ATLANTA—There's plenty of talk about the Panama Canal expansion and how that will impact port traffic—and industrial commercial real estate. Now, a new report reveals East Coast ports are growing at a faster rate than ports in the West.

Still, CBRE's first-ever North America Ports Logistics Annual Report says even as the East Coast ports are gaining ground, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach still topped the report's first-ever “Ports and Logistics Index,” thanks to infrastructure that is well-suited to handle the largest cargo container ships, their proximity to Asian export markets, a strong local economy and a deep industrial real estate market.

Turning to Georgia, the Port of Savannah is growing so rapidly it has become port of choice for logistics operations with an overall index ranking that puts it sixth in the nation. Part of the reason is that Savannah has the lowest occupancy costs while maintaining the highest shipping volume by market size in North America. In fact, shipping volume is similar in Seattle, a market 25 times the size of Savannah.