NFI Industries’ Savannah transload facility, in partnership with Georgia Ports Authority, seeks to save time and money with this first of its kind facility in Port Wentworth. The partnership, and facility, which helps to reduce costs, increase inventory flow and supply chain flexibility is also a mark of the Ports growth in the last decade.
The Ports have grown about 7% consistently over the last 10-15 years, according to Vice President of Sales and Marketing for GPA Flavio Batista. It is the third busiest gateway in the country, the second busiest in the east coast and has and will continue to expand in the future, Batista said.
"As the port continues to grow its capacity - in berth and in yard capacity - NFI is a great partner for us," Batista said. "As we grow, we bring more containers to the port and customers are looking at getting their containers in and out and getting their products closer to the final customer, and this NFI building will make it happen."
International shipping containers are taken from their ships at the Garden City Terminal to the transloading facility at NFI's request, before being taken less than a mile down the road to the facility. Once unloaded, NFI employees inspect, sorts, and loads freight to their designated domestic locations.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
They're then loaded on trailers to be distributed across the U.S.
"It's very fast, very efficient to get to the inbound containers, because we're really close to the port," said President of Port Services for NFI Aaron Brown. "On the outbound side, we're translating 20 foot or 40 foot containers into 53-foot trailers, so we can get three inbound containers into two outbound containers. This building is built for capacity and for speed."
The facility has been running for about two months now, and Brown said they're still getting fully ramped up with about 100-250 employees.
"It's not unrealistic to think that we could have, five, six, seven, 800-plus employees working in the building once we get fully utilized," Brown said. "It's built to be seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, so we're really excited about the capacity to not just support our customers but to support job growth opportunities for Savannah."
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
GPA CEO and President Griff Lynch spoke at the ribbon-cutting Tuesday morning, thanking everyone who had made an investment to the conception and completion of the facility.
"We're happy to be partners with you, and we're looking forward to many, many years to grow together," Lynch said.
Sidney Brown, CEO of NFI also spoke at the end of the ceremony.
"We're ready, we're excited for the future," Brown said. "We want you all to be a part of this incredible journey as we look forward to the chapters ahead with NFI, GPA and the greater Savannah community."
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: What the new Georgia Ports Authority partnership facility means for Port Wentworth
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