Outer Harbor Dredging Complete at Savannah

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed outer harbor dredging at the Port of Savannah, marking the midpoint of the Savannah Harbor expansion project. The first half of the project deepened the outer harbor to 49 feet at low tide 56 feet at high tide. The inner harbor channel will be expanded from its current low-tide depth, 42 feet, to 47 feet 54 feet at high tide.

The Port of Savannah is already the second busiest port in the nation for exports. Georgia is currently investing $1 billion per year in transportation projects to widen interstates, add truck-only lanes and improve trucking routes between ports and interstates so that cargo may move across our state and the Southeast faster, without adding to traffic congestion. 

The project received $49 million in President Donald Trump's FY 2018 budget request to Congress. Georgia's congressional delegation is working to increase funding to $100 million per year, the amount needed to complete the project in a timely manner.

A study by the Corps of Engineers estimates that once the project is complete, the deepening of the harbor will result in a net benefit of $282 million in transportation savings for shippers and consumers per year. According to the Corps' benefit-to-cost ratio, each dollar spent on construction will yield $7.30 in net benefits to the nation's economy.

"From a business perspective, any time you can find an opportunity where every dollar delivers that kind of return, it's an investment worth making," said Georgia Ports ity G Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "That's a massive benefit for taxpayers, unmatched by any other maritime infrastructure project in the country."

Over the next 10 years, G will invest approximately $2 billion in new cranes and terminal infrastructure to handle expanding cargo volumes.

"In Georgia, we're making the investments necessary to support U.S. producers well into the future," said G Executive Director Griff Lynch. "Similarly, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is crucial to keep U.S.-made products competitive globally, because the heavier goods require deeper draft to take advantage of cost savings from Neo-Panamax vessels."

Deepening the harbor will allow Neo-Panamax vessels to take on heavier loads and transit the Savannah River with greater scheduling flexibility. Larger vessels also burn less fuel than multiple smaller ships, allowing for additional cost savings by using larger vessels. By reducing transportation expenses for American producers, the larger, more efficient ships reduce the cost of delivering goods to foreign markets.

Impact of Georgia's ports

Business conducted via Georgia's ports generates $4.5 billion in federal taxes annually, according to an economic impact study conducted by the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. The Port of Savannah is the fastest-growing container port in the U.S. and the fourth busiest, behind only Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York-New Jersey.

The statewide economic impact of Georgia's deepwater ports includes:

•   84.1 billion in sales 9.6 percent of Georgia's total sales•   $33.2 billion in state gross domestic product 7.2 percent of Georgia's total GDP•   $20.4 billion in income 5.3 percent of Georgia's total personal income•   370,000 full-time and part-time jobs 8.4 percent of Georgia's total employment•   $4.5 billion in federal taxes•   $1.3 billion in state taxes•   $1 billion in local taxes.

NRF Warns New Tariffs Will Threaten Import Growth and Jobs at Container Ports

The producers of the Global Port Tracker–the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates–said Friday that a potential trade war will threaten cargo imports, jobs and the infrastructure at the nation’s major container ports.

Imports at the nations’ major retail container ports are expected to dip slightly this month, though as a result of annual factory shutdowns in Asia for Lunar New Year, not the new tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed this week by President Trump.

However, NRF and Hackett warned that those metal tariffs, as well as others, could eventually have an impact on the ports.

“With steel and aluminum tariffs already in place, new tariffs on goods from China being threatened and the ongoing threat of NAFTA withdrawal, we could very quickly have a trade war on our hands,” Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs, said. “The immediate impact would be higher prices for American consumers that would throw away the gains of tax reform and put a roadblock in front of economic growth. But in the long term we could see a loss in cargo volume and all the jobs that depend on it, from dockworkers on down through the supply chain.”

On Thursday, Trump ordered a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum entering the country, claiming they were hurting those domestic sectors due to “unfair” pricing and trade policies by key foreign suppliers. The European Union has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on items like Levi’s jeans in response to the metal tariffs.

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Canada and Mexico are reportedly exempt from the new tariffs, pending talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. On Friday, there were also reports that South Korea sought and was granted an exemption from the tariffs, possibly over its role in brokering talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

The seventh round of NAFTA renegotiation talks just concluded and only minimal progress has been reported. But tensions are high when it comes to trade with the U.S.

“A potential trade war would have a negative impact on cargo growth to the detriment of both the consumer and U.S. industry,” Ben Hackett, founder of consultancy Hackett Associates, said. “The likelihood of an increase in exports evaporates as well, killing off any chance for an improvement in the balance of trade.”

Meanwhile, ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.73 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units in January, up 0.2% from December and 1.8% from a year ago. A TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent.

February cargo imports were estimated at 1.66 million TEU, a 13.7% increase year-over-year. March is forecast at 1.53 million TEU, down 1.8% from last year and April at 1.7 million TEU, increasing 4.7 percent. Looking further ahead, May cargo imports are estimated to rise 2.5% to 1.79 million TEU, June shipments are forecast to ne up 4.7% to 1.8 million TEU and July is expected to see a 4 percent gain to 1.88 million TEU.

The February and March numbers are skewed by changes in the calendar for when Lunar New Year falls each year and Asian factories close for periods ranging from a week to a month.

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The first half of 2018 is expected to total 10.2 million TEU, an increase of 4.1% over the first half of 2017.

Global Port Tracker covers the U.S. ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach and Oakland, Calif.; and Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., on the West Coast; New York-New Jersey; Port of Virginia; Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Port Everglades, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla., on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast.

Port of Virginia starts new truck-appointment system at Norfolk International Terminals

So how’d the first day at NIT go? From the port’s perspective, pretty well. It cited metrics showing that the time it took for trucks to enter and leave the terminal within that 5 to 7 a.m. window ranged from roughly 20 to 22 minutes.

Truckers and those who represent them, however, were less enthusiastic.

“The trucking community has a lot of concerns,” said Marilynn Ryan, president of the Tidewater Motor Truck Association, whose members oversee hundreds of trucks that together move a couple thousand boxes to and from port terminals daily. “We asked a lot of questions we never got answers to.”

The biggest question the port’s truck community had was how many trucks the new system would be able to handle per hour, Ryan said.

The second was whether there would be issues getting appointments.

“We were assured there would be plenty of appointments to go around,” Ryan added.

Truckers, however, found that in trying to make appointments, the port ran out pretty quickly, she said, adding, “No one has actually told us how many appointments they accepted; they’re not being transparent with those figures.”

Because of electronic monitoring devices that truckers are now required to use, the time it takes to enter and leave NIT or any other terminal at the port can be determined with some certainty.

Ryan disputed the port’s claim that truckers calling at NIT early Thursday morning were able to get in and out of the terminal in 22 minutes or less. It was more like an hour to an hour and a half, she said.

Portwide, including the facilities at Virginia International Gateway, Portsmouth Marine Terminal and the Pinners Point Container Yard, congestion that morning was so severe that “turn times” – the time it takes for a truck to enter and leave a terminal – ranged from two to seven hours, Ryan noted.

George Berry, a local trucker and director of For Truckers By Truckers, an advocacy group, said there were no backups early Thursday at NIT and that the rollout of the new system was well organized.

“I think everybody is cautiously optimistic at this moment,” he said, though he also questioned the port’s claim of 20- to 22-minute turn times on the first day of the program.

It’s “not anything to celebrate to me” because there’s no way of comparing the number of trucks handled in that first two-hour block of the new program versus the number handled in that time period previously, he noted.

“We don’t have all the data yet,” he said.

Roman Hartmann, a trucker who has hauled containers at the port since 1976, said the new system creates problems for him because his is often among the first trucks waiting when NIT opens.

He can only make an appointment through his company’s dispatcher, who is not available when he picks up a container load in Richmond, usually at about 2:30 in the morning.

“There needs to be a non-appointment gate for people like me,” Hartmann said. “The appointment system works good, but not for everybody.”

Charles Glover is vice president of Suffolk-based GTL Transport, which manages about 60 truckers who call on the port.

“It definitely is too soon to tell how it is going to affect the most significant issue facing motor carriers in this region, which is port congestion,” he said.

The new system is one piece of a multi-faceted approach to deal with the issue, though it’s a major component, he added.

Glover, however, also questioned the roughly 22-minute average turn time the port claimed for the program’s first day. His company’s truckers, citing data from devices they have to carry, said the time to enter and leave NIT early that morning was about three times that long.

“Ours were all an hour plus,” Glover said.

Jay Stecher, a port spokesman, said late Friday in an email he’d rather wait to comment on the situation.

“I’d prefer to speak next week after we’ve had the reservation system up and running for a week and can provide a more comprehensive look at our performance,” he wrote. “Day one was a positive start.”

The high winds that moved through the region on Friday forced the port to stop operations from time to time for safety’s sake, he added.