Following January’s record performance, Griff Lynch, the executive director of Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), unveiled plans to expand the Port of Savannah’s container capacity by 60%, which will increase the port’s annual capacity to 9.5 million TEU by 2025.
Projects underway will add 1.7 million TEU of annual capacity in four months. GPA’s Peak Capacity project has already added 400,000 TEU in container handling space to the Garden City Terminal and it is expected to make room for another 820,000 TEU by June.
In the same month, a new container yard upriver will add another 500,000 TEU of capacity, and by 2024, the Garden City Terminal West project will add up to 1 million TEU, according to the port authority.
“Higher demand for our services is the reason we have expedited major expansions at the Port of Savannah,” explained GPA board chairman, Joel Wooten, who went on to add, that 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”.
Moreover, GPA is expanding its berth 1, increasing on-dock capacity by 25%. Upon completion of this project, the berth is estimated to allow Savannah to simultaneously serve four 16,000 TEU vessels, as well as three additional ships. Overall, these renovations are projected to add 1.5 million TEU per year of berth capacity.
GPA is also planning the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which will come online in March. The deeper river channel will allow 16,000+ TEU container ships to take on heavier loads and transit the river with greater scheduling flexibility, according to a statement.
Lynch has also addressed a series of key logistics solutions of the authority, including the expansion of GPA’s workforce, as well as the six pop-up container yards, which add 500,000 TEU of annual container space and reduce the amount of storage time at Garden City Terminal.
Furthermore, according to Lynch, Savannah has helped relieve the US’s trucker shortage by registering 80 new drivers a week to serve Garden City Terminal or a total of 1,200 new drivers and 370 new trucking companies since November.
