State Ports Authority celebrates ‘memorable year’ while preparing for challenges

Even as the State Ports Authority celebrates a near-record year for cargo, a soon-to-start harbor-deepening project and above-average growth, trends beyond the agency’s control are helping to shape its future, for good and bad.

The good includes a new Dollar Tree distribution warehouse in the Upstate and a Volvo automobile plant in Berkeley County that will, starting in 2018, export an estimated 65,000 cars each year through the Port of Charleston.

At the other end is growing congestion on area roads, sometimes trapping truckers in long lines along Interstate 26 and I-526, and a slumping worldwide shipping industry that’s struggling to turn a profit.

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