Projects currently under way will add 1.7 million TEUs of annual capacity in four months, Griff Lynch, GPA executive director, said at the annual State of the Port address on 24 February. GPA’s Peak Capacity project has already added 400,000 TEUs in container handling space to the Garden City Terminal and will make room for another 820,000 TEUs by June.

In the same month, a new container yard will add a further 500,000 TEUs of capacity. Separately, the Garden City Terminal West project will add up to 1 million TEUs in phases by 2024.

“Our expansion is being matched by incredible growth in both warehouse space and workforce,” Griff Lynch said. “The public and private investment that we’re seeing, as well as the number of people being drawn to the business, make Savannah the hottest market in the country for transportation and logistics.”

To ensure Savannah’s ability to handle these volumes, GPA is super-sizing its Berth 1, increasing on-dock capacity by 25% and adding an estimated 1.5 million TEUs per year of berth capacity. In the spring of 2023, the expanded berth will allow Savannah to serve four 16,000TEU vessels as well as three additional ships,

Another game changer for the GPA is the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which will come online in March. The deeper river channel will allow 16,000+ TEU vessels to take on heavier loads and transit the river with greater scheduling flexibility.