The Georgia Ports Authority moved more than 4.68 million twenty-foot equivalent container units in 2020, up 1.8% from its 2019 total of 4.59 million.
Total cargo crossing all docks in 2020 reached 38.4 million tons.
The Port of Savannah achieved its busiest December ever last month, moving 447,525 TEUs, an increase of 24%, or 86,700, compared to December 2019. Total cargo crossing all docks reached 3.33 million tons last month, up 12.5%. Rail volumes for the month grew 16.4%, or approximately 10,900 TEUs, for a total of 77,230. Intermodal cargo represented 17.4% of December container volumes.
“Savannah’s capacity to take on additional trade as well as its diversified cargo portfolio — including ecommerce and strong export markets — helped to drive business gains,” GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch said.
During the time when manufacturers around the world were shuttering plants, Georgia exports held steady over the calendar year, at 2.3 million TEUs. Export container volumes were led by food, forest products, cotton, clay, automotive goods and chemicals. The Port of Savannah maintained a near-even trade balance of 51% import and 49% export.
Appalachian Regional Port
Another bright spot for the calendar year was the Appalachian Regional Port. The ARP handled 59,000 TEUs in 2020, up by 25,000 or 73% compared to the previous year.
“More customers are seeing the benefit of moving cargo by rail to the ARP, then using shorter truck routes to nearby portions of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama,” Lynch said.
At the Port of Savannah, growing container trade over the past five months of the year followed five consecutive months of lower volumes.
When planning and design started for Mason Mega Rail in 2016, annual rail lifts at Garden City Terminal totaled 675,000 TEUs. That number is now more than 936,000, a 40% increase. At full build-out, Mason Mega Rail Terminal will grow Savannah’s annual rail lift capacity to 2 million TEUs per year.
In CY2020, Memphis, Tenn., customers accounted for 178,000 TEUs of loaded rail cargo for the Port of Savannah, an increase of 3% or more than 4,800 TEUs. Memphis is GPA’s second-busiest inland rail market after Atlanta.
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