The Port of Savannah saw another cargo surge as shippers continued to shift volumes to the East Coast to avoid uncertainties on U.S. West Coast ports.
The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said October was its second busiest month on record after only August of this year when the Port of Savannah handled 575,500 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs).
GPA said it has now topped half a million TEUs in three of the first four months of the Fiscal Year 2023, for total volumes of 2.1 million TEUs for the year to date.
In the earlier months of the current fiscal year, GPA noted that 160 importers were either new customers at the Port of Savannah or existing customers who grew their Savannah trade by 20% or more.
GPA said in its statement that this combined increase represented 107,000 additional TEUs from July through October compared to the previous year.
"There has been downward pressure on the total U.S. container trade related to inflation and a shift in consumer spending toward services such as restaurants and travel," said Joel Wooten, GPA Board Chairman.
"However, the Port of Savannah continues to outperform relative to the national market, driving new business for Georgia."
Increased market share of East, Gulf ports
Additionally, Savannah and other East and Gulf Coast ports have been gaining market share relative to the West Coast.
Citing data from PIERS/IHS Markit, GPA said the East Coast increased its share of the container trade from 47% in July 2021 to 48.4% in July 2022.
Meanwhile, as a whole, the Georgia Ports Authority — which includes the Port of Brunswick — handled 552,800 TEUs in October, an increase of 9.6% (48,460 TEUs) compared to the same month last year.
"Customers continue to bring new or expanding business to the Port of Savannah, drawn by our global connectivity and the supply chain network that links Savannah to major U.S. markets," said Griff Lynch, GPA executive director.
"We can report that ships at anchor are trending downward and expanded berth capacity coming online next year will allow us to serve our growing customer base with even greater efficiency," Lynch added.
