A recent Goldman Sachs Research report indicates US economic growth is expected to slow from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent in 2019 due to tighter financial conditions and a fading fiscal stimulus. The forecast also calls for rate hikes as the Fed seeks to keep the economy from overheating.
Georgia’s investments in its most important economic assets, especially its ports — may help shield the state from a slowing economy – and remain a key to its economic future. Said ports, in Savannah and Brunswick, have a massive economic impact on the state.
A study conducted by Jeffrey M. Humphreys, Director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, details the impact of Georgia’s ports on the State’s economy in fiscal year 2017. The study was supported by a grant from the Georgia Ports Authority and details its impact by the numbers:
- $106 Billion in sales (11 percent of Georgia’s total sales);
- $44 Billion in State GDP (8 percent of Georgia’s total GDP);
- $25 Billion in income for Georgians (6 percent of Georgia’s total personal income);
- 439,220 full- and part-time jobs (9 percent of Georgia’s total employment);
- $5.9 Billion in Federal taxes;
- $1.4 Billion in State taxes;
- $1.5 Billion in local taxes.
At its October 2018 State of the Port meeting, Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) Executive Director Griff Lynch detailed projects that will double capacity of the port’s auto roll-on, roll-off rail operation, located on Colonel’s Island in Brunswick, where imported autos are off-loaded from ships and transferred to rail cars for transportation to dealers to around the nation. At full capacity, the Brunswick facility handles 1.5 million units. Lynch noted the GPA moved 630,000 cars, trucks and tractors through its Georgia terminals in 2018, with some vehicles transported as far west as California.
Lynch said infrastructure projects will increase capacity for roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo handling, including the addition of 60 dockside acres to the operation. The new space will increase car storage by 8,250 spaces.
Other improvements include a new cross-terminal road linking the three vessel berths, as well as a new access road between the docks and the island’s south side.
The new dockside expansion will also double the port’s rail capacity and give Brunswick the ability to build up 10,000-foot long unit trains, which make direct service over greater distances more attractive to Brunswick’s Class I rail roads –CSX and Norfolk Southern – thus expanding service in markets west of the Mississippi River and into the American Midwest.
Vehicles crossing the Brunswick docks are already moving west in significant numbers, with 16,000 units sent to California from Brunswick and more than 4,500 to Texas during FY2018.
“Our ability to expand capacity on Colonel’s Island is unmatched in the U.S.,” explained Georgia Port’s Authority Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. “The strength of our ports is a result of the incredible team that makes it all possible – including our staff, The International Longshoremen’s Association, the on-terminal auto processors, our thousands of loyal customers, and, of course, the support we receive from elected leadership throughout the state.”
“By tonnage, Brunswick is already the second busiest Ro/Ro port in the nation, behind only Baltimore,” added Lynch. “As business grows to fill our expanding terminal, the Port of Brunswick will play an even larger role on the global trade in vehicles and heavy equipment.”
The Port of Brunswick now sustains 10,800 jobs across Glynn, Camden, Brantley, Wayne, Long, and McIntosh counties, an increase of more than 1,800 jobs since 2014, according to the UGA study.
The Port of Savannah, which handles containers that can be off-loaded to rail cars or trucks, marked 23 consecutive months of growth with a 12 percent increase in containerized trade in September – a total of 364,090 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2018, an increase of 39,000 TEUs compared to September 2017.
The Authority’s 10-year investment plan for Savannah includes $2.5 billion to expand the capacity of the nation’s fastest growing and single largest container terminal from 5.5 million twenty-foot equivalent unit containers (TEUs) to 8 million.
And the Ports Authority overall ended the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019 (July-September) with 1.1 million TEUs handled. The performance added up to 10.8 percent growth (109,164 TEUs) compared to the first quarter of FY2018.
The Port Authority’s Mason Mega Rail facility will double the Port of Savannah’s rail capacity to 1 million lifts per year by 2020. Other infrastructure improvements include new equipment purchases, such as eight additional ship-to-shore cranes, and 64 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes, as well as gate and container storage expansions, berth improvements, and off terminal road additions.
“We’re preparing,” Lynch added, “to redefine the Port of Savannah as not simply the load center for the Southeastern U.S., but as the port of choice for major inland markets east of the Mississippi River.”
