The Port of Savannah has handled a record 495,782 TEU in April as the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) is looking to expand berth and container yard capacity.
GPA’s containerised trade increased 6.2 per cent in April compared to the same month a year ago, marking the third busiest month ever at the port.
For the fiscal year to date, GPA has handled 4.75 million TEU, an improvement of 8 per cent year-on-year which the Port Authority has attributed to retailers replenishing depleted inventories and making early orders to ensure product availability.
The impressive results and ongoing success of the port have also been awarded to the wide range of expansion projects carried out by GPA – in particular at the Garden City Terminal.
Earlier this February, the Executive Director of GPA announced plans to expand the Port of Savannah’s capacity by 60 per cent, with the Garden City Terminal West project expected to add a total of 1 million TEU of annual capacity by 2024.
As reported by GPA, its Garden City Terminal currently handles nearly one out of every nine loaded containers crossing the nation’s docks.
“Our long-running program of infrastructure expansion, coupled with the Authority’s ability as an owner-operator to speed up the schedule of development, has allowed the Port of Savannah to adapt to heightened container volumes,” said GPA Board Chairman Joel Wooten.
Plans to expand the fleet are also underway as the Port Authority expects to bring online nine new electric rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes by the spring of 2023 – bringing the Port of Savannah’s total RTG fleet to 207.
“On-terminal and inland capacity improvements enable cargo to flow across our docks without congestion.”
The Port of Savannah’s container volume grew nearly 18 per cent in February 2021, extending year-over-year increases to 19 consecutive months for GPA.
Savannah was recently ranked the top US container port by loaded export volume, handling 1.38 million TEU in 2021.