South Carolina Ports (SC Ports) has celebrated the reopening of Leatherman Terminal to accommodate a weekly Asia service that will begin early next month.
The Leatherman Terminal gates reopened for container reception on 26 September.
ZIM will provide its ZCP service at Leatherman Terminal, the first-in-Asia call that reportedly offers a key weekly link between Asia and the US Southeast consumer market.
SC Ports President and CEO, Barbara Melvin, said: “The reopening of Leatherman Terminal is a monumental day for our world-class port system.
“We are thrilled to once again provide excellent port service at Leatherman Terminal for the benefit of our ocean carrier and cargo owner customers.”
The 15,000-TEU, LNG-powered ZIM Mount Blanc is expected to arrive at Leatherman Terminal on 6 October.
Melvin added: “This weekly service is the first of many to come as we resume operations at Leatherman Terminal, providing more capacity and fluidity for the US East Coast port market. This first-in-call from Asia is a significant competitive advantage for shippers moving goods through the Port of Charleston.”
Leatherman Terminal is the most recent ocean terminal to open in the US in over a decade. The opening adds 700,000 TEU to Charleston Harbor, which has a planned capacity of 2.4 million TEU at complete build-out.
SC Ports Board Chairman, Bill Stern, stated: “The reopening of Leatherman Terminal makes our entire port system more competitive in the Southeast port market.
“The Southeast is booming, South Carolina is growing, and SC Ports is well-positioned to support this growth by efficiently moving cargo for port-dependent businesses.”
The ZIM ZPC service, which MSC and Maersk also use, provides direct Charleston calls to Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Kingston, Charleston, Savannah, Norfolk, Busan, and Qingdao.
In July, SC Ports witnessed container traffic increase by 8 per cent compared to the same month last year.
