As the Port of Savannah continues to work on dredging its channel to allow for more and larger cargo ships, it was construction thousands of miles away in Central America that has resulted in a record breaking year for Georgia ports. The expansion of the Panama Canal, finished last Summer, has allowed for a whole new class of cargo ships to be able to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic with relative ease. Their arrival in Savannah in May caused much excitement as the massive 13,000 TEU (20 foot container boxes) ship stopped at the port to load and unload cargo before continuing across the Atlantic towards Asia.
The ability for 10,000+ TEU ships to access the Port of Savannah has led to a record breaking year for Georgia ports according to an announcement from the Georgia Ports Authority on Monday. In fiscal year 2017, which ended on June 30th, the ports of Savannah and nearby Brunswick moved 33.4 million tons of cargo, their greatest amount ever exported/imported in a calendar year and an increase over 2016 by more than 8%. 3.85 million container units were moved in Savannah alone, a near 7% increase for the nation’s fourth largest container port.
Savannah is already preparing to maintain this growth, currently in the process of procuring six more cargo cranes which would enable them to work on three container ships at once. That $75 million project is dwarfed by the ongoing dredging of the channel, which would allow for cargo ships to make their way in and out of the port even at low tide. That project, with a price-tag approaching $1 billion, has been thrown into uncertainty by a new White House administration looking to curb federal spending. The Georgia congressional delegation, led by local Rep. Buddy Carter, has petitioned the Trump administration to make sure the project receives sufficient funding.
Said Carter in a letter to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water earlier this Summer, “The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that without annual funding of $80 million to $100 million, the project cannot be completed on time, with the resulting delays costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.” Pointing to figures from the Army Corps of Engineers that claim a 7:1 benefit-to-cost ratio for the project, he added “With an annual economic benefit to the nation of nearly $300 million once completed, we must do everything we can to make this a reality.”
