BRUNSWICK — Georgia's ports chief says $14.7 million in improvements at the state's shipping terminals in Brunswick are paying off in higher cargo volumes.

Curtis Foltz, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, says dock renovations, deeper berths, new roads and rail loading areas at two Brunswick terminals allowed the port to take advantage of rising demand for shipments of heavy machinery and exports of biomass fuels.

Foltz said Thursday in his State of the Port speech in Brunswick that its Colonel's Island terminal handled more than 553,000 automobiles and units of heavy machinery in the past fiscal year, for growth of 19 percent over fiscal 2011.

In the same period, biomass fuel shipments helped Brunswick's East River Terminal increase its tonnage by 14 percent to more than 663,000 tons.