Growth. That was the theme at the Georgia Ports Authority’s (GPA) Savannah State of the Port address on February 24th. GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch announced during his address that the port’s container capacity will be expanding by 60%. This is huge for the port, which has played a key role in helping eliminate the backlog that accompanied the coronavirus over the past two years. By 2025, this expansion is expected to have increased the Port of Savannah’s capacity from 6 million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEU) to 9.5 million TEUs.
At Thrive, we know the role Georgia’s ports play in helping our region and nation operate. During Lynch’s address, he said, “our expansion is being matched by incredible growth in both warehouse space and workforce. The public and private investment that we’re seeing, as well as the number of people being drawn to the business, make Savannah the hottest market in the country for transportation and logistics.” Although Savannah is outside of our Thrive region, the Appalachian Regional Port, which is of the GPA’s six pop-up container yards that have provided supply chain relief by adding 500,000 TEUs a year in container space, is located within our 16-county footprint in Murray County Georgia. Thanks to the ARP’s location and our proximity to Savannah, our region will experience the benefits of the GPA’s expansion for years to come.
Image Source: GPA
What’s even better is that we are not going to have to wait until the completion date of 2025 to begin seeing results. Lynch announced that this year alone, 1.7 million TEUs of annual capacity will be added. Plus, at the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, 400,000 TEUs in container handling space have already been added. By June, Lynch said there will be space for an additional 820,000 TEUs, while space for an additional 500,000 TEUs will be made at a brand new container yard just upriver simultaneously. Lynch also said that around 1 million TEUs will be added in phases by 2024 as part of the Garden City Terminal West project.
The Georgia Ports Authority’s work is going beyond the ports too. As we all know, the truck driver shortage has been a serious concern. However, progress is being made to address the issue. So far, the city of Savannah has been registering a whopping 80 new drivers a week. These drivers will serve the Garden City Terminal. In fact, since November of 2021, Lynch announced that 1,200 new drivers and 370 new trucking companies have been added.
“Higher demand for our services is the reason we have expedited major expansions at the Port of Savannah,” GPA Board Chairman Joel Wooten said. “Georgia’s growing manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors will mean additional cargo through the Port of Savannah, driving the need for increased container handling capacity.”
How is the city of Savannah going to be able to handle this monumental growth? Lynch said the answer is found in increasing GPA’s Berth 1 on-dock capacity by 25% so that by next spring the city’s port will be able to “simultaneously serve four 16,000-TEU vessels as well as three additional ships.”
Next month, the GPA’s brand new Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which Lynch says will add scheduling flexibility and will allow 16,000 TEUs to take on heavier loads, will go live online!
We are thrilled for our friends at the Georgia Ports Authority, for the entire state of Georgia and all of its surrounding regions. As work continues and we get additional updates, you can trust that we will keep you informed.