Port of Savannah’s container traffic rises 7.1 percent y/y in April

June 01, 2018: The Port of Savannah, major US seaport, has seen 7.1 percent rise in container traffic during the month of April. The port has moved 356,700 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) as compared to 23,700 units in the same month last year, according to traffic results released by Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).

Georgia Ports Authority’s busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million TEUs, an increase of 8.8 percent (280,000 TEUs) compared to the first 10 months of FY2017.

“We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the Authority,” said Griff Lynch, executive director, GPA.

“We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs.”

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.

“The Authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast,” Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs. The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tonnes. The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.