U.S. Ports Experience a Tide of Change

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

November 2, 2020

Georgia Ports Authority proposes inland port box expansion

(FreightWaves) The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) plans to add 22% more container storage capacity at its inland distribution terminal in the northwest Georgia town of Chatsworth as it gears up for an expected increase in export traffic from Chatsworth to the docks at Savannah, GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch said Friday.

In an interview with FreightWaves on Friday, Lynch said the proposed $450,000 initiative, which will be voted on by the GPA board at its November meeting, will add 13 stacks of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers to the Appalachian Regional Port’s (ARP) 60 stacks of boxes currently in inventory. The objective is to ensure that companies using the ARP to ship goods by rail from Chatsworth to Savannah have the box capacity to do so, he said.

To Read More: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/georgia-ports-authority-proposes-inland-port-box-expansion

South Carolina Ports on brink of ‘truly historic’ 2021

Jim Newsome, president and chief executive officer of the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA), delivered his 12th State of the Port address virtually Wednesday.

“Usually I have the privilege of speaking to 800 well-attired leaders of the maritime community,” Newsome said, noting that although the annual in-person gathering was moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic, “this is a message of great optimism about our future.”

And Newsome didn’t dwell on the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic derailed what most certainly would have been a record year for the SCPA. “We should not be deterred by the pandemic. We were on a record pace, the pandemic happened, we worked seamlessly through it,” he said.

To Read More: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/south-carolina-ports-on-brink-of-truly-historic-2021

After navigating bumpy ride, Charleston port ready to tackle full agenda

As consumer spending continues to improve despite upticks in coronavirus cases around the country, the State Ports Authority plans to increase its focus on attracting both online and traditional retail shippers during the coming year to boost the amount of cargo flowing through the Port of Charleston.

Jim Newsome is president and CEO of the S.C. State Ports Authority

“What we are seeing is that when people don’t get to go out to restaurants and theaters and football games and things like that, they stay home and buy goods,” Jim Newsome, the maritime agency’s CEO, said Wednesday during his annual State of the Port address to the Charleston Propeller Club.

“That’s benefiting our (cargo) flows, and we hope that will continue,” Newsome said. “All signals are that the major omnichannel retailers will continue to grow, and we should be a beneficiary of that.”

The increased focused on retail cargo — while also maintaining a manufacturing customer base that helped the port double its business over the past decade — was one of several initiatives Newsome outlined in his annual speech outlining recent accomplishments and future goals.

To Read More: https://www.postandcourier.com/business/after-navigating-bumpy-ride-charleston-port-ready-to-tackle-full-agenda/article_b3faa93e-1936-11eb-b84e-931920a9cc68.html