After months of expansions and the launch of various capital projects, officials Tuesday announced plans for still another set of projects aimed at boosting capacity in the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.
The Georgia Ports Authority will expand storage space for an additional one million containers a year in Savannah, an increase of more than 15%.
“This is to help continue the economic well-being of Georgia,” said Joel Wooten, chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority board. “Ports have to have the capacity.”
Savannah handled more than 460,000 containers in February, mostly imports. That was 18% more than the same month last year, and marked the 19th consecutive month the port hit a record.
The expansion should provide more places for unloaded shipments, which are sitting at the port an average of 11 days, said Griff Lynch, executive director of the authority. There were massive backups because of supply chain snarls during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the lineup of ships — sometimes more than 30 — waiting to unload has disappeared.
Shipments often have to wait to be carted off by wholesalers and retailers who may be short-staffed or overwhelmed with orders.
That is a supply chain problem linked to lack of transportation or warehouse space, Lynch said.
In Brunswick, the authority plans to spend $167 million on 85 acres that will include five buildings used to process arriving vehicles. Brunswick can handle up to 1.2 million vehicles in a year. The improvements will let the port handle up to 1.4 million. Brunswick is the nation’s second-largest port specializing in transport of vehicles, behind only Baltimore.
“One of our reasons for doing this is that we think we can be number one,” Lynch said. “This will definitely mean more jobs in Brunswick.”
Brunswick handles about 1.3 million tons of vessels, compared to the approximately 1.5 million tons that pass through the Port of Baltimore, according to USA Trade Online.
The two expansions join multi-million dollar port improvements finished or announced recently, such as a new $200 million terminal in Savannah and the completion of the deepening of the ship channel in March. The authority plans to invest $3 billion in the ports over the next decade.
Shipments from Asia account about about 70 of trade through Savannah. Port officials are watching with concern as China, which accounts for 35% of the trade going through Georgia ports, confronts yet another surge in COVID-19. Large parts of Shanghai, a city of 26 million, have been locked down.
“At this point, the impact is expected to be small, but Shanghai is the largest port in the world,” Lynch said. “If this goes on a week or more, it could have a major impact on us.”
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