The news: The Georgia Ports Authority won a federal permit for a $2.3 billion, 3.5 million TEU container terminal in Savannah, due in the mid-2030s.
Implications:
Space: Savannah ran at about 73% of capacity last year, so your Southeast imports have room to grow there.
Ocean Terminal: Its rebuild adds the first new room you can use, reaching its full 1.75 million TEU by the end of 2028.
DCs: Importers are already locking in DCs near the port.
The News
The US Army Corps of Engineers approved the Georgia Ports Authority’s permit for the Savannah Container Terminal, the port’s third, GPA said. The $2.3 billion terminal will sit on 350 acres of Hutchinson Island, with three berths built for the largest container ships.
The terminal adds 3.5 million TEU a year. With the rest of GPA’s building plan, including an Ocean Terminal rebuild already underway, Savannah’s capacity rises from 7.75 million TEU today to 12 million. Construction starts in January 2028, and GPA expects to finish in the mid-2030s.
Why It Matters
Savannah has room for more Southeast imports today, and the new terminal keeps it that way for another decade. The port moved 5.67 million TEU last fiscal year, about 73% of its capacity by our math, after five years of flat volume between 5.25 million and 5.76 million TEU. That means importers can shift more of their Southeast freight to Savannah without running into a full port.
Even at the 9 million TEU GPA projects for 2036, Savannah would still use only about three-quarters of the 12 million TEU it plans to have.
Zoom In
Most of Savannah’s boxes leave by truck, but GPA is building more ways to get them inland by rail. The port runs 42 double-stack trains a week alongside about 15,000 truck gate moves a day, GPA said. Rail carried 541,405 containers last fiscal year, or 17% of the port’s container trade, per GPA.
Two inland ports feed that rail. The Appalachian Regional Port in Northwest Georgia handled a record 49,319 containers last fiscal year, up 20%, and the $134 million Gainesville Inland Port, a rail-connected site serving Northeast Georgia, opened in May.
Who’s Exposed
Southeast importers: Shippers serving Atlanta, Memphis and the rest of the Southeast keep a gateway with room to spare.
Charleston shippers: SC Ports moved Leatherman Terminal’s ships to its two older Charleston terminals in August, citing higher union crane costs there, and has set no date to reopen it.
Ocean Terminal services: Ocean Terminal will take only smaller ships until the first phase of its new yard opens in mid-fall 2027, GPA said.
Peer Insights
Burlington and Home Depot have both put DC capacity next to the port.
Burlington: Opened a 2 million square foot automated DC in Ellabell, Georgia, twice the size of its previous largest DC and with more than 25 miles of conveyor, as we wrote. The site is running its first peak season this fall.
Home Depot: Bought the Savannah import DC it had leased for about 30 years, plus about 100 acres around it. The site takes in thousands of containers a year and doubles as its hurricane relief hub for stores across the South.
What’s Next
Mid-fall 2027: the first phase of Ocean Terminal’s new container yard is due.
January 2028: construction starts on the Savannah Container Terminal.
End of 2028: Ocean Terminal reaches its full 1.75 million TEU a year, up from 200,000.
Mid-2030s: the new terminal opens, taking Savannah to 12 million TEU of capacity.
Dig Deeper
The permit: GPA’s announcement.
Ocean Terminal: GPA’s progress update.
From us: why SC Ports paused Leatherman Terminal.
