On Tuesday, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) Board voted to add 50 more acres of vehicle storage at Colonel’s Island Terminal at the Port of Brunswick. The move comes after the recent addition of more than 120 acres and will help the Port of Brunswick to become the number one port in the country for Ro/Ro (roll-on/roll-off) cargo. Chances are, if you buy an imported car, it has come through the Port of Brunswick. Those chances are increasingly the case for much of the South and country in general.
“The combination of space to grow, global and domestic reach, and quality of service make the Port of Brunswick the nation’s premier gateway for Ro/Ro trade,” said GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch. “With the significant infrastructure investments we’re making at the nation’s largest auto port, GPA is prepared to handle future growth from new and existing customers. This move comes in response to requests from auto manufacturers seeking to expand their cargo volumes through Georgia.”
The terminal of Colonel’s Island processed more than 870,000 units of Ro/Ro cargo in Fiscal Year 2024, the new expansions will likely push the Port of Brunswick to more than 1 million units in Fiscal Year 2025.
“Capacity enhancements approved by the board today will complement the $262 million in auto storage and warehousing recently added at Colonel’s Island – as well as important federal projects planned for Brunswick Harbor,” said GPA Board Chairman Kent Fountain. “With more than 200 additional acres for expansion, no other Roll-on/Roll-off port in the nation has the ability to scale up its operation like Brunswick.”
The expansion also comes at the same time that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin some major maintenance operations for dredging and other harbor improvements. The Port of Brunswick will receive nearly $38 million for those projects, with more than $26 million of it slated for the dredging work expected to start later this year. The remaining federal funding, plus another $6 million in state funds, will increase safety and efficiency for vessels in the river. This includes an expanded area for vessels to pass each other and an expanded turning basin for ships docking at the terminal.
Over at the Port of Savannah, they handled nearly half a million units in August. It was the second-busiest August ever, after the pandemic-related spending frenzy in 2022 sent volumes to 575,000 units. CEO Lynch pointed to getting ready for the holidays as the reason for the August increase. For the moment, Georgia’s ports support some 561,000 jobs – presumably that number is inching closer to 600,000 every month with the increased expansions. All those jobs contribute $33 billion in income, income that is increasingly spread across the state at GPA’s inland terminals in Cordele, Bainbridge, Murray County and Hall County.
