NEWS BRIEFS: Investments create big opportunities for port, CEO says

The Leatherman terminal opened earlier this year in North Charleston providing extra capacity to Charleston’s port operations. Photo by S.C. Ports Authority.

Staff reports  |  Recent investments to add a berth, increase cargo capacity and deepen Charleston harbor provide critical opportunities for the Port of Charleston, said Jim Newsome, the president and CEO of the S.C. Ports Authority who announced his retirement during an annual report card last week about the agency. 

“The significant challenges in the global supply chain present an opportunity for cargo owners to diversify the port gateways they use to move goods,” Newsome said in a news release. “S.C. Ports has the berth availability, cargo capacity and fluidity to handle the record cargo volumes and unprecedented amount of retail imports flowing into the Port of Charleston.”

Newsome has led an unprecedented port expansion since he joined the agency about 13  years ago.  The $1 billion Phase One of Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal opened in March 2021, marking the first container terminal to open in the U.S. in more than a decade and the only new container terminal capacity planned in the U.S. until 2030.

Barbara Melvin, who currently serves as Newsome’s second-in-command, will take over port operations on July 1.  She will be the first female leader of a major U.S. port and reportedly will earn a $500,000 annual salary.

Newsome said shifts in consumer spending toward retail and home goods during the pandemic spurred a boom in retail imports coming into the U.S.  That led to S.C. Ports achieving a record fiscal year 2021 and a record first quarter of fiscal year 2022 for containers handled.

“Capacity is the new port currency, and SC Ports has the right capacity at the right time to meet retailers’ needs to keep freight moving,” Newsome said. “We have invested more than $2 billion in recent years to enhance existing infrastructure and open a new container terminal.”

In other recent news:

State to get COVID-19 vaccines for kids next month.  Children ages 5-11 should start receiving Pfizer COVID-19 shots in the first week of November, according to state health officials. The state expects to receive 150,000 doses of the lower-dose shots next month. Also Wednesday, federal officials backed booster shots from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna — and said it was OK to mix or match boosters.  More: The State  |  The New York Times.

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S.C. incumbents rake in cash ahead of 2022. Each incumbent U.S. House member and senator of South Carolina ended the year’s third fundraising quarter — from July to September — with more money in the bank, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. More: The State.

Ethics complaint against S.C. fed judge sent to special committee.  A judicial ethics complaint against U.S. District Judge Joe Dawson, a Trump appointee who serves in South Carolina, over a contract he signed with his former employer Charleston County will be sent to a special committee of judges for further investigation after an Oct. 19 order by 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Roger Gregory. The complaint was filed on the heels of a Post and Courier story in February that reported on the contract Dawson signed with Charleston County as he departed for the federal bench. More: The Post and Courier.

Rare songbird discovered in S.C. declared extinct.  For decades, birders in the Lowcountry have trekked in and out of forests and wetlands searching for the Bachman’s warbler, one of North America’s rarest songbirds. It’s now been deemed extinct. More: The Post and Courier.

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