.
"Our expansion is being matched by incredible growth in both warehouse space and workforce," Lynch said. "The public and private investment that we're seeing, as well as the number of people being drawn to the business, make Savannah the hottest market in the country for transportation and logistics."
Projects now under way will add 1.7 million TEUs of annual capacity in four months.
In its statement, the port noted that GPA's Peak Capacity project has already added 400,000 TEUs in container handling space to the Garden City Terminal and will make room for another 820,000 TEUs by June.
In the same month, a new container yard just upriver will add another 500,000 TEUs of capacity. Separately, the Garden City Terminal West project will add up to 1 million TEUs in phases by 2024.
"The Ports of Savannah and Brunswick together play a major role in positioning Georgia as the go-to state for economic development, and I am thankful for all the hardworking men and women who have hunkered down to move Georgia forward over the past year," said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
During Lynch's presentation, he showed how Savannah has become a national leader in supply chain solutions and effectively eliminated its backlog, while accommodating 18 consecutive months of growth.
In Calendar Year 2021 alone, the GPA moved a record 5.6 million TEUs, for an unprecedented expansion of nearly a million TEUs, or 20% compared to 2020.
Lynch also announced a series of key logistics solutions, including the role six pop-up container yards – which add 500,000 TEUs of annual container space – are playing as a supply chain relief valve.
He also spoke to the nation's trucker shortage, and said that Savannah has reversed that trend by registering 80 new drivers a week to serve Garden City Terminal, or a total of 1,200 new drivers and 370 new trucking companies just since November.
Increased demand cited
"Higher demand for our services is the reason we have expedited major expansions at the Port of Savannah," said GPA Board Chairman Joel Wooten. "Georgia's growing manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors will mean additional cargo through the Port of Savannah, driving the need for increased container handling capacity."
The Savannah market added 6.5 million square feet of industrial space in 2021, for a total of 84 million, according to Colliers International.
Another 17 million square feet are now under construction in Savannah, lifting the market beyond 100 million square feet to better accommodate heightened cargo volumes.
GPA expects the "unprecedented level of trade" crossing GPA's docks to continue well into 2022, Lynch said.
"To ensure Savannah's ability to handle these volumes, GPA is super-sizing its Berth 1, increasing on-dock capacity by 25%. In the spring of 2023, the expanded berth will allow Savannah to simultaneously serve four 16,000-TEU vessels as well as three additional ships. The renovations will add an estimated 1.5 million TEUs per year of berth capacity.
It said another project is the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which will come online in March. The deeper river channel will allow 16,000+ TEU vessels to take on heavier loads and transit the river with greater scheduling flexibility.