Recently expanded warehouse space at the Port of Brunswick has gone into service with the first rubber shipment to Mayor’s Point Terminal.

One of three terminals at the Port of Brunswick, the breakbulk operation at Mayor’s Point also facilitates the export of Georgia’s valuable forest products. The other Brunswick terminals include East River, which handles bulk cargo such as minerals and wood pellets, and Colonel’s Island, which handles autos and machinery.

The Wallenius Wilhelmsen vessel Titania made its first call at Mayor’s Point to deliver 2,520 crates of natural rubber on Oct. 9.

The Roll-on/Roll-off vessel previously made its rubber deliveries to Ocean Terminal in Savannah. The Georgia Ports Authority is renovating Ocean Terminal to serve as an all-container facility, with all Ro/Ro and breakbulk trade shifting to Brunswick.

“By consolidating autos and breakbulk in Brunswick and concentrating on containers in Savannah, we’re able to streamline our operations,” said GPA Vice President of Operations Susan Gardner. “The move will allow Georgia Ports to provide better service to our customers moving either container or non-container cargo.”

The 3,800 tons of rubber were offloaded from the Titania into a new 100,000 square-foot warehouse at Mayor’s Point. The new building replaces a 50,000 square-foot structure and adds up-to-date life safety improvements and flooring upgrades to handle heavier loads.

The crates of natural rubber will move by truck to tire factories in the U.S. Southeast.

Before calling on Mayor’s Point, the Titania stopped to offload vehicles and machinery at Colonel’s Island Terminal, one of the nation’s busiest hubs for the import-export of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo.

To accommodate growing Ro/Ro volumes, GPA is developing at Colonel’s Island 640,000 square feet of new processing space, 122 acres of additional auto storage and a fourth berth to better accommodate carriers in the 7,000-vehicle class.

ABOUT SUSAN GARDNER, Vice President of Operations for the Georgia Ports Authority:

Susan Gardner is the Vice President of Operations at the Georgia Port Authority.  She joined the GPA in February of 2020 with nearly 25 years of maritime experience. In her role at the GPA, she is responsible for the GPA operations in Savannah, Brunswick and Bainbridge.  She manages a team of 1,400 people and ensures safe operations, while also being involved in the numerous redevelopment projects that the GPA is working on to expand capacity.  Prior to joining the GPA, she was the VP of Field Operations for the Americas for Navis where her team was responsible for the sale and successful implementation of all Navis projects in the Americas region.   She gained terminal operations experience and knowledge in the nearly 18 years she worked for APM Terminals with various leadership roles at several North America terminals.  She received her BS from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in NY and her MBA from Queens University in Charlotte, NC.