S.C. Ports Board Approves What it Calls Aggressive Capital Investment Plan

The South Carolina Ports Authority board approved what it called the most aggressive investment plan in the agency's 70-year history June 18, it said. It said the plan is based on the anticipated growth of South Carolina's ports from big ship traffic, the expansion of the Panama Canal and increased exports from the region. The board approved a budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins July 1, that includes $146.9 million in capital spending on major investments such as the construction of the new Navy Base Terminal and upgrades to facility infrastructure and information systems. The budget anticipates an eight percent increase in container volume and a six percent planned increase in breakbulk and non-containerized cargo at South Carolina's public seaports. It calls for the addition of nine jobs in the operations and maintenance areas during the next 12 months. May's container volume of 132,498 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) was a nearly 10 percent gain over the same month last year, the board was told. In the 2012 fiscal year to date (from July 2011 to May 2012), TEU volume in the Port of Charleston was up 3.4 percent from the previous year while pier tons of non-containerized cargo in Charleston and Georgetown climbed 43.1 percent. The SCPA board also approved a $2 million paving and container yard improvement project for North Charleston Terminal, to be completed by Banks Construction Co. It also approved a resolution authorizing the SCPA, as Grantee, to apply to reorganize Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) No. 21 under an alternative site framework. This reorganization would increase the FTZ service area along the coast and broaden the benefits to both new and existing companies using the program. The SCPA serves as Grantee of the FTZ program for FTZ No. 21 along the South Carolina coast and FTZ No. 38 in the Upstate.