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2/28/2022
Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) Executive Director Griff Lynch last week announced plans to expand the Port of Savannah’s capacity by 60% through new projects.
The projects, which include expansions to container handling space at the Garden City Terminal and a new container yard, will add 1.7 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of annual capacity in four months, port officials said in a press release.
Called the Peak Capacity project, 400,000 TEUs of capacity have already been added and a total 1,320,000 TEUs of capacity are expected to be ready by June. The Garden City Terminal West project will add up to 1 million TEUs of capacity by 2024.
The port has experienced 18 consecutive months of growth throughout the pandemic and supply chain dysfunction and eliminated its backlog, GPA officials said. In 2021, the port moved a record 5.6 million TEUs, up 20% from 2020. Six pop-up container yards helped reach those levels as they added 500,000 TEUs of annual container space, Lynch said.
Other plans call for increasing on-dock capacity by 25% at Berth 1 in order to accommodate larger cargo volumes. The Savannah Harbor expansion project will also deepen the river channel to allow more than 16,000 TEU vessels to ship heavier loads with better flexibility.
"Our expansion is being matched by incredible growth in both warehouse space and workforce," Lynch said. "The public and private investment that we’re seeing, as well as the number of people being drawn to the business, make Savannah the hottest market in the country for transportation and logistics."
The Savannah market added 6.5 million square feet of industrial space in 2021, bringing the total to 84 million square feet, officials said. Another 17 million square feet are under construction.