The Port of Savannah has marked its 16th month of consecutive record growth after handling 495,750 TEU in November 2021.
The container handling figures for the month demonstrate a 6.7% increase compared to the same period in 2020 and has also set a new monthly record for the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
In order to handle this ever-increasing amount of demand, the GPA has designed and begun to bring online an ambitious series of improvements that will increase the Port of Savannah’s annual capacity by 25%.
Already, 200,000 TEU of container handling space have come online, with a further 200,000 to be added by the end of 2021. By March 2022, an additional 500,000 TEU will be added. Overall, these improvements will grow to a total of 1.6 million TEU of new capacity by June 2022.
The GPA is also working on the completion of its Berth 1 expansion, which aims to add one million TEU of new berth capacity along with eight ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at the Port of Savannah. This is now 30% complete and is scheduled to come online by the of Q2 2023.
“I would like to acknowledge the incredible teamwork on and off our terminals that have made these results possible,” said Griff Lynch, Executive Director of the GPA.
“Our employees along with Savannah’s stevedores, ILA members, truckers, river captains, and many other transportation professionals have pulled together to handle record cargo volumes for an incredible 16 consecutive months. Off terminal, the willingness of our customers, two class one railroads and stakeholders in state and federal, and government, have allowed us to put into place innovative and effective supply chain solutions.”
Joel Wooten, Board Chairman for the GPA, added “Through the cooperation of our customers and the innovative thinking of our operations team, we’ve trimmed the number of boxes on terminal to allow for more efficient container handling and faster vessel service. Additionally, crews are working every day to build the new container yard and dock space that will commerce flowing.”
The Port of Savannah has also recently been re-added to Hapag-Lloyd’s Atlantic Loop 3 service. The port was previously omitted from the service to avoid delays and to maintain schedule integrity. To ensure this, the port was replaced with the Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT).
