Value Proposition Key
“When we look forward at where the growth is coming from, Savannah is a very similar story to what it was 40 or 50 years ago,” Lynch said. “If you just look at the recent history with containers, the ports that can provide the lowest cost and best value proposition are going to have the greatest chance of success.
“Our goal is to stay focused on that,” he added, “and our value proposition will remain that we want to continue to develop a balanced market. We’ll see the export mix evolve. We have the Georgia base, with the clay and forest products, but now we’re starting to introduce the pellets and the resins.
“Several million square feet of resin business will start moving through our ports this coming year and the year following,” Lynch said, pointing to separate recent agreements with A&R Logistics and Plastic Express. “Even five, six, seven years ago, no one would have anticipated this business coming through Georgia or the Southeast.”
Lynch said another area of focus will be workforce development, commenting, “We’re going to continue to grow the workforce that we hire directly from the local high schools and the regional schools to develop talent. We want to give the local people in Savannah a strong future where their home is.”
The GPA, he said, also is committed to transparency in providing full visibility of cargo movements, including before and long after shipments are on port terminals, with technology to bring about greater cargo transparency being rolled out this year.
In addition, the GPA is concentrating on handling increasing e-commerce activity, Lynch said, adding, “It’s no secret for any port operator that the folks who can handle e-commerce the best are going to give themselves the greatest chance for success, at least in the near future.”
Lynch said e-commerce now represents between 12 percent and 15 percent of retail sales, not counting gasoline, but that share is anticipated to grow to more than 20 percent by 2025.
“How do we ensure that we are the preferred port for e-commerce moving forward?” he asked rhetorically.
