A Georgia seaport is closing the gap with Baltimore, the top US auto port
The Georgia Ports Authority says it moved a record number of automobiles across its docks in the 2024 fiscal year, bringing it neck-and-neck with the top U.S. auto port
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The executive overseeing Georgia's seaports said Tuesday that a record 830,000 automobiles moved through the Port of Brunswick south of Savannah in the 2024 fiscal year, bringing it neck-and-neck with the top U.S. auto port.
The combined number of auto and heavy machinery units handled by Brunswick and the Port of Savannah topped 876,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, the Georgia Ports Authority reported. That's an increase of 21% over the same period a year ago.
Ports authority CEO Griff Lynch called it “a great year for us.”
The number of cars and light trucks being shipped through the Port of Brunswick has snowballed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As U.S. auto sales in 2023 saw their biggest increase in a decade, Georgia was investing $262 million in upgrades and expansions in Brunswick to make room for growth. Lynch said those projects are almost complete and should be finished by fall.
Lynch predicted last October that automobile volumes in Brunswick by 2026 would surpass the Port of Baltimore, the No. 1 U.S. seaport for autos for more than a decade.
The new cargo numbers from Georgia indicate that Brunswick is already extremely close. Port officials in Maryland reported that Baltimore handled 847,000 auto imports and exports in the 2023 calendar year.
Baltimore's shipping channel shut down completely for weeks following the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, then reopened in phases before the waterway was fully cleared in June.
Total automobile volumes for the Port of Baltimore over the past
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