But the Georgia Ports Authority broke its own records for container shipping in October, rivaling recent traffic through the Port of Charleston and solidifying its position as competition with South Carolina's waterfront.

From January through October, the most recent month for which data is available, more than 1.54 million containers moved across South Carolina's docks. That's about an 8.2 percent increase from last year.

During the same period, Georgia moved about 1.38 million containers, an increase of 7.7 percent.

South Carolina officials say it's an anomaly that ports in the Palmetto State outpaced Georgia this year when it comes to the growth in container traffic.

While both states are seeing explosive growth in cargo movement, over the past decade trade through Georgia's ports has increased 10 percent annually compared to 7 percent in South Carolina.

South Carolina's ports had a record-breaking October, too, moving 175,402 20-foot containers, up about 18 percent from the same month last year. But the sheer volume of containers moving through the Port of Savannah gives officials in both states reason to believe Georgia will continue to be fierce competition in the international market.

The Georgia Ports Authority moved more than 161,000 containers across its docks in October, up 12.5 percent from October 2003.

The state's previous record for container traffic was 154,361 containers, set in August, the first time in Georgia's history that more than 150,000 containers had passed across the docks.

Until three years ago, Savannah was little more than a blip on the radar screen of the nation's shipping industry.

In 2001, Savannah moved only 813,000 containers on and off ships the whole year, according to the Port Import/Export Reporting Service, which tracks international shipping trends. By 2003, that number had jumped to more than 1.1 million, making the Port of Savannah the fifth-largest container port in the country, right behind South Carolina.

Port officials and industry executives in South Carolina say growth at the Port of Savannah -- spurred in part by seemingly limitless expansion room and proximity to some of the South's largest retail distribution centers -- threatens to take both business and jobs away from South Carolina. The competition also is a major incentive for the state's push to expand the Port of Charleston, though a lack of waterfront land impedes major future development here.

"Looking at the reality of it, it's clear they have chipped away (at our advantage)," SPA spokesman Byron Miller said Tuesday.

Georgia ports officials say they're pleased with the growth, but they're not trying to compete directly with South Carolina's ports.

"Savannah and Charleston for the most part serve different markets," said Robert Morris, spokesman for the Georgia Ports Authority. "Savannah weighs in much more toward the Asian market and Charleston is weighed much more toward European markets. The two really complement one another.

"It's interesting to compare the two because we're so close, but we here see Charleston as our sister port, and growth there means growth here," Morris said.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority hopes to see increased growth early next year, specifically at its Wando-Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant.

The SPA is putting new procedures in place there to make moving and storing containers more efficient and is counting on new technology to increase capacity at all its terminals until a new facility can be built in North Charleston.

That new terminal is being studied now but might not open for another seven to 10 years.

In the meantime, the port community is working to entice legislators to help level the playing field between South Carolina and neighboring states like Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, where companies are given tax incentives to increase international trade.

Miller said port leaders hope changes are made in the next legislative session to provide similar incentives for South Carolina firms.

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