GPA Handles Record Volumes in FY2017
The Georgia Ports Authority moved an all-time high of 3.85 million TEUs in fiscal year 2017, representing an increase of 6.7 percent from the same period a year earlier.
In the second half of the fiscal year, the Port of Savannah handled 1.99 million TEUs, for a growth rate of 11.6 percent over the same period in FY2016.
“Our volume growth continues to outpace forecasted demand. Shipping lines are moving 13,000- and 14,000-TEU vessels into service on the East Coast more quickly than anticipated, and concentrating their deliveries at efficient gateway ports like Savannah,” Griff Lynch, GPA Executive Director, said.
GPA capped a record fiscal year with its busiest June ever, moving 337,710 twenty-foot equivalent container units, for growth of 17 percent for the month. In fiscal year 2017, the GPA moved 33.4 million tons of cargo across all terminals, another all-time high and an 8.3 percent increase over FY2016.
Additionally, at a meeting held on July 24, the board approved a USD 72.75 million financing to purchase six more Neopanamax ship-to-shore cranes.
The new machines will arrive in 2020, and are in addition to a previous order of four cranes that will be operational in June of next year. The combined 10 additional cranes will bring the fleet to 36, able to move more than 1,300 containers per hour across a single dock.
“This new crane purchase, along with the four already on order, will enable GPA to increase crane capacity by nearly 40 percent,” Lynch added.
