The US Georgia Ports Authority has launched a Big Berth/Big Ship program, expected to allow the Port of Savannah to simultaneously handle six 14,000 TEU vessels by 2024. The program was unveiled by GPA Executive Director, Griff Lynch, during the Georgia Foreign Trade Conference, which took place on 3-5 February.
No other single container terminal in North America has the ability to expand berth capacity at this rate, noted Mr. Lynch. Savannah’s Garden City Terminal is equipped to handle two of these vessels and by April of this year that number will increase to three.
Over the next five years, the Authority plans to add another 21 Neo-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, replacing 14 of its older models to bring the total fleet to 37. Dock upgrades are already under way to support the new, larger machines.
Meanwhile, he informed, the Port of Savannah had just last week achieved the busiest month ever in its history, moving 433,975 TEUs, a whopping 28% jump over the previous year.
A strong global economy coupled with a growing awareness of Savannah’s logistical advantages are driving sustained growth at our deepwater container terminal. GPA’s Big Berth/Big Ship program will ensure Georgia stays ahead of demand and ahead of the competition,
…GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood said.
The Savannah market is also seeing significant private development. Over the past 24 months, private investors have added 9 million square feet, to bring Savannah’s total industrial real estate market to 60.6 million square feet. The rate of construction has since accelerated, with another 9.2 million square feet of industrial space now under construction.
In addition to the ship-to-shore cranes GPA is adding, a dozen new rubber-tired gantry cranes will bring the number Garden City Terminal’s container handling cranes to 158. Ten RTGs will be commissioned in July, another two in September.
Moreover, phase I of the Mason Mega Rail project will be complete in October 2019. Full completion, a year later, is expected to double the Port of Savannah’s rail lift capacity to 1 million containers per year.
In late 2021, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is slated for completion, delivering the deeper water necessary to better accommodate the larger vessels now calling on the US East Coast.
