Port terminals operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) handled 168,480 TEUs of containerized cargo for the month, a 4.2 percent year-over-year decline, as the authority began construction on the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project.
Container volumes at South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) terminals continued to fall in February 2018, slipping 4.2 percent to 168,480 TEUs.
South Carolina Ports Authority’s (SCPA) container volumes slid again in February 2018, falling 4.2 percent to 168,480 TEUs compared with the same month a year ago after starting the calendar year off with a 9.5 percent year-over-year tumble in January, according to the latest figures from the port authority.
Loaded import volumes fell 4.7 percent for the month to 70,397 TEUs, but the decline was offset in part by a 4.2 percent increase in loaded exports to 69,063 TEUs.
SCPA terminals handled 29,021 TEUs of empty containers in February, an 18.6 percent decrease from 12 months prior.
Despite the early calendar year declines, box volumes are still up 1.1 percent to a record 1.41 million TEUs so far for SCPA’s fiscal year, which began in July 2017.
SCPA’s Inland Port Greer also set a new fiscal year-to-date record, handling 76,748 rail moves since July, nearly 5 percent more than in the comparable period the previous year.
In non-containerized cargo, throughput at SCPA’s Charleston breakbulk facilities fell 7.6 percent to 67,173 pier tons in February and are down 13.8 percent to 476,219 pier tons since July.
Vehicle volumes ticked up 1.1 percent to 22,153 cars and trucks for the month, but were still down 14.7 percent on a fiscal year-to-date basis.
“Our container volumes are on track leading into spring, which is generally a strong season for the port,” SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome said in a statement.
Also during the month, SCPA officially broke ground on the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, which will increase the port’s harbor entrance channel draft from 45 feet to 52 feet, making Charleston the deepest port on the U.S. East Coast. The $529 million project, development of which began back in 2011, will allow the port to service 20 post-Panamax vessel calls per week, according to SCPA officials.
“The container shipping industry today is dominated by big ships, and ports must adapt to handle them in order to remain competitive, “ said Newsome. “Our project will be completed just ten years from its initial conception in 2010, enabling Charleston to serve the fastest growing region in the country with the ability to handle ships fully-loaded with heavy export goods.”
And in April, SCPA will officially open its new inland port facility in Dillon, S.C., which is expected to handle a minimum of 45,000 containers annually in its initial phase.
According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, SCPA’s Port of Charleston is currently frequented by 31 liner services connecting it to regions outside North America, 26 of which are fully cellular container services and five that deploy roll-on/roll-off or pure car/truck carriers.