Georgia's ports posted another record year in fiscal 2012, port officials eported Monday, due largely to big increases in raw material and automobile exports and imports.
The port of Savannah moved nearly 3 million containers — up 1.9 percent from fiscal 2011. Savannah is the nation's fourth busiest container port and second largest on the East Coast after New York/New Jersey.
So-called breakbulk cargo — kaolin clay, wood and paper products and other raw materials — surged 16 percent on increased demand from China and other manufacturing juggernauts, according to the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
Cars, trucks, bulldozers and other heavy machinery, also known as roll-on/roll-off or Ro/Ro cargo, tallied a 19 percent growth rate. Nearly 570,000 Kia, Mercedes and Hyundai cars and trucks, as well as tractors and front-end loaders, rolled primarily through the port of Brunswick.
"The GPA's double-digit growth in Ro/Ro cargo emphasizes Georgia's role as an important corridor in global trade," said Authority chairman Robert Jepson Jr.
Roughly $5 billion in civilian aircraft, engines and parts represented the state's largest export sector in 2011, according to a new report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia ranks No. 5 nationally for aerospace exports and No. 12 for all exports at $34.7 billion.
"The ports are very, very efficient, but also very diversified," said UGA economist Jeff Humpreys. "Exports and imports are not overly dependent on either the Far East, Europe or Latin America, so when the U.S. went into recession, it really didn't effect the ports too much. That diversity helped."
The state is lobbying for a $652 million channel-deepening project to boost the port of Savannah's competitiveness, with a decision expected from federal authorities this fall.
