No "Port of Atlanta" (Columbus, Savannah: to buy, construction, wage)

[Newsboy]

1. "Lost City of Atlanta" is my favorite "Futurama" episode. "The magician?!"

2. Glad to know so many people in Atlanta are accutely aware of the situation here in Savannah.

3. My understanding is that it is indeed cheaper to ship through the Panama Canal to East Coast ports, rather than dock in LA and transport across the country via truck and train, maybe because of the difficulty crossing the Continental Divide?

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by arjay57

We should load them up with the lazy bums in this country. Maybe the Chinese can get some work out of them.

Oddly, we've been filling returning ships with chicken feet for China. It's a delicacy there. Although, China is placing tariffs on them as apparently we've been dumping chicken parts on China, parts for which we attach little value. Guess the ships might want to go to Georgia to be filled with chicken feet when returning to China.

They send us computers, iphones, and other manufactured goods, and we send them chicken feet...not good.

[testa50]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

I just wonder what is the most optimal way to transport? Get the container ship as close to its destination as possible...i.e. along the East Coast. Or dock and offload to trains as quick as you can...i.e. the West Coast. Is East Coast docking to move goods ultimately cheaper but West Coast gets your goods there faster? Or is more stuff available to carry back in your hold if you dock on the East Coast...i.e. ships hate to travel back empty or almost empty.

Well, in terms of fuel spent per mile traveled, you've got:

Ship >> Train >>>> Truck

In terms of speed:

Truck >>>> Train >> Ship

The really tricky part is that companies all know the cost for shipping on all the other modes and price accordingly. Trains don't price based on how much it actually costs them to ship the products...they price based on how much it costs to ship the products by boat. Trains know how quickly (but expensive) it will be for truckers to get something across the country, so they set up high $$$ premium services that are just a bit slower than trucks but significantly cheaper.

And then you get the fact that the ships don't just go back and forth. Many of them go all around the world: ie, Singapore, Japan, Panama, Miami, Savannah, NY/NJ, Antwerp, Hamburg, Malaga, then through the Suez and back to Asia. So they're never empty...just moving a variety of different cargoes with different priority levels and such.

Savannah's REAL advantage is efficiency. It can get the goods off of ships and onto trucks/trains very quickly. And that's one of the things shipper care about the most. In some third world countries, you need to wait like a month or longer before your unloaded goods will be available for delivery...imagine running a supply chain under those circumstances.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

They send us computers, iphones, and other manufactured goods, and we send them chicken feet...not good.

Yep. I heard the CEO of one of the big chicken companies say that this was now the biggest part of the poultry industry. According to him, without the chicken feet exports, most U.S. poultry companies couldn't stay in business.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Yep. I heard the CEO of one of the big chicken companies say that this was now the biggest part of the poultry industry. According to him, without the chicken feet exports, most U.S. poultry companies couldn't stay in business.

I guess the good news is then...we eat inexpensive chicken!

[Newsboy]

Another HUGE Georgia export is pulp wood products, particularly pine pellets that are used as power plant fuel in many foreign countries (yes ... very sooty!). Also, Georgia is the largest manufacturer and exporter of CHOPSTICKS in the world. Something makes me think they're made out of pecan wood?

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Another HUGE Georgia export is pulp wood products, particularly pine pellets that are used as power plant fuel in many foreign countries (yes ... very sooty!). Also, Georgia is the largest manufacturer and exporter of CHOPSTICKS in the world. Something makes me think they're made out of pecan wood?

Our exports are more like that of a third world country. Chicken parts, wood pellets, and chopsticks.

[AnsleyPark]

Don't forget Kia! Surely there's some other stuff (professional services?) we export. Air travel services? Coca-Cola?

[Galounger]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Our exports are more like that of a third world country. Chicken parts, wood pellets, and chopsticks.

Don't forget Clay. We export tons of that. That's why I'm always going off about the demise of manufacturing in America. This is what the result is, clay, chicken feet, lumber, going out. Cars, computers, clothes, tv sets, etc. coming in.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Don't forget Kia! Surely there's some other stuff (professional services?) we export. Air travel services? Coca-Cola?

But so much of what the Port of Savannah is about is imports. I imagine we import a lot of the parts to assemble Kias for domestic consumption. We manage Coke production in other countries. We don't make it here and export it.