PORT OF SAVANNAH INCREASING REEFER CONTAINER CAPACITY
The Georgia Ports Authority is increasing chilled cargo capacity at the Port of Savannah to stay ahead of anticipated growth in demand for reefer container volumes. Private chilled and frozen warehouse space in Savannah is set to grow by 1% in 2023 to more than 2.2 million square feet. Chilled and frozen products handled at the Port of Savannah range from proteins such as poultry and seafood to blueberries, avocados, citrus, stone fruits and onions, among other commodities. GPA’s fastest growing cold chain exports in 2022 were poultry, beef, fish fillets, candy and frozen vegetables. Top performing chilled imports were grapes, vegetables, fish fillets, potatoes and candy. The Port of Savannah is coming off its busiest year on record in 2022, handling 5.9 million TEUs for a 5% increase over 2021. The Port of Savannah last year benefitted from an acceleration of an eastward shift of cargo volumes that has been taking since the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016.
PORT OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY CLOSES OUT RECORD YEAR BUT FALLS SHORT OF ‘BUSIEST U.S. PORT’ TITLE
The Port of New York and New Jersey closed out 2022 handling a record 9.5 million TEUs—smashing its previous record set a year earlier in 2021. The TEU volume (9,493,664 to be exact) ranks it as the United States’ second busiest container port behind the Port of Los Angeles’ 9.9 million TEUs and ahead of the Port of Long Beach’s 9.13 million TEUs in 2022. Both Los Angeles and Long Beach experienced their second-busiest years on record last year behind 2021. The Port of New York and New Jersey’s 9.5 million TEUs makes for a 27% jump from pre-pandemic 2019 annual totals, highlighting its explosive growth this past year as inbound volumes shifted eastward throughout the course of last year. Year over year, 2022 came in 5.7% ahead of 2021 and marked the first time the East Coast’s busiest port cracked the 9 million TEU mark. New York/New Jersey’s December imports came in at 303,596 TEUs, down 22.6% compared to the same month in 2021 and below the Port of Los Angeles’ 352,046 imported TEUs for the month. Looking at full year imports, the New York/New Jersey placed second again with 4.8 million TEUs compared to Los Angeles’ 4.9 million TEUs.d
NORFOLK SOUTHERN ADDS TO SOUTHEAST INTERMODAL CAPACITY WITH NEW CRANES
Norfolk Southern’s Plans to bring more capacity to its international intermodal business this year has kicked off with new cranes enabling the stacking of marine containers at its Austell ramp in Georgia
LONG BEACH PORT CHIEF EXPECTS TO WIN BACK SOME LOST CARGO
The Port of Long Beach recorded its second-busiest year, despite a sharp drop in the second half as consumer demand eased and the hub lost business to competing ports on the East and Gulf coasts. Additionally, West Coast dockworkers have been locked in contract negotiations with shipping companies after their contract expired in July, creating uncertainty among shippers who are worried about potential delays resulting from lockouts or slowdowns. We do expect to get some of that back,” Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero the pandemic backlog has cleared and so will the perception by shippers that there are still issues at the port Cordero said. “We have had no vessel backups here since November of 2022. So, we’re back to normal and ready.
