The CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, the largest container ship ever to serve on the east coast of the United States, recently called to the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, according to a release from the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
A total of seven cranes will now work with the 14,000+ twenty-foot equivalent container unit (TEU) vessel to remove approximately 4,500 containers. Six other vessels will work simultaneously to the Roosevelt.
“Not only do these massive ships play to Savannah’s strengths, they actually make us more efficient,” Griff Lynch, executive director of the GPA, said. “When neopanamax vessels call on the largest single container terminal in North America, it maximizes the attributes that set Savannah apart: more space, more cranes and better landside connections.”
Currently, the Garden City Terminal hosts 26 ship-to-shore cranes and more than 140 rubber-tired gantry cranes. Four additional cranes will be coming to the terminal by 2018 with another six in 2020. Over the past three months, the port has hosted 13 vessels with a capacity of more than 13,000 TEUs or greater.
According to the Port of Savannah, the next 14,000+ TEU vessel, the CMS CGM John Adams, will arrive at the port on Sept. 7.
“In Fiscal Year 2017, which ended June 30, the Port of Savannah served 69 vessels with a capacity of 10,000 TEUs or more,” GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood said. “No other port on the East Coast has served more vessels, more often with more on-terminal assets than the Garden City Terminal.”