August cargo rises at Georgia ports

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Sep 2008

Georgia’s ports increased the amount of cargo handled by 4.4 percent in August, the Georgia Ports Authority said Monday. GPA ports handled more than 2.2 million tons of cargo for all terminals last month -- 94,765 tons of cargo more than in August 2007. The ports are proving that even in a challenging economy there are opportunities, said GPA Executive Director Doug J. Marchand, in a news release. In this

case, the additional tonnage has everything to do with Georgia’s abundance of available exports.
At Monday’s GPA meeting, the GPA board approved $21.9 million to buy 11 new rubber-tired gantry container cranes and $2.5 million for new refrigerated container storage in Savannah. For Brunswick, GPA approved $2.2 million to build 6,000 linear feet of additional storage track to support the increased volumes of cars and grain arriving in unit train shipments.
Georgia’s deepwater ports and inland barge terminals contribute $14.9 billion in income, $55.8 billion in revenue and $2.8 billion in state and local taxes to the states economy.

Source: Portfolio