The Port of Savannah is a major U. S. seaport located at Savannah, Georgia. Its facilities for oceangoing vessels line both sides of the Savannah River approximately from the Atlantic Ocean. Operated by the Georgia Ports Authority, the Port of Savannah competes primarily with the Port of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina to the northeast, and the Port of Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida to the south. The GPA operates one other Atlantic seaport in Georgia, the Port of Brunswick, located at Brunswick, Georgia. There are three interior ports linked to the Gulf of Mexico, Port Bainbridge and Port Columbus, and one linked to the Port of Savannah by rail in Cordele, Georgia. Between 2000 and 2005 alone, the Port of Savannah was the fastest-growing seaport in the United States, with a compounded annual growth rate of 16.5 percent. On July 30, 2007, the GPA announced that the Port of Savannah had a record year in fiscal 2007, becoming the fourth-busiest and fastest-growing container terminal in the U.S. The GPA handled more than of container traffic during fiscal 2007– a 14.5 percent increase and a new record for containers handled at the Port of Savannah. In the past five years, the port's container traffic has jumped 55 percent from handled in fiscal 2003 to in fiscal 2007. By 2014, container traffic was up to. In 2018, the Port handled a record 4.35 million twenty-foot equivalent container units, a 7.5 percent increase over 2017. In response to the growth in traffic at both Savannah and the Port of Charleston, the Jasper Ocean Terminal, to be the largest port in the country when it is completed, is planned to be built upriver on the Savannah River by the mid 2020s.
Major facilities
Port of Savannah was unable to accommodate further terminal growth, which caused it to develop satellite terminal facilities and inland distribution. These facilities include:
Garden City Terminal:Owned and operated by the GPA, the Garden City Terminal is a secured, dedicated container terminal, the largest of its kind on the U. S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The single-terminal facility features 9,693 feet of continuous berthing and more than 1.3 million square feet of covered storage. The terminal is equipped with fifteen high-speed container cranes, as well as an extensive inventory of yard handling equipment.
Ocean Terminal: Also owned and operated by the GPA, the Ocean Terminal is a secured, dedicated breakbulk facility specializing in the rapid and efficient handling of a vast array of forest and solid wood products, steel, RoRo, project shipments and heavy-lift cargoes. The facility features 6,688 feet of deepwater berthing, approximately 1.5 million square feet of covered storage and 96 acres of open, versatile storage.
Target Corporation Facility: On September 21, 2005, GovernorSonny Perdue announced that Target Corporation has decided to build a two-million-square-foot import warehouse at the Savannah River International Trade Park, located four miles from the Garden City Terminal at the Port of Savannah. The import warehouse opened on June 8, 2007, and handles overseas cargo and merchandise for Target Corporation's Southeast stores.
IKEA Facility: On December 13, 2005, Perdue and IKEA would build a distribution center on at the Savannah River International Trade Park. The first phase of the project consists of a facility, which opened on June 27, 2007. The company also plans to expand the initial facility by approximately in the future.
On April 10, 2007, Maersk Line reported that the port has added the Port of Savannah to its MECL2 service. With the addition, Maersk Line now has five services calling on the Port of Savannah. The MECL2 service will increase Savannah's trade with India, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. In 2006, Maersk Line and the GPA signed a twenty-year agreement that would make the Port of Savannah one of its primary ports of call in the South Atlantic. The MECL2 service provides direct service from Chennai/Madras, India, to act as transshipment hub for cargo to and from Visakhapatnam, Calcutta/Haldia, and Bangladesh.
On June 5, 2007, APL announced that it would have two new all-water services to the Port of Savannah, one via the Suez Canal and one via the Panama Canal. The weekly Suez Express will provide increased capacity via Savannah to and from India and Southeast Asia, deploying eight vessels. The SZX, which will originate in Singapore, calls on Colombo, Sri Lanka, before Savannah and then returns via Jebel Ali, Port Kelang and then Singapore. It takes 25 days for the SZX service to transit from Singapore to Savannah. The weekly East Coast Savannah Express, will provide increased capacity between south and central China and Savannah. The ESX will offer a transit time of 22 days from Hong Kong to Savannah, making this service the fastest available to the U.S. East Coast. The ESX originates in Ningbo then call on Shanghai, Chiwan, Hong Kong, Panama and then Savannah, New York, Norfolk, Panama and back to Ningbo.
