Sky-High oil prices, costly California ports, a doubling of Panama Canal capacity, cheaper all-water routes from Asia, augur well for the Port of Savannah, says its chief promoter John Wheeler, of the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
High fuel prices bolster shipper preferences for cargo to land closer to the point of sale rather than having it expensively railed or trucked across the country from California, he told the Hong Kong Shipping Gazette on a recent visit.
"We are averaging almost 16 per cent growth over the last six years, a very big year last year at 20.6 per cent in '07 versus '06," he said.
Savannah's annual capacity stands at 3.5 million TEU, having had a 2007 throughput of 2.6 million TEU, and now looks forward to 6.5 million TEU million annual capacity in a few years.
Four new postpanamax cranes have arrived from Shanghai, more stacking gear and RTGs are on the way as on-dock rail is being installed. The port has 12.8 metres quay depth and is dredging to 14.6.
"We have 10 trains a week every night to Atlanta. It's an overnight service leaving at eight o'clock at night and available the next morning at eight o'clock in Atlanta. The Norfolk Southern, CSX are both on dock and they will both have their own facilities by December," he said.
Savannah and east coast ports generally, are regarded as overflow ports for Asian cargo when things go wrong in California, said Mr Wheeler.
"Put these ports in descending order. LA-Long Beach has an annual growth rate 8.5 per cent; 9.1 for New Jersey, Savannah is 16.7 per cent," he said. "Everything we do is to stay ahead of the growth curve."
Another help is the increasing use of the Suez Canal to access US east coast ports for Asian cargo, though Mr Wheeler conceded that not much freight comes from east of Singapore, which cuts out China volumes.
But Panama is different, he said, and by 2015 the newly expanded canal will then be taking mega-ships, and more than doubling its capacity.
"The biggest ship we have are 6,700-TEU on transatlantic service. But the biggest coming through the Panama Canal right now are the 5,000-TEU ships," he said. Ships in the 12,000-TEU range will be able to go through once the expansion is done."
Another factor favouring Savannah, he said, is its 50:50 import/export balance. "So ocean carriers coming in can get those export boxes. We have put in reefer racks for poultry, and for citrus coming out of northern Florida, which has gone through the roof. The poultry comes from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee," he said.
The port itself is in promotion of the development of Garden City, a vast tract of land around the port, less than 10 kilometres from the 250,000 population city itself down stream from the harbour.
"This is why ships call: these are the distribution centres. Target and Ikea opened this year. Target will do 40,000 boxes through the port next year."
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