Savannah port adds four ship-to-shore cranes to speed cargo operations

A heavy lift cargo ship delivered four Super Post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes to the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal. The BigLift Barentsz, which measures 519 feet, carried the cranes up the Savannah River on Thursday afternoon. The unusual looking vessel passed River Street and under the Talmadge Bridge around 5:45 p.m.

Credit: ccompton@ajc.com

Credit: ccompton@ajc.com

The cranes are the “workhorses of container port operations,” according to a GPA official. The four delivered Thursday will replace older equipment in Savannah’s 34-crane fleet, which allows dockworkers at the Garden City and Ocean terminals to service up to 10 ships at a time.

GPA purchased the cranes in January 2021 from Konecranes, a Finnish company with manufacturing facilities in China. The crane upgrades are part of a $1.9 billion infrastructure improvement plan.

“No other terminal in the nation can bring more cranes to bear, or match the efficiency, productivity and global connectivity of the Port of Savannah,” said Griff Lynch, Georgia Ports Authority president and CEO.

The Port of Savannah handles 11.2% of all container traffic in the U.S. Only the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey move more cargo.