Patty Rasmussen reports, the bustling ports of Savannah and Brunswick, serving ships stacked high with brightly colored containers, are the face of Georgia’s global trade. And thanks to their East Coast location and highly touted efficiencies, the ports were able to serve their customers and handle overflow freight after a container ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the shipping channel of the Port of Baltimore in March. That incident revealed the capabilities of Georgia’s ports – which are poised to become even great.
The accident, which killed six bridge maintenance workers when the bridge collapsed, closed the Baltimore terminal until June. Griff Lynch, president and CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 units of cars and heavy equipment were shifted to the Port of Brunswick during Baltimore’s closure. In April alone, an additional 10,000 vehicles originally slated for Baltimore were handled at Brunswick, turning it into the terminal’s busiest month ever.
“There are not a lot of Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/Ro) ports in the U.S.,” Lynch says, referring to ports that handle vehicular cargo. “(Without Brunswick providing a relief valve for Baltimore, the situation could’ve been much worse. That’s why we need to stay focused on providing both the Ro/Ro and the container capacity for these types of challenges. Fifteen thousand units in one month – if you extrapolate that over one year, it becomes a big deal.”
Click the link to read the August 2024 addition of Advantage Georgia: https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=8924&i=826838&p=54&ver=html5