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Port Authority
While union strikes and negotiation stalls have slowed down imports on the West Coast, East Coast ports have benefited. Take the GA Port Authority for example. Over the past eight months, GPA has moved 2.32 million twenty-foot equivalent units, an increase of 13.7 percent or 279,882 TEUs from last year. Although, it would not be fair to to assume that the struggles at West Coast ports are the only reason for the rapid growth. The Port of Savannah has added cargo at a faster rate than any other port in the nation over the past decade. From 2003 to 2013, the Port of Savannah expanded by a cumulative annual growth rate of 7.1 percent -- faster than any top ten port in the nation.
The GPA is not satisfied with the growth either. In June of 2014, President Obama signed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, and the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP) was authorized to begin construction. This will allow the GPA to deepen the water by an additional five feet. That five feet will allow for an additional 3,600 cargo containers in each transit, an increase of 78 percent, to the port annually.
The deepening of the channel has not yet started, and the Port of Savannah is already benefitting. On March 18, the Georgia Ports Authority welcomed the largest ship ever to call on the Port of Savannah. The ship measures 1,145 feet long by 150 feet wide. Stood on end, it would stand nearly as tall as the Empire State Building (1,454 feet, including its antenna). GPA crews will make more than 2,000 container moves on and off the vessel during its time at dock.
The Savannah and Brunswick ports have plenty of room to grow, and they expect to. The expansion of the Panama Canal is expected to be finished in 2016, and the GA Port Authority expects hosting these Super Post-Panamax vessels to become a trend.
Jeremy McGovern
Manager, Savannah
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Jeremy McGovern began his career with the Allen Lund Company 7 years ago, promoting to the Manager of the Savannah office in January 2014. He received a Bachelors Degree in Business Administrations from Queens University of Charlotte, NC. |
About Allen Lund Company: Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to transport dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division, which is licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF, and a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics.
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