Port of Savannah handled a record 504,015 TEUs in September

The Port of Savannah handled a record 504,015 TEUs in September, up 3.7% from a year earlier, as rising imports and typhoon-related delays at Asian ports pushed peak-season shipments later, according to FreightWaves on Oct. 8, citing the Georgia Ports Authority.

Loaded imports jumped 5.5% versus September 2025. Fiscal first-quarter volumes topped 1.5 million TEUs — up 40,560 units, or 2.7% — the second-best quarter in port history after fiscal 2023's first quarter, with Appalachian Regional Port volumes up 13% in the quarter. The authority's $1.6 billion Ocean Terminal renovation is more than 60% complete, raising the terminal's annual container capacity from 200,000 to 1.75 million TEUs. Georgia DOT's Brampton Road Connector, opened in July, gives a third high-volume truck corridor to Garden City Terminal's Gate 3, letting trucks skip neighborhood roads and at-grade railroad crossings. "The capital investments we've made are now paying off in service levels for our customers and fluidity for our trucking partners," GPA President Kevin Price said.

Volumes could get another lift from the Panama Canal: the authority plans to restore capacity to a maximum of 10 Neopanamax vessel transits per day on Oct. 15, bringing total daily transits to 33, with maximum draft at 49 feet as of Sept. 28. The one soft spot: the Port of Brunswick's roll-on/roll-off cargo fell 22% year over year to 43,415 units in September, though heavy machinery shipments rose nearly 12% to 3,754 units.