Groundbreaking year for SCSPA

“This has been a year of great strides toward port expansion,” said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president and CEO of the SCSPA. “South Carolina’s ports are positioned for long-term growth and success.”

Most significantly during the year, state and federal permits were issued for the new three-berth, 280-acre container terminal on the former Charleston Navy Base. Ground was broken on the site on May 7 and work is now underway to ready the site for consolidation and construction. The South Carolina General Assembly recently appropriated an additional US$167m toward construction of a port access road.

New equipment totalling US$64m was delivered and installed at the SCSPA’s terminals during the year, including four new super post-Panamax container cranes and 16 RTGs. Crane productivity at the Port of Charleston rose by 5%, with an average 40.53 moves per hour per crane, up from 38.76 moves per hour in fiscal 2006. Average trucker turn times through the SCSPA’s common user gates dropped to just 20.76 minutes, a 10% improvement from FY06.