South Carolina Ports Authority reports record month

The second-highest month of container traffic in the port’s history is logged in the midst of infrastructure improvements and wharf modernization project.    South Carolina Ports Authority’s (SCPA) container volumes in May surged 8.2 percent year-over-year to 197,437 TEUs, a record for the month of May and the second-highest month of container traffic in the port’s history.
   Infrastructure improvements at the Port of Charleston’s Wando Welch Terminal have continued to progress, and the wharf modernization project that began in 2015 is nearing completion, SCPA said.
   The Wando Welch Terminal had opened in 1982 and is currently the port’s largest terminal in terms of volume and physical size.
   By the end of July, the entire length of the terminal berth will return to full-time operation, coinciding with the commissioning of SCPA’s sixth crane of 155 feet of lift height.
   “The port has handled record container volumes despite having only two-thirds of our berth capacity in operation for over 800 days,” SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome said. “We look forward to simultaneously handling two ships of 14,000 TEU or above in the near future with significant berth productivity.”
   BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool shows the Port of Charleston is called by 31 liner services that also sail to regions outside North America, consisting of 26 fully cellular container services and five that deploy roll-on/roll-off vessels or pure car/truck carriers. Of the container services calling the port, THE Alliance’s EC4 between Asia and North America has the largest average vessel size at 14,026 TEUs.