Port of Savannah leads recovery pack, dredging becomes vital

US PORT recovery is in "full bloom" with the Port of Savannah leading the pack with first quarter results the best on record after the worst recession in container shipping since 1956, said Georgia Ports Authority executive director Curtis Foltz.

Despite its 9.9 per cent dip in volume GPA is forecasting robust results in the remaining three quarters up by at least 10 per cent, reported the Savannah Morning News.

With ports and global cargo predicted to grow by five per cent from three per cent Mr Foltz predicts capacity will be managed as it is already, with idling of capacity to leverage rates. "Rates won't be back to where they were, but they will be moving in the right direction," he told an industry panel recently in Atlanta.

General port optimism was backed up by National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates release of its Global Port Tracker report which predicts an eight per cent growth in April across major retail container ports.

Retailers are cautiously building up lean inventories, said NRF vice president Jonathan Gold. "We expect these numbers to continue to climb as merchants and their customers move away from the recession and back toward normal shopping habits."

Bill Ralph, maritime economist and former publisher of Newark's Journal of Commerce, said the driver of growth will be the opening of the expanded Panama Canal in 2014 which will see emerging competition between east coast and west coast ports for Asia trade.

Mr Ralph cited a 2008 report from London's Drewry Shipping consultants who hinted at a future snapshot after the Panama Canal's expansion of west coast ports "at 80 to 85 per cent capacity through the end of this decade". He concedes this may be realised but with less of a long-term decline than a import cargo base drops of 25 per cent to the east.

Much relies on the development of a deep water port at Savannah and "dredging is a critical component, as is efficient terminal productivity and new development," he said, alongside its savvy leadership which has seen it work with cargo owners and update its infrastructure.

"Once Savannah gets its deeper water, this port will have everything it needs to come booming out of the recession," he said of Georgia Ports' plan to reach a capacity of 6.5 million TEU by 2018 in line with the Department of Transportation's forecast of global container traffic doubling by 2020.

Source: www.schednet.com