SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday that April was its busiest month ever for automobile shipments as the Port of Brunswick took in thousands of additional car and truck imports that needed rerouting from Baltimore in the aftermath of its deadly bridge collapse.
The second-busiest U.S. port for autos, Brunswick moved more than 80,000 vehicles and heavy machinery units across its docks last month, a whopping 44% increase compared with April 2023.
The surge included 9,000 automobile imports and 1,000 pieces of heavy machinery that were diverted from the Port of Baltimore, the nation’s top auto port. Baltimore has been closed to most ships since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed March 26, killing six people, after a container ship crashed into one of its columns.
This is paying off for businesses near the port like the Brunswick Landing Marina.
“Well we don’t mind it because we’re a marina. So traffic for us is a good thing. [It] should offer more jobs if you ask me,” Dan Strickland of the Brunswick Landing Marina said.
The Brunswick port, located 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah, had plenty of room to absorb the additional autos, said Griff Lynch, CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority.
The agency’s board is investing $262 million in upgrades and expansions to boost Brunswick’s capacity. Completed projects include 80 acres (32 hectares) of additional outdoor storage and 450,000 square feet (41,800 square meters) of new warehouse space.
“We’ve expanded so much in Brunswick, I would say that it did not stretch us,” Lynch said. “We’ve got a tremendous amount of capacity down there.”
It wasn’t just the Baltimore shutdown that drove additional autos to Georgia. The Brunswick port had its second-busiest month on record for autos and heavy machinery in March, which had mostly passed before the bridge collapse.
“The bigger trend we’re seeing is the Sunbelt and the Southeast region is strong and we see that in our auto market and also our container business coming from Savannah so it speaks to the U.S. consumer and the demand we’re seeing in the region,” Tom Boyd, Chief Communications Officer of the Georgia Port Authority said.
Auto shipments to Georgia have been booming since last year, when U.S. auto sales saw their biggest increase in a decade. That led to the Port of Brunswick handling a record 775,000 automobiles and heavy machinery units in calendar year 2023.
This growth comes at a good time after the Golden Ray overturned and crippled the port in 2019.
“Brunswick had just the opposite experience with the auto carrier tipping over. All the business from here had to go somewhere else,” Brunswick resident Mark Boetticher said.
Lynch said he expects the 2024 fiscal year that ends June 30 to be even stronger, exceeding 800,000 auto and machinery units.
The impact of the Baltimore shutdown should be over by then. The damaged ship Dali was refloated and escorted back to port by tugboats Monday. A controlled demolition earlier this month broke down the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge. Baltimore’s port director says the shipping channel will be cleared to its full 700-foot (213-meter) width sometime in June.
“The Baltimore thing will now subside,” Lynch said of Georgia’s auto import influx from the shutdown to the north. “I would think in the next couple of weeks, we’re done.”
The Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce said the Port of Brunswick is having huge growth and is the second-fastest growing roll-on, roll-off port in the country.
The Georgia Ports Authority said the Port of Baltimore is back open and taking in cargo. It still expects the Brunswick port to grow like it was before the tragedy in Baltimore.