The rest of the country is beginning to discover something Savannah’s maritime community has long suspected was coming: Georgia Ports’ Garden City Terminal, already the fourth-largest and fastest growing container port in the nation, is not finished growing.
Not by a long shot.
A perfect storm of factors puts the Port of Savannah in the best position of any other domestic container port to handle the next tidal wave of cargo.
Evidence to support this theory can be found in the port’s recent volumes. Container numbers grew 14 percent in February and 28 percent in March. April numbers are still being calculated but are expected to be just as impressive.
However, numbers don’t always tell the whole story, especially in this case, as a good bit of that increase is related to cargo diverted from the heavily congested and strike-prone West Coast.
What does begin to bring the picture into focus is that more and more of this diversion is becoming permanent as shippers across the country take note of Georgia Ports’ efficiencies and abilities to handle the extra load.
“March was our busiest month ever,” said GPA executive director Curtis Foltz. “Candidly, it tested our abilities, and we came out very well. In fact, ports across the nation have been seriously tested in the last 12 months or so. Most failed. We were the exception.”
But don’t take Foltz’s word for it.
Across the logistics industry, focus has centered on Savannah as it continues to handle a massive influx of cargo without becoming mired in congestion. Truck turn times have been largely unscathed by the onslaught of cargo, with a single-container move taking about 30 minutes and combined import/export moves completed in less than an hour.
At some other East Coast terminals, drivers are able to complete only one port visit per day because of congestion.
Growth by design
It’s no accident that Georgia Ports has seemed relatively immune to most of the more serious supply chain shocks. Decades of previous investment, combined with planned infrastructure improvements, are not only helping the GPA to maintain a strong operation, but keeping it ahead of the growth curve, Foltz said.
Twenty-two ship-to-shore cranes and nearly 10,000 contiguous feet of first-come, first-served dock space allow scheduling flexibility for super-sized vessels. A 1,200-acre container yard — the largest single-operator terminal in North America — gives GPA enough room and flexibility to handle influxes of cargo. That cargo flows easily out to road and rail with the help of 116 rubber tired gantry cranes.
For trucks, a series of “last-mile” projects eases traffic in and out of the ports’ gates, providing quick access to Interstate highways 95 and 16.
The Wall Street Journal has taken notice, pointing to GPA’s longtime practice of investing in infrastructure modernization.
“As a result, shippers say the port – second-busiest by container volume on the East Coast – operates smoothly for the most part, regularly handling big vessels stacked with cargo for companies such as IKEA and Target,” the Journal reported in a front-page story April 30.
The accolades are nice, but Foltz is clearly most proud of what he refers to as “our team.”
“From Savannah’s river pilots to the longshoremen locals, from GPA employees to the truckers, we work together as one,” he said. “I would challenge you to find any other port with this kind of single-minded commitment to success.
“It makes a huge difference and I couldn’t be more proud of each and every one.”
Thomas “Tommy” Stokes III, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1414, agreed.
“We have people working day and night,” he said. “It’s definitely not without its challenges, but we’re moving 10,000 boxes out of the gates a day. We were asked to rise to the challenge, and we have done so.”
Reaping the rewards
Savannah’s unmatched reliability has cargo owners requesting additional shipping capacity to serve the Garden City container terminal. Shipping lines have responded by lining up six new services, which will all start their rotations by mid-June:
• The G6 Alliance will originate in Bremerhaven, Germany, and call on Savannah and New York on the East Coast.
• Maersk will begin a service from Qingdao in China, calling on Savannah, Charleston and Miami on the East Coast.
• The CKYHE Alliance will originate in Pusan, North Korea, and visit U.S. ports of Charleston and Savannah.
• The Alliance Ocean 3 plus the Hamburg Sud will rotate from Qingdao through more than a dozen ports, including two calls each on Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk and New York.
• The Alliance Ocean 3 will also start the Manhattan Bridge Service, starting in Qingao and rotating through Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk and New York.
• Zim will begin the Seven Star Express service, beginning in the Chinese port of Yantian and including New York, Norfolk and Savannah.
Savannah is the only East Coast port to host all six new services, giving Garden City Terminal a total of 37 shipping services and resulting in more than 300 new ship calls a year, one of the most substantial all-at-once boosts the port has had in years.
Tip of the iceberg
That these shippers are switching to Georgia ports rather than return to the West Coast is just a preview of things to come, according to Fortune Magazine, which last week wrote that many problems with West Coast ports are chronic, with a labor pool poised to strike and bottlenecked connections to roads and rail.
Both population density and huge volumes of agricultural exports make eastern and southeastern ports geographically sensible, Fortune said. But the size limitations of the Panama Canal make it prohibitive.
That math is about to change, as a highly anticipated expansion of the canal’s locks is due for completion late next year, which will allow bigger ships to push directly to the East Coast.
Savings from larger ships are already reshaping trade flows in their own right, Fortune reported.
“Even without an expanded Panama Canal, the Port of Savannah now welcomes 11 ships a week that travel from Singapore westward through the Suez Canal — a much longer haul than to Los Angeles, but competitive thanks to bigger ships,” the magazine said
And better efficiencies dockside.
Add to that the Savannah port’s $700 million deepening project, now underway, and its room to grow on landside, and the possibilities are obvious.
That’s not to say West Coast ports will become obsolete, Foltz told the magazine.
“Just because of where LA-Long Beach is geographically located, they will in perpetuity be the two largest and busiest ports in the United States,” he said.
But they may not remain the powerhouses they’ve been for decades.
According to the inaugural edition of North America Port Logistics, put out by Fortune 500 realty company CBRE Group Inc., East Coast ports are growing at a faster rate than their West Coast counterparts.
“The Port of Savannah is growing rapidly as it has become a port of choice for logistics operations,” the report said, adding that Savannah has the lowest occupancy costs and highest shipping volume by market size in North America.
”Our port has created an operational environment that is highly appealing to our logistics related clients,” said Bill Sparks, a Realtor with CRBE Savannah.
“The Port’s services and efficiencies, coupled with an abundance of land for industrial development and a healthy management/labor relationship will keep Savannah on the growth path.”
Joshua Dolan agreed.
“The Southeastern U.S. has the fastest-growing population of any region in the nation,” said the senior director of international transport for Target, which opened a two-million-square-foot import warehouse in Georgia Ports’ Savannah River International Trade Park in 2007.
“Supplying that market with high-value products while keeping costs low for the customer is central to Target’s brand identity,” he said.
“The Port of Savannah plays a key role in delivering on that promise.”