Coming the week after the Georgia Logistics Summit, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) hosted its International Trade Conference this week in Savannah. At the 56th edition for the annual conference, the GPA also celebrated its 80th anniversary with hundreds of attendees from customers, business partners and industry leaders. The event is a chance to discuss logistics and maritime-related issues.
GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch explained some of the history of GPA over the last 80 years, featuring nearly 800 percent growth over the last 30 years and has seen the GPA become one of the busiest port systems in the country in that time. Since the expansion of the Savannah Harbor with a decade plus long dredging operation, the port has not stopped its infrastructure investment. That investment’s latest highlight is the 1,650 foot berth that will allow vessels to enter the port and tie up as they wait at the Garden City Terminal during heavy traffic times. This will ease entry and exit, as well as having the ship in easy access for unloading the moment the other ship is done.
“Two years ago, we embarked on a program to add more container capacity for the future by transforming Ocean Terminal from a three small ship berth for containers, RoRo and bulk cargo into a two, large ship container berth,” stated Lynch. That RoRo cargo (roll-on, roll-off – vehicles of all types) has now moved to the Port of Brunswick and Savannah is now 100 percent containers. That move has now made Brunswick the busiest RoRo port on the East Coast.
“We knew there might be some growing pains but we’ve turned the corner now and our operations are getting back to their full potential as Ocean Terminal will continue to provide more capacity in phases,” said Lynch.
The $1.6 billion improvement project was financed through bonds, with the GPA seeing the highest bond rating of any port in the Southeast.
“Ocean Terminal plays a strategic role in our future vision,” said GPA Chairman Kent Fountain. “We’re pleased to see the engineering and construction progress, especially the lay berth capabilities that will come online next month.”
Among the items under discussion – impossible to ignore, were the potential effects that tariffs might have on the port. The immense storage capacity of the Savannah port will help customers speed up possible imports ahead of the imposed tariffs. The 100-acre, $200 million facility opened just in time last year, adding space for 20,000 containers. In Brunswick, there are 215 acres of on-terminal land parcels and storage sites that can be utilized as needed.
Regardless of what happens with international trade, the GPA can be viewed as relative to the other ports in the United States and in that sense, Georgia’s ports are set up to continue to as a leader in the industry. The state’s ports are likely to continue to gain market share and be at the forefront of port growth in the U.S.
“Customers are bringing new business to Georgia because of our world-class service, facilities and speed at the port,” Lynch said.
