diff --git a/doc/changelog.md b/doc/changelog.md
index ceb7bf77d..4ff171fc1 100644
--- a/doc/changelog.md
+++ b/doc/changelog.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 * **0.29-SNAPSHOT**
   - Restore ANSI color to Maven logging if disabled during plugin execution and enable color for Windows with Maven 3.5.0 or later. Color logging is enabled by default, but disabled if the Maven CLI disables color (e.g. in batch mode) ([#1108](https://github.com/fabric8io/docker-maven-plugin/issues/1108))
   - Fix NPE if docker:save is called with -Dfile=file-name-only.tar ([#1203](https://github.com/fabric8io/docker-maven-plugin/issues/1203))
+  - Improve GZIP compression performance for docker:save ([#1205](https://github.com/fabric8io/docker-maven-plugin/issues/1205))
 
 * **0.29.0** (2019-04-08)
   - Avoid failing docker:save when no images with build configuration are present ([#1185](https://github.com/fabric8io/docker-maven-plugin/issues/1185))
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/SaveMojo.java b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/SaveMojo.java
index 2e4d0048e..8f7aaf713 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/SaveMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/SaveMojo.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import io.fabric8.maven.docker.config.ArchiveCompression;
+import io.fabric8.maven.docker.util.EnvUtil;
 import io.fabric8.maven.docker.util.ImageName;
 import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException;
 import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Component;
@@ -54,7 +55,9 @@ protected void executeInternal(ServiceHub serviceHub) throws DockerAccessExcepti
 			throw new MojoExecutionException("No image " + imageName + " exists");
 		}
 
+		long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
 		serviceHub.getDockerAccess().saveImage(imageName, fileName, ArchiveCompression.fromFileName(fileName));
+		log.info("%s: Saved image to %s in %s", imageName, fileName, EnvUtil.formatDurationTill(time));
 	}
 
 	private boolean skipSaveFor(List<ImageConfiguration> images) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/access/hc/DockerAccessWithHcClient.java b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/access/hc/DockerAccessWithHcClient.java
index 01bf99963..f5dfa8ce5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/access/hc/DockerAccessWithHcClient.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/access/hc/DockerAccessWithHcClient.java
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@ private ResponseHandler<Object> getImageResponseHandler(final String filename, f
             public Object handleResponse(HttpResponse response) throws IOException {
                 try (InputStream stream = response.getEntity().getContent();
                      OutputStream out = compression.wrapOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(filename))) {
-                    IOUtils.copy(stream, out);
+                    IOUtils.copy(stream, out, 65536);
                 }
                 return null;
             }
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/config/ArchiveCompression.java b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/config/ArchiveCompression.java
index da98af3bb..d31e13ce2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/config/ArchiveCompression.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/docker/config/ArchiveCompression.java
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
-import java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream;
+import java.util.zip.Deflater;
 
 import org.apache.commons.compress.compressors.bzip2.BZip2CompressorOutputStream;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.archiver.tar.TarArchiver;
@@ -81,4 +81,11 @@ public static ArchiveCompression fromFileName(String filename) {
         return ArchiveCompression.none;
     }
 
+    private static class GZIPOutputStream extends java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream {
+        private GZIPOutputStream(OutputStream out) throws IOException {
+            super(out, 65536);
+            // According to https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8142920, 3 is a better default
+            def.setLevel(3);
+        }
+    }
 }