SAVANNAH – About 1,700 people from across Georgia attended the Georgia Ports Authority’s 2026 State of the Port Address on Wednesday, listening in as GPA leaders talked record growth and plans for expansion.
For 25 years, the Port of Savannah has been the fastest growing in the U.S. and both Griff Lynch, GPA’s CEO, and Kevin Price, GPA’s president and future CEO, said the GPA team will continue that momentum.
“Georgia Ports port is working hard for our customers,” Lynch, who will retire in August 2027, said. “We're going to continue to expand as needed. We're going to continue investing in the community as well. To be announcing that we're opening a 3.5 million TEU facility, that's not happening anywhere else in the United States of America. It's just truly amazing.”
The Georgia Ports Authority announced Wednesday that it received approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the $2.3-billion Savannah Container Terminal, which will add 3.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of annual capacity and accommodate the largest container ships serving the East Coast. This will bring the port’s future total capacity to 12 million TEU. Construction will begin in 2028, with completion slated for the mid-2030s.
The Port of Savannah handled 5.7 million TEUs in fiscal year 2026, representing 28% growth since fiscal year 2020.
Lynch said the authority expects to surpass 6 million TEUs this fiscal year, following a record September in which the port handled more than 500,000 TEUs in a single month.
The new terminal is part of a broader infrastructure program. A $1.6 billion modernization of Ocean Terminal is expected to increase its capacity from 200,000 TEUs to 1.75 million TEUs, with completion targeted for the end of 2028.
The authority is also advancing plans to widen and deepen the Savannah Harbor, allowing larger vessels to pass more efficiently. Georgia Ports has issued a letter of intent to the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works outlining plans for a harbor modification study, initially funded with $500,000 in the federal fiscal 2026 budget.
“We all know ships are getting bigger,” Price said. “If we're not prepared, we'll be left behind. The previous widening and deepening operation took too long and was obsolete before we finished.”
Other projects include improvements to the Talmadge Bridge, expanded freight corridors in partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation and development of the Gainesville Inland Port.
What does this mean for greater southeast Georgia?
Elected officials and economic leaders from across the state and southeast region sat in the crowd, including state House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington). Burns emphasized the Port’s footprint across the state, creating and supporting more than 600,000 jobs.
“Right here in coastal Georgia, the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick are driving economic growth, creating good-paying jobs, and expanding opportunities for hard-working Georgians all across our state,” he said.
Burns called upon port and economic leaders to come together to support longstanding industries, including timber and agriculture.
“Industries that have been the backbone of Georgia’s economy for generations are facing unprecedented challenges,” he said. “I believe we have the obligation to work together to help these industries to adapt and remain for the next generation of hardworking Georgians.”
Price shared that Gainesville Inland Port, which opened in May, has helped to create new outlets for the timber industry, which has suffered after the closure of paper mills throughout the region.
Lynch said the growth of the Port of Savannah will continue to spread across the region, pointing to the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America and its related industries, which have critical logistics, import and export partnerships with the Port.
“That major automotive facility has created economic development for all of those counties,” Lynch said. “To the extent that the Georgia Department of Economic Development can bring in others like that, you’re going to see continued growth. Growth is going to spread south on 95 to Hutchinson Island and also out onto 16.”
“Growing responsibly and making sure that we bring those counties along with us is very important,” Price said.
Lucille Lannigan is a Growth and Development reporter with Morris Multimedia.