Port of Savannah moves record 4.35 million TEUs

Container volumes increased 7.5 percent; the port is dredging and adding cranes, truck gates and rail capacity to accommodate more growth.    The Port of Savannah moved 4.35 million TEUs in 2018, its highest annual volume ever, and a 7.5 percent increase over 2017, according to Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch.
   In December, the Port of Savannah handled 351,366 TEUs, an increase of 8.7 percent, or 28,250 TEUs. It was the authority’s busiest December ever and capped a year with nine of the GPA’s 10 busiest months on record.
   “We are quickly adding capacity to our operations,” said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. In February, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed outer harbor dredging at the Port of Savannah, marking the midpoint of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, and the federal government has provided $101.12 million to continue the project this year. Dredging of the inner harbor is on track to start this year.
   Lynch said expansion of Gate 8 at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal has been completed and will increase overall gate capacity by 16 percent, for a total of 56 lanes. The expanded gate will open next month.
   In addition, the authority has ordered 12 new rubber-tired gantry cranes, which will increase the number of RTGs to 158. The first 10 new RTGs will arrive and be commissioned in July. Two will be commissioned in September. Construction on six ship-to-shore cranes slated to arrive in 2020 is now 45 percent complete. The new cranes will bring the Port of Savannah’s fleet to 36 and allow the port to increase big ship capacity.
   The Port of Savannah handled its most-ever containers by rail in 2018, moving 478,669 containers — approximately 860,000 TEUs — with Norfolk Southern and CSX. The rail volume represented a 19 percent increase compared to 2017. To handle the additional intermodal volumes, GPA will complete phase I of what it calls the Mason Mega Rail project in October of this year and phase II by October 2020. When complete, the project will double current rail capacity at Garden City Terminal from 500,000 to 1 million containers per year.