b'8American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comPort of Savannah gains national market shareRecords second busiest February everInthelatestinformationimportmarketrosenearly fromlogisticsdataproviderthree-quartersofapointto PIERS,theGeorgiaPorts11.1 percent for the fiscal year Authority now handles one outto date through December.ofevery8.8loadedtwenty- GPAisreportingFeb-foot equivalent container unitsruarycontainertradeatthe in the U.S., its highest nationalPortofSavannahofnearly market share ever. 395,000TEUs.Lastmonth ThePortofSavannahwasitssecondbusiestFeb-moved11.4percentoftheruaryever,after2022when nationsloadedinternationalGPAmoved460,400TEUs. containers for Fiscal Year 2023Inflation, rising interest rates through December, with moreand high warehouse invento-than2millionTEUs.GPAsriesareimportantfactorsin shareoftheU.S.containerthe container trade dip, port trade constituted an increase ofofficialssaid.Comparedto 0.7 percent, equating to nearlypre-pandemicnumbersin 120,000TEUsmorethanitFebruary2020,lastmonths Truck traffic along Berth 1 at the Port of Savannahs Garden City Terminal.would have moved at its previ- performance was an increase ous market share. of 30,400 TEUs.(BOOMINGcontinuedOnce this new space comesand the overall cost of doingOurglobaleconomyisFor the fiscal year to date from page 4) online, well be able to bumpbusiness in Georgia comparedfacing headwinds, but Geor- throughFebruary,GPAhas showing a 3% growth rate inthat number up a bit. to New York and California. giasdeepwaterportscon- handled 3.8 million TEUs.loaded imported refrigeratedThere are 22 spec buildingsE-commercegrowthistinuetodeliverdependableAt the Port of Brunswick, containers in 2022. In 2020,underconstruction,amount- one, but not the only, factorperformance to keep businesstradeinautosandheavy the port became number oneing to 11.6 million square feet,drivingSavannahsgrowth,thriving,saidGPAExecu- machineryincreased18.5 inthenationfortheexportaccording to Colliers Interna- according to Lynch. The modeltive Director Griff Lynch.percent in February, or 8,227 ofcontainerizedagriculturaltional.WorkhasstartedonhaschangedasaresultofGeorgiaPortsboostedunits to 52,720 units of Roll-goods,drivenbylocallyanother22specbuildings,COVID, he explained. FolksitsportionofU.S.containeron/Roll-off cargo.sourcedcommoditiessuchwhich would deliver anothermaywanttopositionmoreexportsto12.3percentoverVolume and market share aspoultry,peanuts,pecans,14.5millionsquarefeet.inventory where they had beentheperiodspanningJulytrendsshowthatdespitea and blueberries, and remainsSeven additional spec build- shaving a little close. through December 2022upslowing economy, Georgia is inthatposition,accord- ings have also been proposedLynchalsoseesashift0.4percentcomparedtotheoutperformingthecompeti-ingtoLynch.Topperform- whichwouldaddanotherininventorystoragefromsameperiodintheprevioustion, said GPA Board Chair-ing chilled imports included3.5millionsquarefeettotheWestCoasttotheEast.year. Savannahs share of theman Joel Wooten. grapes,vegetables,fishfil- the market should they reachOurcustomersaresaying lets, potatoes, and candy. development.Anothereighttheydontwanttoputall Exportingproteins,pri- build-to-suitprojectsaretheir eggs in one basket, he marilypoultry,hasalwaysunder way, for an additionalsaid. They want more inven-been strong for Georgia, said8.2 million square feet. toryontheEastCoastthan Lynch. Over the last severaltheyhadbefore.OneGPA years weve also been reallyi NveNtorys torages hiFt customer,saidLynch,was pushinghardtogrowourF roMW est toe ast switchingfrom70/30West imports. TheSavannahmarketisCoast to East Coast ratio to Onesourceoftemper- attractinginterestforseveralthe opposite.ature-controlledimportstoreasons,saidChrisToma- The facility opened at the Savannah recently came fromsulo,seniormanagingdirec- Port of Savannah by Lineage a French frozen-dessert com- tor in JLLs industrial servicesLogistics, the worlds largest pany that was expanding intogroupinAtlanta,includingtemperature-controlled logis-thesoutheast.Theywerethe strength of the GPA, itsticsprovider,isdesignedto goingtobesellingthroughefficiencyandscalabilityto(BOOMINGcontinued onElectric ship-to-shore cranes work the CMA CGM Unity, powered by e-commerce,relatedSandyaccommodatefuturegrowth,page 9) liquefied natural gas, at the Port of Savannahs Garden City Terminal. Lake, the logistics team direc-tor at the Georgia Center of Innovation, so, they needed aspecializedfacilitythat couldnotonlyhandlecold storage but could also handle fulfillment of orders. Wewereabletocon-nect them with a service pro-vider that could handle their specificneeds,sheadded. They were able to do the dis-tributionandthefulfillment aswellasthecoldstorage and handling of the product.The growth in cold-stor-agefacilitiesintheSavan-nah region is part of a boom intheindustrialrealestate market in the area. Savannah has 37.8 million square feet of new industrial space under construction or planned, rep-resenting an increase of over 75% since 2016. The current vacancy rate in Savannah is under 1%.Thecommercialreal-estate industry looks to have somewherebetween5%to 6%vacancyratestoabsorb newbusiness,saidLynch.'