Georgia's Port of Savannah Heavily Exposed to China's Coronavirus Downturn

   By Costas Paris

Georgia's Port of Savannah is among the most heavily exposed U.S. gateways to the downturn in China's output under the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report by Standard & Poor's.

The port, the fourth-largest American gateway for containerized ocean goods, counts on China for more than 40% of its shipping volumes, behind only the U.S. West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in cargo traffic, the report released Thursday said.

Inbound volumes at the port were down 8.2% in January from a year ago, a decline that came before the coronavirus outbreak and travel restrictions in China pulled back the country's industrial output. Savannah saw cargo moved by some of the world's biggest liners like Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S plummet 36% in January.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said this week that volumes there were expected to fall 25% in February from the same month a year as carriers eliminate trans-Pacific sailings because of weak demand out of China.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 27, 2020 11:23 ET (16:23 GMT)

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