NEWS - Ports & Transportation

The Port of Savannah shook off the doldrums of the Great Recession the past 12 months to return to near record cargo levels, Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Curtis J. Foltz said in his first State of the Port address Thursday.

“The 9.7-percent increase in TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) for the year allowed the GPA to return to near record levels reached in FY2008 and continued its momentum, gaining market share across the Southeast,” Foltz told an audience of more than 1,000 people at the Georgia International Maritime Trade & Visitor Center.

In fiscal 2010, GPA posted its best year ever for exports moving 1,139,983 TEUs, which was a 15.5-percent increase compared with the previous fiscal year. During fiscal 2010, the GPA handled nearly 12 percent of the total U.S. loaded container exports based on tonnage, according to Foltz.

The top five export commodities for the latest fiscal year were wood pulp, paper and paperboard, food, clay and chemicals, port officials say.
GPA board Chairman Alec L. Poitevint called Georgia’s deepwater ports among “the brightest spots in the Georgia economy.”

Port officials cited a University of Georgia study released earlier this year that concluded Georgia’s deepwater ports supported more than 295,000 jobs throughout the state during FY2009, which was an increase of 9,000 jobs in retail, transportation and logistics industries.
Foltz also emphasized the GPA’s environmental initiatives throughout the Savannah port in conjunction with its capital improvement projects and port operations. In fiscal 2010, the GPA reused and recycled 94-percent of its construction debris for its nine major construction projects, Foltz said.

The GPA has also increased its treatment of stormwater runoff by nearly 800 percent in the last decade. Through the GPA’s crane electrification, use of refrigerated container racks, upcoming rubber-tired gantry crane re-power project and use of fuel additives, the Port of Savannah will avoid use of more than 4.5 million gallons of fuel annually, port officials said.