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Congestion at the Port of Charleston has a record 30 container ships anchored off South Carolina's coast waiting to unload cargo. The Wando Welch Terminal (above) is handling most of the imports, but it can't keep up with the surging demand. English Purcell/State Ports Authority/Provided

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Congestion at the Port of Charleston has a record 30 container ships anchored off South Carolina's coast waiting to unload cargo. The Wando Welch Terminal (above) is handling most of the imports, but it can't keep up with the surging demand. English Purcell/State Ports Authority/Provided

A record 30 container ships were anchored off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 15 waiting for space at Charleston's port as the State Ports Authority has been stymied in its efforts to clear an unprecedented backlog of cargo sitting at its terminals.

The vessel count has grown in recent weeks — with the wait time averaging seven to eight days each — and is now second only to the 76 ships anchored off southern California's major ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles. It could take until the end of March before all of the vessels anchored off the Palmetto State are cleared, said Jim Newsome, the SPA's president and CEO.

"We have our work cut out for us. It's going to be significant to reduce this backlog," Newsome told the maritime agency's board of directors Tuesday at their monthly meeting.

The reason for the backlog is a lack of space in the port's container yards — all of the imported cargo boxes that ships are waiting to be offloaded can't be squeezed onto the sites.

Nearly 66,000 containers were sitting in the yards in January, most of them at the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant. That's about 6.3 percent higher than in December and nearly 15 percent more than in November. It's also about 25,000 more boxes than the SPA can efficiently handle. 

"When we're at peak fluidity, it's about 35,000 to 40,000 (containers)," said Barbara Melvin, the SPA's chief operations officer.

Containers are piling up at ports because retailers and other shippers that ordered the cargo months ago aren't picking it up. Instead, they're leaving the goods on the waterfront — and paying hefty fees — because they, too, don't have enough landside storage space. More than one-fourth of the imported containers sitting at the Port of Charleston have been on the SPA's terminals for more than 15 days.

"We have a shortage of warehouse space, a shortage of container truck and dray capacity and a shortage of chassis" drivers need to move the containers, Newsome said. "What are the things that are causing this? Record import volumes and a relatively fixed supply chain that's not flexible to go up 20 percent in volume."

There are fewer truckers visiting the port, at least in part due to the congestion, with the average time they have to spend on a terminal at just under one hour. The number of gate transactions — that is, a driver picking up or dropping off a container — fell by 9.1 percent in January compared with the previous month, even as the number of imported containers hit a record. Roughly 80 percent of the cargo that moves through Charleston is hauled by a truck.

Newsome said the SPA is trying to prioritize ship calls according to those take away more cargo rather than they drop off. And the SPA has started moving some containers that have been on the terminal more than 15 days to offsite locations.

"It's a short-term help, but 300 boxes against a ship discharging 1,200 boxes ... it's not a solution," he said. "We have a natural inbound imbalance, so all other things being equal, the import situation gets worse with each ship."

Reports by supply chain analysts indicate the congestion at U.S. ports will last at least through the summer, but Newsome said he doesn't expect to see any relief until late this year — after the peak annual shipping season in the fall.

"But that very much depends on consumption, on interest rates and what's happening in the economy overall," he said, adding the amount of cargo loaded on East Coast-bound ships in Asia was up 15 percent in January compared to the previous year. That cargo is scheduled to arrive sometime in March.

"So that sort of gives us a preview of what to expect," he said.

Reach David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_

The State Ports Authority is investigating how a worker accidentally knocked several empty shipping containers into the Cooper River last week, forcing the Coast Guard to issue safety warnings and restrict vessel traffic in the area near the North Charleston Terminal for more than a day.

A crane operator at the terminal's first berth was moving cargo boxes to and from the Wan Hai 507 vessel at about 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 when four empty containers were knocked off the ship and into the water, according to an incident report filed with the port police. There were no injuries and work on the ship resumed by 1 a.m. No damage estimate was available.

The Coast Guard set up a safety zone around the area and coordinated big-ship movements around the terminal until about 1 a.m. on Feb. 10, when all of the containers had been retrieved, according to spokesperson Lt. Emily Trudeau.

"All parties are reviewing the incident, including the crew of the vessel, to verify that procedures are in place to prevent similar incidents in the future," said SPA spokeswoman Kelsi Brewer, who said a crane barge was used to remove the containers from the river.

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