Shipping to Port of Savannah

Operated by the Georgia Ports Authority, the Port of Savannah is home to the largest single-terminal container facility of its kind in North America and is the fourth busiest port in the nation. The Port of Savannah handled 9.3 percent of total U.S. containerized cargo volume and 10.5 percent of all U.S. containerized exports in FY2020. The Port of Savannah is located within 300 miles of 37.2 million residents, 11 major metro areas, eight major international airports and five major ports.

The Port of Savannah’s ideal location on the Atlantic Ocean in the southeastern part of the United States puts 65 percent of the U.S. population within a two-day drive by ground, water, rail or air.

The Port of Savannah is a major U.S. seaport located at Savannah, Georgia. As of 2021, the Port of Savannah was the fourth busiest seaport in the United States. The Port of Savannah’s facilities for oceangoing vessels line both sides of the Savannah River and are approximately 18 miles (29 km) from the Atlantic Ocean. Operated by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), the Port of Savannah competes primarily with the Port of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina to the northeast, and the Port of Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida to the south. The GPA operates one other Atlantic seaport in Georgia, the Port of Brunswick. The state also manages three interior ports linked to the Gulf of Mexico: Port Bainbridge, Port Columbus, and a facility at Cordele, Georgia linked by rail to the Port of Savannah. In the 1950s, the Port of Savannah was the only facility to see an increase in trade while the country experienced a decline in trade of 5%.

The Port of Savannah’s global carrier network, superior location and faster-to-market service record provide vital links to international markets. Their owner-operated terminal offers greater flexibility, and the power to tailor our services to the needs of US-based importers.

As the size of international vessels has grown, so has the need to create a port that can capably handle them. With the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP), the Port of Savannah will conveniently accommodate the new standard of vessel growth for global shipping. The project, which was completed in 2022, deepened the Savannah Harbor from a depth of 42 feet to 47 feet and also extended the entrance channel by 7 miles and deepened the outer harbor for approximately 18.5 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. This deepening allows larger, more efficient container vessels to use the Port of Savannah with fewer weight and tidal restrictions. Inner harbor work at the Port of Savannah also included constructing three bend wideners and two meeting areas and enlarging the Kings Island Turning Basin at the Garden City Terminal.

With the completion of the Panama Canal expansion, the midwest has become the new battleground. Georgia Port Authority’s Mid-American Arc is an initiative that will focus on the growth of intermodal rail, extending the Port of Savannah’s reach to capture new markets ranging in an arc from Atlanta to Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and the Ohio Valley. The Port of Savannah International Multi-Modal Connector is a key facet. This $128 million project is designed to increase rail capacity at the Port of Savannah. It will link the Garden City Terminal’s two rail yards, improving efficiency and doubling the terminal’s rail lift capacity to approximately 1 million containers each year. It will be the largest on-port rail facility of its kind on the U.S. East Coast- all within the terminal’s current footprint. Specifically, the International Multi-Modal Connector will include:

Mason ICTF track expansion with Rail Mounted Gantry (RMG) equipment
Multi-rail connect between Mason and Chatham
SR 25 Overpass
Rail crossings over Pipemaker’s Canal
Chatham ICTF track expansion