The board of directors at the South Carolina State Ports Authority has approved a fiscal 2012 budget that includes more than $80 million in capital projects, and projects a 6.6% rise in container traffic for the fiscal year beginning Friday, July 1.
The spending is being concentrated on terminal infrastructure projects, which include a $17 million terminal operating system and the construction
of a new cruise terminal in Charleston, the state ports authority said.
In addition to the projected increase in container shipments at Charleston, one of the nation’s 10 largest ports, a rise of 7.4% in break bulk and other noncontainer freight is projected at the state’s publicly owned seaports.
During the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ended June 30, container handlings rose 9.3% from the prior year. Noncontainer shipments at state ports leaped 45%.
“We are investing in South Carolina’s future to better serve businesses that create jobs,” said Bill Stern, chairman of the ports agency. “These improvement projects will enhance our ability to handle the future growth of the port and our state.”
Part of the port’s infrastructure agenda is a dredging agreement recently signed by the agency with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to share expenses as channel depth is increased to more than 45 feet.
Dredging — as well as a plan to relocate several cranes — is intended to make the port more attractive to larger ships that are expected to call there after the expansion of the Panama Canal is completed. That project currently is slated to be done in 2014.
