GEORGIA PORTS’ TOP IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
Imports:
1. Furniture
2. Auto parts
3. General cargo
Exports:
1. Wood pulp
2. Paper and paperboard
3. Poultry, fresh and frozen
Georgia’s ports posted record traffic the last fiscal year, providing a healthy boost for metro Atlanta’s economy.
Savannah, for the first time, imported or exported more than 3 million containers — the steel boxes that carry the world’s manufactured goods — the Georgia Ports Authority announced Monday.
In all, the ports of Savannah and Brunswick moved 30 million tons of toys, cars, wood chips and more during the fiscal year ended June 30. More than 700,000 Nissans, Toyotas and other cars rolled through the two ports, a 10 percent surge.
While relatively high unemployment and spotty job growth still cloud the region’s economy, port traffic fuels metro Atlanta. Movement of goods to or from the ports supports an estimated 100,000 metro area jobs, according to a University of Georgia study.
“It’s a great year for us and it ultimately translates into a big economic impact and more jobs for Georgians and others in the Southeast dependent on our ports,” Ports Authority executive director Curtis Foltz told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Some of the surge stems from recent threats of a West Coast strike, as retailers re-routed containers to Savannah and other East Coast ports. Union officials and port operators continue discussions over a new contract for longshoremen, but no resolution is expected until next month at the earliest — to Georgia’s benefit.
Enrique Alvarez, managing director of Vector Global Logistics, an Atlanta-based freight shipper, said the ports’ surge is due to “the overall growth of the Southeast as well as the limitations of other ports.”
“Atlanta will be the next hub for Latin America too as people realize that Savannah and Georgia are closer to some of their markets in the Southeast and the Northeast,” he added.
For now, though, Asia and Europe remain Georgia’s major trading partners. Alvarez ships frozen pizzas from Germany through Savannah, for example. Toys and collapsible storage containers come from China. Vector’s trade is but a small portion of Savannah’s traffic. But every towel imported or chicken wing exported boosts Georgia’s trade.
The ports sit atop Georgia’s economic development pyramid, and state leaders have pushed for nearly two decades to deepen the Savannah River and harbor. The White House recently approved a $706 million plan to deepen the river to allow bigger ships traversing the Panama Canal to reach East Coast ports. The first dredge could scoop Georgia mud by year’s end.
Highlights of last year’s record port traffic include:
— Savannah handled the equivalent of 3.1 million containers — up 6.3 percent from the year before — the metal boxes transported via 18-wheeler flatbeds.
— Savannah and Brunswick moved 29.4 million tons of freight, up 8 percent from the previous fiscal year.
— Nearly 701,000 cars, trucks and other vehicles — a 10 percent boost — rolled off or onto cargo ships mostly in Brunswick.
— Bulk cargo — wood chips, corn, fertilizer — grew by 8 percent.
“The global recovery is helping our exports, but we’re also the beneficiary of a strengthening of the U.S. economy on the (import) side,” said Foltz, adding that the ports notched a record $310 million in revenue last year, too. “All East Coast ports are growing and that’s a good thing. It speaks to continued demographic growth east of the Mississippi River.”
South Carolina ports, fierce competitors with Georgia’s, tallied 1.7 million containers the last fiscal year, an 8 percent surge.
Foltz noted a near-even balance of imports and exports at Georgia’s ports. The exports, though, rely heavily on low-value agricultural products, like kaolin clay for Chinese toothpaste and magazines or wood pellets for British utilities.
And, despite thousands of warehouse, trucking and freight-tracking jobs across metro Atlanta, the ports haven’t done much to dent the region’s 7.6 percent unemployment rate. The U.S. rate is 6.1 percent.
Georgia has more than tripled the number of containers handled over the last decade. Its rise is due largely to investment in infrastructure — terminals, cranes, roads and rail lines — that attracted warehouses for WalMart, Target and Home Depot, as well as Southern population growth.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 20,000 workers at 29 West Coast ports, and port executives are negotiating a new contract. The National Retail Federation estimates a strike or lockout will cost the economy $2.1 billion daily.
That specter is prompting some shippers to shift cargo to Savannah and other East Coast ports.
In addition, “They brought their product in earlier than they normally would for the busy back-to-school season and the start of the peak shipping season for the holidays,” said Jonathan Gold, logistics vice president at the National Retail Federation.
The federation expects 1.5 million containers to reach all U.S. ports this month — the highest monthly volume in five years.
“Almost every one of our top 10 retailers has diverted a portion of their cargo to the East Coast and we’ll gladly service them,” Foltz said. “Without question we’re getting some upside and it will probably continue into the first quarter of the next fiscal year,”
