Last fall Cordele’s Inland Port began shipping containers via train to the Port of Savannah. By this summer they expect business to triple to around 600 containers a week.

The inland port saves businesses money by shipping export goods to the Port of Savannah via train rather than truck. Rail service costs about half as much because trucks use diesel fuel.

Bruce Drennan with the Cordele-Crisp Development Council says right now most of the shipments are commodities, but three manufacturers are considering putting warehouses there potentially creating 1,200 jobs.

“It’s primarily cotton and kaolin clay of all things which is coming out of Sumter County and that’s all going overseas. We’re starting to ship pecans; most of those are going to China.”

Drennan says a similar facility in Virginia has been operating 20 years, creating 25,000 jobs.

Tags: georgia business, Bruce Drennan, Josephine Bennett, Cordele Inland Port