MARITIME/PORTS
transportationreport
Savannah’sSavannah’s
inflection point
In order to
compete for
post-Panamax
vessels, the
Georgia seaport
needs funds and
approval for a
critical harbor
deepening project.
Right now, it
has neither.
THERE ARE MOMENTS OF TRUTH IN THE LIVES OF EVERY ORGANIZATION.
Savannah, the nation’s fourth-largest container port, is living through one of those moments.
The Georgia port is a heavyweight in domestic and international commerce. It handled
a record 2.82 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers in its 2010 fiscal year
(which ended on June 30, 2010). Bu way of comparison, the combined TEU throughput
at the ports of Virginia and Charleston, S.C., both of which calculate traffic data on a calendar year basis, was about 3. 2 million, with Virginia at slightly under 1. 9 million TEUs
and Charleston at 1. 36 million TEUs.
In calendar year 2010, Savannah moved the equivalent of 8. 6 percent of all U.S. containerized trade and 12. 4 percent of all U.S. containerized exports. It is the only East
Coast port to be served by both Class I Eastern railroads: CSX Corp. and Norfolk
Southern Corp. In addition, Savannah traditionally handles more export cargoes than
imports, a claim that none of the country’s three biggest ports—Los Angeles, Long
Beach, and New York/New Jersey—can make.
In fiscal year 2009, operations at Savannah and at the nearby Port of Brunswick, which
mostly handles breakbulk, agri-bulk, and roll-on/roll-off traffic, directly and indirectly
supported more than 286,000 Georgia jobs and contributed $6.3 billion in taxes to state
and local coffers, according to the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business.
