New deployments by ocean carriers will raise the number of weekly services calling the Port of Charleston from 25 to 29, the South Carolina Ports Authority, known as SC Ports, said Thursday.
Two of the services are first-in calls from Asia: Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s TP11/US1, and MSC and ZIM’s Emerald/ZXB. SC Ports said the MSC and ZIM service offers the fastest transit from Vietnam to the South Atlantic.
Charleston will also have three first-in calls from Europe, representing all of the major ocean carriers in that trade, according to SC Ports. The authority said the European calls support manufacturers’ supply chains.
Beginning in April, MSC’s EMUSA service will give Charleston a direct connection to Turkey and Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean, SC Ports said.
“The Port of Charleston serves as a powerful gateway for importers and exporters,” SC Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin said. “Our highly productive operations deliver sustained fluidity to quickly work ships.”
The authority pointed to Charleston’s 52-foot harbor, which it says is the deepest on the U.S. East Coast. Ships can reach the port’s terminals at any time with no tidal restrictions, and widened turning basins give two ships access at the same time, according to SC Ports.
The port also reopened its Leatherman Terminal in September 2024 for ZIM’s weekly ZCP service from Asia, which SC Ports said MSC and Maersk also use.
In February, SC Ports handled 225,532 TEUs, up 11% from February 2024, and 123,611 pier containers, up 10%. A TEU is a 20-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure of container volume. The authority said the growth came largely from an influx of imports.
Inland Port Dillon had 3,412 rail moves in February, down 18%. The port handled 11,273 vehicles, down 28% from a year earlier.
“South Carolina ranks No. 5 in the nation for both population and GDP growth. This will continue to drive imports and exports to our port,” Melvin said.
