ATLANTA – Businesses front-loading orders to avoid looming tariffs are continuing to drive containerized cargo traffic at the Port of Savannah.
The port handled 515,500 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) last month, up 17% from April of last year and the third monthly record in a row, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
“Our operations remain business-as-usual,” authority President and CEO Griff Lynch said.
Officials at the ports authority feared the worst back in February when President Donald Trump slapped across-the-board tariffs on imports from countries across the globe, kicking off a trade war, including a 145% tariff on China. However, Trump backed away from that high tariff earlier this month and reduced it to 30% while pausing tariffs elsewhere for three months.
“With the latest news on tariffs, we’re optimistic the situation will settle down and cargo will continue to flow through Savannah and Brunswick,” Lynch said. “We’re already seeing an uptick in business for the months ahead.”
However, last month’s numbers at the Port of Brunswick were not so encouraging. The nearly 63,000 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo Brunswick handled in April was down 22% from the same month last year.
That monthly decline occurred after Brunswick had posted an 18% increase in RoRo units in March, the result of many auto and heavy equipment manufacturers rushing orders in anticipation of the tariffs.
At the monthly meeting of the authority board, Lynch announced that a new $44.5 million U.S. Customs inspection warehouse will come online in July at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, more than doubling the previous space to 300,000 square feet. Lynch said the on-terminal site will save customers time and money because containers won’t have to be moved off-port for inspection.
The board also approved construction of a fourth berth for RoRo units at the Port of Brunswick’s Colonel Island Terminal. Work on the $99.8 million project is due to begin by the middle of this year, with completion set for 2027.