Drum and IBC filling in Savannah: how bulk chemical repackaging works

A lot of chemical product enters the US through the Port of Savannah in bulk: ISO tanks, flexitanks and tanker trucks off the rail. Almost none of it is sold that way. Distributors and end users want drums, IBCs and pails. Somebody has to do the transfer, and where that happens decides how many times the material is handled, trucked and documented.

This is a plain description of how that work runs at Porter Logistics' Savannah warehouse in Pooler, seven miles from Garden City Terminal.

Inbound: tanks and tankers into the yard

ISO tanks arrive by drayage from the port, tanker trucks by highway. Both are scheduled into a yard with space for 50 or more trailers, so a tank can be staged if the filling room is mid-run. Before anything is opened, the SDS on file is matched to the paperwork and the seal numbers are recorded. Flammables and combustibles are assigned to the flame room, which has foam suppression. Temperature-sensitive materials go to heated or cooled rooms.

The fill

Liquid is pumped from the tank to the filling station and into drums, IBCs or pails on calibrated equipment. Each container is weight-checked against the target fill and the result is logged to the lot. A first fill is documented and, when the customer wants it, photographed before the run continues. Containers can be customer-supplied or sourced by Porter, branded or neutral.

Solids follow a parallel path. Hopper trucks and supersacks are discharged into bagging equipment that fills 25 kg or 50 lb bags, or into supersacks from bulk. One resin program here runs more than 3,000 bags a day.

Labels and compliance

Every filled container gets a label that meets DOT hazmat marking and GHS hazard communication requirements, plus whatever the customer's own label needs: product name, lot, fill date, net weight, UN number where applicable. Porter is a US DOT-registered hazmat handler, EPA registered, and a member of the Alliance for Chemical Distribution's Responsible Distribution program, which audits the Savannah facility every other year.

SDS and certificates of analysis are stored against the lot in the warehouse management system, so a customer's downstream buyer can get the right document with the right shipment.

After the fill

Filled containers are palletized, stretch-wrapped and either put into racked or bulk storage or loaded for an outbound order. The Savannah building ships hundreds of LTL, truckload and parcel orders a day. For product that has not cleared customs, the facility is a CBP-approved bonded warehouse, which lets an importer hold inventory and clear it as it sells.

Why do this in Savannah instead of at destination

Drayage is the obvious one. A tank that travels seven miles and gets emptied into drums costs less to move than one that travels 700 miles and gets emptied there. Handling is the quieter saving: one fill at the port replaces a fill at every regional warehouse downstream. And some customers use it to consolidate. A resins and monomers manufacturer that used to bring product through Baltimore, Charleston and Mobile moved all of it to Savannah and now repackages here for the whole eastern US.

What to send for a quote

• The SDS for each material
• Inbound format: ISO tank, tanker, flexitank, hopper truck or supersack, and typical quantity per arrival
• Target package: drum size, IBC size, pail, bag weight, and whether you supply containers
• Monthly volume and how many SKUs
• Whether product ships straight out or stays in storage, and roughly where it ships to

Porter's chemical engineers review the SDS, assign a storage class and room, and confirm the filling method. You get a per-container or per-unit price with storage and outbound rates alongside.