Savannah Port Surpasses 1 Million TEUs at Fiscal Year’s Start

Savannah port moves 1 million TEUs to start fiscal year

The Port of Savannah moved more than 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units during the first two months of its fiscal year, posting a 2.2% increase from the same period a year earlier despite weather-related disruptions in Asia and low water levels affecting the Panama Canal.

Georgia Ports Authority facilities handled 1.03 million TEUs during July and August, an increase of 22,537 TEUs compared with the corresponding period of the prior year. The performance gives Savannah a strong start to the fiscal year while ocean carriers and shippers continue to manage disruptions across major global trade routes.

August accounted for 529,523 TEUs at the Port of Savannah. That was essentially flat year over year, with volume down less than 1%. The monthly total reflected continued customer demand, but typhoons in Asia and El Niño-related conditions in the Panama Canal affected the movement of cargo.

“Asia weather and Panama Canal water levels are being felt in August supply chains,” Georgia Ports Authority Chief Executive Griff Lynch said. “The customer demand is present for Savannah, however typhoons in Asia and El Niño in Panama are affecting volumes.”

Loaded exports increased 4.2% in August, rising by nearly 4,700 TEUs to 117,242. Loaded imports climbed 1.5%, or about 3,800 TEUs, to 265,859 TEUs. The figures show that both inbound and outbound freight continued to move through the port even as vessel schedules and routing options were affected by conditions overseas.

For professional drivers, the port’s early-year results also came with an improvement in truck processing. Garden City Terminal recorded average truck turn times of 43 minutes in August for dual import-export transactions. That was 6.5 minutes below the terminal’s average for the previous six months.

Nearly 80% of truck transactions at Savannah are dual moves, in which a driver handles both an import container and an export container during the same visit. The terminal processes approximately 15,000 truck gate transactions each weekday between 4 a.m. and 6 p.m.

“We’re off to a strong start, with more than a million TEUs moving through Georgia’s ports in the first two months of the fiscal year,” Georgia Ports Authority President Kevin Price said. “At the same time, we’re improving truck efficiency.”

Shorter turn times can affect how many moves a driver is able to complete during a shift, although actual performance remains dependent on appointment availability, traffic, chassis access, container readiness and conditions outside the terminal. Savannah’s high volume makes gate efficiency an important operating issue for the trucking companies and independent drivers serving the port.

Inland rail and vehicle volumes

The Appalachian Regional Port also reported a strong August. Its volume increased 10% from the same month a year earlier, while volume during the first two months of the fiscal year was more than 25% above the same period last year. The inland rail facility gives shippers another connection between the port and markets away from the coast.

At the Port of Brunswick, heavy machinery volume reached 4,726 units in August, an increase of 3,884 units, or nearly 22%, from the prior-year month. Total automobile and heavy-machinery volume at Brunswick was 60,572 units, down 3,348 units, or 5%, year over year.

Georgia Ports Authority attributed part of the decline in total vehicle volume to increased competition faced by luxury vehicle manufacturers from Chinese domestic producers, which has reduced U.S. vehicle exports to China.

Construction of a fourth berth at Brunswick’s Colonel’s Island terminal is halfway complete. The $100 million project is scheduled for completion in November 2027 and is expected to allow the port to handle vessels carrying more than 7,000 vehicles.

A major East Coast container hub

Savannah is the largest single-container terminal in the Western Hemisphere. In fiscal year 2025, the port handled 5.7 million TEUs, an 8.6% increase from the previous year. It accounted for 22.3% of East Coast container trade and handled 11.7% of all U.S. containerized exports, according to PIERS-Enterprise data.

The port’s scale makes its monthly volumes a useful indicator of activity across import distribution, retail replenishment, manufacturing and export supply chains. Savannah’s Garden City Terminal includes the largest single-terminal container facility in the United States and has nearly 10,000 linear feet of contiguous dock space.

Georgia’s deepwater ports and inland barge terminals support nearly 561,000 jobs statewide, along with $33 billion in income, $140 billion in sales and $3.8 billion in state and local tax revenue, according to figures cited by the Savannah Chamber.

With more than 1 million TEUs already moved in the first two months of the fiscal year, Savannah is maintaining its position as a critical gateway for freight moving into and out of the Southeast. The August results also show how port performance depends not only on cargo demand, but on weather, water levels, vessel schedules and the efficiency of the truck gates handling the freight on land.