Julie McCombs
'Using a baseball analogy, we are in the second inning of a nine-inning game.'
Jim Newsome
President and CEO of South Carolina Ports Authority
Jim Fair
The Inland Port handled 42,555 total rail moves in its first complete fiscal year.
“We are very much dependent on trucks. Every container in the world somehow rides a truck,” Newsome, president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority, said. “They (containers) come by rail to Greer and they still have to go out by truck to somewhere else.”
Newsome was the keynote speaker at the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce’s 77th Annual Celebration Thursday night at the Embassy Suites.
The Port of Charleston is handling record-breaking container traffic, growing 52 percent versus 25 percent in the 13 other container ports combined, according to Newsome. And the deepening of the Charleston Harbor to 54 feet, expected in 2017, will accommodate cargo ships the size of aircraft carriers with more than double the containers now making Charleston its port of call.
The $50 million Inland Port handled 42,555 total rail moves in its first complete fiscal year. That exceeded Newsome’s goal and is clearly within range of 100,000-plus rail moves per year in the first five years. BMW is the base customer and Adidas is among the remaining nine contracted with the port.
“The truck should spend no more than an hour at the port, compared to (4-6-8 hours) at other ports,” Newsome said. “We make sure we are better at that.” The Charleston port gate hours will be extended and add a Saturday on Feb. 7. Greer’s port is a 24/7 facility. Norfolk Southern added a sixth rail trip on Saturdays from Greer.
“What sets this port apart is that is innovative, has overnight train service, is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and is a convergence of transportation – water, rail, truck service and a great airport. Once someone uses this facility, they will continue to use it.”
And with that means more cargo at the Inland Port, which translates into more truck traffic and additional resources to accommodate the trucking fleet.
Spire, a natural gas fueling solutions company, is constructing a compressed natural gas (CNG) fast-fill (15 gas gallons equivalent, per minute) refueling center behind a QuikTrip travel center, its first in South Carolina, at Hwy. 101, nearly adjacent to I-85, and Freeman Farm Road.
Jeff Tuttle, CPW General Manager, is forecasting Greer becoming one of the top five CNG hubs in the country, based on the interest companies are showing in locating near the Inland Port with its proximity to BMW Manufacturing and the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. “The CNG site at Hwy. 101 is the same size Spire built at the St. Louis Airport,” Tuttle said in explaining the size of the facility.
Truck companies that surround the Hwy. 101/I-85 corridor are either ordering new trucks with CNG capabilities or adding kits on its vehicles to take advantage of lower fuel prices that also result in cleaner air. Some companies have also been expanding their fleets.
The buildout of Caliber Ridge Industrial Park, one mile north of the CNG site, is nearing completion with 500,000 square feet of warehouses, 80 percent of available space leased.
Reno Deaton said that only means that more warehouses will be built to accommodate the $1 billion BMW expansion and anticipated Inland Port expansion within the next 3-4 years.
“We have plenty of land to accommodate our customer’s needs,” Deaton has said.
Economic and business leaders suggested a second BMW warehouse would mirror the 414,000 square foot facility that was built adjacent to the Inland Port. A one-million square-foot distribution center was also being bandied about as a possibility at the dinner.
“The (inland port) is interesting from a distributive perspective,” Newsome said. “We see a lot of growth for distribution centers coming to support e-commerce and support the new generation of the imports. This particular location (Greer) today is within 500 miles of a third of the U.S. population.
“It’s an exceptional location to handle distribution of products and it’s right in the middle, pretty much, of Atlanta and Charlotte. “For us, this is the fastest growing corridor in the southeast. We’re excited about the prospects, it has a lot of interest . . . just on the cost side it is a viable solution. Put a container on the train to Charleston and it’s there the next morning.
“Using a baseball analogy, we are in the second inning of a nine-inning game,” Newsome said.