By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWith more all water service coming to North America’s East Coast, ports up and down the Eastern seaboard are expanding facilities to attract and accommodate larger ships. Today Georgia’s Port of Savannah boasts the largest single container facility in all of North America. With a 1,200 acre footprint, its Garden City Terminal is capable of handling over six million teus. Officials at the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) are optimistic for continued growth. “We have a quite large footprint and a large area in which to expand,” states Robert Morris, GPA director of external affairs. Ports such as those managed by the Virginia Ports Authority (VPA) and its neighboring APM Maersk Terminal that recently came on line, could be viewed as competition, but Morris emphasizes GPA sees these ports as “excellent partners” in attracting increasing all-water service to the East Coast. “It is very critical that we have terminals on the East Coast that have capacity and the ability to handle new business,” he states. “Strings are not coming for one call only. Plus Virginia serves a different market than GPA.” In June, for example, two new all-water services came to the Port of Savannah, one via the Suez Canal and one via the Panama Canal. The Suez NWA service, the weekly Suez Express (SZX) provides increased capacity via Savannah to and from India and Southeast Asia, deploying eight vessels. APL provides five ships and Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui OSK Lines provides the other three vessels. The SZX, which originates in Singapore, calls on Colombo before Savannah then returns via Jebel Ali, Port Kelang and then Singapore. The routing takes just 25 days to transit from Singapore to Savannah. The Panama Canal NWA service, the weekly East Coast Savannah Express (EXS), provides increased capacity between South and Central China and Savannah. The ESX deploys eight vessels: one from APL, two from non-NWA partner line CMA CGM, three operated by HMM and two operated by MOL. The ESX offers a transit time of just 22 days from Hong Kong to Savannah—the fastest available to the US East Coast. ECONOMIC FORCEWithout a doubt, GPA is a major economic force for the Peach State. In fiscal year 2006, Georgia’s deepwater port was responsible for $55.8 billion in sales, $14.9 billion in income and $2.8 billion in state and local taxes, according to a study titled “The Economic Impact of Georgia’s Deepwater Ports in Georgia’s Economy in FY 2006” released by the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. “Deepwater ports are one of Georgia’s strongest economic engines, fostering the development of virtually every industry year after year,” says Jeffrey M. Humphreys, the report’s author and director of the Terry College’s Selig Center for Economic Growth. “The ports are especially supportive of other forms of transportation, manufacturing, and wholesale/distribution centers.” Between 2000 and 2005 alone, the Port of Savannah was the nation’s fastest growing port with a compounded annual growth rate of 16.5%, while the national average was 9.7%. But these figures pale in comparison to activity realized between January and September 2007 when, according to figures released by PIERS, the Port of Savannah realized a whopping 27% growth in teus. “The only port that came close was Virginia at nine percent,” says Morris. “New York/New Jersey came in at around 3.8%. We were the fastest growth port for five years running.” This is easily attributed to a number of factors coming together at the right time. First, Morris points out, activity is up by virtue of the fact the East Coast has been underserved for a long time. Add to that significant infrastructure improvements at both the Port of Savannah and Port of Brunswick and major distribution centers that have opened in the state. “Once major distribution centers opened this summer we saw a snowball effect,” Morris says. “Suddenly Savannah was a place you had to be. If you had distribution facilities on th