October 13, 2021
Greetings!
The Port of Savannah continues to achieve best-in-class truck turn times for a major hub port, at 41 minutes for a single move and 62 minutes for a double move, handling 14,000 transactions per day.
Saturday gates are also showing good success, reaching 3,500 moves this past weekend, while night gates are also trending well. We appreciate the trucking companies that have contacted GPA to take advantage of the 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. gates. I want to express my thanks to the trucking community, ILA gate teams and GPA operations for their terrific performance.
Although the number of vessels at anchor remains static, between 20 and 24 ships, cargo moving on and off terminal is very fluid. Loaded import containers on terminal are down by more than 3,800 boxes over the past two weeks, allowing GPA to work additional ships.
In addition, we are seeing a steady decline in the number of loaded import boxes that have been on terminal longer than four weeks. Intermodal containers continue to have the best performance, with an average dwell time of less than two days. Both CSX and Norfolk Southern have available capacity to destinations including Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, the Appalachian Regional Port, Charlotte, Huntsville, Birmingham and Florida locations.
Consolidated Chassis Management reports that chassis availability is improving, with the average street dwell last week dipping to 14.3 days, down from 15.6 days a month ago.
In order to better handle current volumes and to prepare for growing business, we are expediting several major infrastructure projects.
Peak Capacity Project
Phase I: 80% complete. Comes online in December with three new rubber-tired gantry crane rows providing an additional 300,000 TEUs of annual capacity.
Phase II: 20% complete. Will add a fourth RTG row and additional empty container space by the spring of 2022.
The Peak Capacity Project will add 800,000 TEUs of annual capacity.
Garden City West Phase I
New 25-acre chassis yard: Notice to proceed on construction goes out Monday. Set to open in March 2022.
Garden City West Phase II
92-acre container yard: Goes before the GPA Board for consideration in March. Will add 750,000 TEUs of annual container space in 2023.
Big Berth Expansion
Berth 1: 17% complete. The project, slated to come online in 2023, will allow Savannah to simultaneously serve four 16,000-TEU vessels, and three additional ships.
New Ship-to-Shore Cranes
Crane order: First four, 15% complete; second four, 5% complete. Eight new ship-to-shore cranes will arrive in 2023, bringing Garden City Terminal’s total fleet to 38.
Mega Rail
Mason Mega Rail Terminal: 85% complete. The project will increase the Port of Savannah’s rail capacity to 2 million TEUs per year. The final set of nine working tracks will open by the end of October 2021.
Savannah Harbor Deepening
Savannah Harbor Expansion Project: 93% complete. With a high-tide depth of 54 feet, the deeper harbor will allow vessels in the 16,000+ TEU range to take on heavier loads with fewer tidal restrictions.
As these capacity enhancements come online, we continue to work with customers to solve fluidity challenges, offering peel-off stacks, night gates on request and conversion of cargo from truck to rail.
Sincerely,
