Posted on May 25, 2017
By David Bauerlein, jacksonville.com
As Jacksonville considers spending big bucks to deepen its ship channel, the port of Savannah continues to solidify its position as the busiest hub in the Southeast while closing in on another record-setting year for cargo business.
The Savannah seaport is on track to beat its previous record of about 3.67 million cargo container units set two years ago, officials said Monday at the monthly meeting of the Georgia Ports Authority.
The surge in business in the 2015 fiscal year occurred when labor conflict at West Coast ports caused shippers to send cargo through the East Coast instead. For the current fiscal year that ends June 30, Savannah is posting numbers without the extra help, said Griff Lynch, the authority’s executive director.
“What we have going on here is just true, organic growth,” Lynch said at the board meeting. “We’re heading toward a record for the year if May and June come in with solid numbers.”
St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman, whose group opposes deepening the St. Johns River, said Savannah’s continued strength shows that even if Jacksonville’s harbor gets deepened, Savannah is committed to remaining the dominant port in the Southeast for shipments of the the big metal boxes filled with just about everything that can end up on a store shelf.
JaxPort officials point to their own gains in Asian-based shipping, which is the trade lane that has driven Savannah’s growth.
Cargo from Asian-based shipping grew by 13 percent in the first six months of JaxPort’s fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1.
“Apparently, we can grow while others are growing too,” JaxPort spokeswoman Nancy Rubin said.
JaxPort officials have met in the past with city administrators for discussions about the city paying $93 million to $167 million of the cost of deepening the ship channel, according to port authority emails. JaxPort has not yet asked for a specific amount, though officials have said they expect to make a request.
JaxPort officials say if the St. Johns River is deepened, Jacksonville can become the first-choice port for shippers.
Rinaman said Savannah, which has its own dredging project under way, isn’t going to sit back and let another port take its market share. She said that’s something city officials should consider before committing local money for the deepening.
“When you look at Savannah’s numbers, they continue to widen their lead over the competition, proving that they are the clear choice for shippers,” Rinaman said.
Dale Lewis, a retired CSX executive who has raised questions about the economic impact of deepening Jacksonville’s harbor, said Savannah’s growth puts it on pace to hit capacity around 2030. He said whether that gives an opening to Jacksonville depends on if Georgia and South Carolina are successful at jointly funding a brand-new hub on the Savannah River called Jasper Ocean terminal.
“If they can’t get that project done, then I think Jacksonville has more of an opportunity,” he said.
But in the coming years, he said, Savannah’s port will keep growing because the Georgia Ports Authority successfully brought huge distribution centers for businesses such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot and IKEA to the area near the port. He said that makes Savannah the port of choice for shippers.
“They’ve been laying the groundwork for a long time to continue that growth,” he said.
Savannah’s cargo business has grown from almost 3 million units in its 2012 fiscal year to 3.6 million units in 2016, a gain of about 21 percent.
JaxPort hasn’t grown as fast in its overall cargo container business. The port authority’s numbers went from about 900,000 cargo container units in 2012 to to 968,000 units in the 2016 fiscal year, a boost of roughly 8 percent.
But the portion of JaxPort’s business that comes from Asian shipping lanes has grown much faster than the overall rate. In 2016, for instance, the Asian container trade accounted for about 337,000 of the cargo container units, which was a 19 percent increase in Asian trade going through Jacksonville.
For Savannah’s growth, Lynch credited larger ships carrying heavier loads arriving via the Panama Canal, which completed a major expansion last summer. Increases in both imports and exports indicate a healthier economy is also fueling growth, Lynch said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: jacksonville.com
