Vietnam Now Port of Savannah’s Fastest-Growing Trade Partner

Dec. 4, 2025 – Vietnam is emerging as the Port of Savannah’s fastest-growing trade partner, propelled by increased manufacturing activity and major investments in the country’s logistics backbone.

“With its strategic location and business-friendly policies, Vietnam represents an expanding logistics market,” said Georgia Ports President and CEO Griff Lynch.

The U.S. and Vietnam recently agreed to reduce reciprocal tariffs to 20 percent on imports, with some product categories potentially moving to zero tariffs under the new framework. The change is expected to provide unprecedented access to the Vietnamese market for U.S. exports. Over the past five years, Savannah’s container trade with Vietnam has grown 38 percent, adding 104,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to reach 379,000 TEUs in fiscal year 2025.

Savannah now sees strong two-way cargo flows. Exports include forest products, food and cotton from Georgia and other states, along with U.S.-made hardware, resins and consumer goods. Imports from Vietnam include apparel, footwear, furniture, electronics and machinery. Georgia Ports currently offers nine direct ocean carrier services between Savannah and Vietnam, with a transit time of 33 days.

In November, Gemini—an operational collaboration between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd—made Savannah its first U.S. East Coast call on its TP11/US1 service, originating from the Port of Haiphong. The revised rotation is Haiphong–Ningbo–Shanghai–Lazaro Cardenas–Savannah–Charleston–New York–Singapore. Advertised transit time from Haiphong to Savannah is 39 days.

In 2024, U.S.–Vietnam trade totaled approximately $135 billion, making the United States Vietnam’s second-largest trading partner after China.

Vietnam’s role in global electronics manufacturing continues to accelerate. Samsung alone has invested more than $23 billion in its Vietnamese plants, which supply more than half of the company’s global smartphone output.

ABOUT GEORGIA PORTS

Georgia’s ports in Savannah and Brunswick are strategic gateways creating some of the most competitive supply chains in the nation through operational excellence, connectivity and a robust logistics ecosystem. Combined with Georgia’s ranking as the top state to do business for 12 consecutive years, these attributes form a uniquely strong model for continued growth.

The Port of Savannah is one of the best-connected ports in the U.S., with 35 weekly vessel calls, 42 doublestack trains per week and 14,000 daily truck gate moves.

The Port of Brunswick is the nation’s top Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) port for automotive and machinery logistics, supported by more than $262 million in recent upgrades and a new $100 million fourth berth now under construction.

GPA has a self-financed $4.5 billion, 10-year capital plan that includes five new big-ship berths in Savannah and a fourth berth in Brunswick. GPA has invested $3.2 billion in infrastructure over the past decade. As part of its community engagement efforts, GPA is donating $6 million to support a multi-year workforce housing initiative in port communities.

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