Mason Mega Rail Terminal Phase I (Georgia Ports Authority/Jeremy Polston)
The Georgia Ports Authority continues to set records and is on track to exceed 4.6 million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) for the first time in a calendar year, a 14 percent increase over volumes moved through Savannah just three years ago.
Not-so-coincidentally, over the same period the Authority has increased the annual capacity at the Port of Savannah from 5 million to 5.5 million TEUs.
“Through incredible teamwork from the GPA and the ILA on the docks, to the motor carriers and Class I railroads, and other partners, Georgia has managed to create a powerful hub for commerce that is creating jobs and economic opportunity in every corner of the state,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch.
Lynch explained that to keep cargo flowing, GPA is adding cranes, container rows, truck gates, intermodal capacity and the Mason Mega Rail Terminal that will double Savannah’s on-port rail capacity to 1 million lifts per year.
Cargo moved by rail has grown twice as fast as the Authority’s overall three-year growth rate in container trade and will increase with the first phase of the Mason Mega Rail project, which opens this spring.
In the first 10 months of 2019, intermodal volumes expanded by 30 percent compared to the same period in 2017. The port handled 427,891 rail containers through October, up 98,835 from three years ago.
“Exciting new business opportunities such as the export of the Georgia-made Kia Telluride, and resins produced in Pennsylvania and the Gulf States, as well as the import of cold-treated fresh produce, are driving the increase in trade through our deep-water ports,” noted GPA Board Chairman Will McKnight.
“The speed and efficiency of our terminal operations, as well as our connectivity via road and rail, make Georgia the best choice for reliable supply chain services,” McKnight added.
The Mason Mega Rail project will double rail capacity to one million container lifts per year and deliver the largest on-dock intermodal rail facility for a port authority in North America.
The project is the next step in the Port of Savannah’s drive to handle more cargo from Neo-Panamax vessels and is part of a comprehensive expansion plan that includes a deeper harbor, the largest ship-to-shore crane fleet of any U.S. terminal, and an additional 60 rubber-tired gantry yard cranes.
Total tonnage crossing all GPA terminals reached 32.5 million tons January through October, up 4 percent over 2018, or 1.21 million tons. The Port of Savannah is handling the highest volumes of any container terminal in the U.S. Southeast, moving as many as 8,000 TEUs per ship.
In Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/Ro) cargo, Colonel’s Island Terminal at the Port of Brunswick handled 500,512 units of cars, trucks and tractors from January through October. Ocean Terminal in Savannah added another 37,476 for a total of 537,988 units. Total Ro/Ro trade is up for the year by 3,300 units and Georgia is the second busiest U.S. hub for the import-export of Ro/Ro cargo behind only Baltimore.
Of Savannah’s 36 weekly vessel calls, 10 are “first-in” services that call Garden City Terminal before other East Coast ports.
Georgia’s deep-water ports and inland barge terminals support more than 439,000 jobs throughout the state annually and contribute $25 billion in income, $106 billion in revenue and $2.9 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia’s economy. The Port of Savannah handled 8.5 percent of U.S. containerized cargo volume and 10 percent of all U.S. containerized exports in FY2017.
