With the start of a new fiscal year coming up in little more than a month, the Georgia Ports Authority board this week OK’d the allocation of $33 million for 30 new rubber-tired gantry cranes and another $16.5 million toward the addition of four new ship-to-shore cranes.
The capital improvements are just a part of GPA’s ongoing commitment to maintaining the superior service levels customers are currently experiencing, said board vice chairman Jimmy Allgood.
It’s an investment that continues to pay off, he said.
“The numbers tell the tale. When businesses want to reach important markets in a reliable, cost-efficient way, Georgia’s ports deliver superior supply-chain efficiency,” Allgood said.
“By making these commitments now, GPA will be prepared to handle expanding cargo volumes both now and in the future.”
In case you’re wondering how the authority will pay for all these improvements, the ports’ record volumes in containers and autos, combined with strength in the breakbulk sector, also delivered record revenue last month, according to GPA executive director Curtis Foltz.
With revenues of $33 million for April, the self-sustaining authority is reporting revenues of $292.5 million for fiscal 2015 through April, with two more months to go.
“We are aggressively hiring
additional staff to accommodate the heavy workloads and reduce overtime demands,” he said.
In an update on the Savannah harbor deepening project, Foltz said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to award a contract for the dissolved oxygen system — a critical mitigation step — next month. The anticipated project cost is $75 million.
CSS Georgia lecture date changed
Speaking of deepening and mitigation projects, the long-buried life of the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia is being resurrected and will be discussed in a lecture given by two of the lead archaeologists who are preserving the ship’s artifacts.
Speakers will bring recently recovered artifacts to the free event — rescheduled from an earlier date to June 2 at 7 p.m., at the auditorium of the Savannah History Museum, 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Underwater archaeologist Stephen James,with Panamerican Consultants, is a principal investigator on the project. He and underwater archaeologist Gordon Watts, of Tidewater Atlantic Research, will share the discoveries from the CSS Georgia.
Topics will include the unique ship’s construction, its funding, and life aboard the civil war gunboat.
Attendees will also learn how divers are documenting and recovering the vessel, the laboratory work involved and what happens next in this complex project.
The Savannah History Museum will be open at no charge from 6-7 p.m. and light refreshments will be served in the auditorium lobby before the lecture, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District and hosted by the Coastal Heritage Society.
Logistics case study
A group of Georgia Southern University logistics students recently completed a multinational case study that included 695 students from 13 universities representing seven countries — including the United States, France, Columbia, Peru, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Students in Chris Boone’s logistics and intermodal transportation operations classes were each assigned to a four-person team, along with a mix of students from the other universities. Each team was then given 10 days to analyze a Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) case.
The task required the logistics students to overcome time, distance and language challenges created by their globally distributed teams in order to address the inventory and logistics performance problems found in the case.
Each student group then presented its analysis and solutions to a faculty member from one of the other participating universities using GoToMeeting® video conferencing technology.
“The logistics faculty interacts regularly with alumni, employers and industry leaders who are all stressing the added importance of students gaining firsthand experience dealing with the issues, challenges, and pressures faced by logistics professionals in today’s increasingly complex and global business environment,” Boone said.
“This case study is just one example of the dedicated efforts by faculty from across the Georgia Southern University College of Business Administration to provide our students the high quality education and practical experiences valued by today’s employers.”
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
Following are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean terminals this week. Schedules are supplied by GPA and are subject to change.
TERMINAL VESSEL ETA
GCT MSC SARAH Today
GCT MAERSK KENSINGTON Today
GCT CS DISCOVERY Today
GCT HATTA Today
GCT NYK NEBULA Today
GCT CHEM AMSTERDAM Today
OT GRANDE SIERRA LEONE Today
GCT EVER DIVINE Saturday
GCT BUDAPEST EXPRESS Saturday
GCT CMA CGM WHITE SHARK Saturday
GCT NORTHERN JUBILEE Saturday
GCT YM UPWARD Saturday
GCT CMA CGM MELISANDE Saturday
OT ERHAN Saturday
GCT EVER LEADING Sunday
OT NEW SPIRIT Sunday
GCT NYK CONSTELLATION Monday
GCT CGM UTRILLO Monday
GCT AS VEGA Monday
GCT HYUNDAI VOYAGER Monday
GCT APL SCOTLAND Monday
GCT MSC MICHAELA Monday
GCT MAERSK CHICAGO Monday
OT TAMESIS Monday
GCT ZIM LUANDA Tuesday
GCT CAP HUDSON Tuesday
GCT AL FARAHIDI Tuesday
GCT MOL EXPEDITOR Tuesday
GCT NORTHERN DEBONAIR Tuesday
GCT YORKTOWN EXPRESS Tuesday
GCT AS MAGNOLIA Tuesday
GCT NYK METEOR Tuesday
GCT YM OAKLAND Tuesday
OT TOMAR Tuesday
OT DURBAN HIGHWAY Tuesday
GCT MARTHA SCHULTE Wednesday
GCT KAAN KALKAVAN Wednesday
GCT CONRAD S Wednesday
GCT BONNIE Wednesday
GCT ZIM LONDON Wednesday
GCT TOMMI RITSCHER Wednesday
GCT HANJIN RIO DE JANEIRO Wednesday
OT PARSIFAL Wednesday
GCT MAERSK WINNIPEG Thursday
GCT ZIM PIRAEUS Thursday
GCT JULIETTE RICKMERS Thursday
GCT MSC MARIA ELENA Thursday
GCT MSC INGRID Thursday
OT CORESHIP OL Thursday
OT BBC CORAL Thursday