Image by Bobby Kalman for Unsplash

The Port of Charleston might not be an immediate guess when it comes to international commerce, but it serves as a crucial exit point for U.S. products. It’s location in the Atlantic ocean, align the U.S. East Coast allows it to ship products to Europe, but also as far as Asia—which, in fact, represents its single largest destination. For the U.S. South, and part of New England, the port then serves as the closest and most reasonable exit point for commercial goods. Thus, it should come as no surprise that, in 2023 it ranked as the 10th largest in North America and 8th largest in the country—as well as the third largest in the US East Coast.

Given its importance, we at Desteia put together a list of the most important statistics about the port and its true impact on the US economy.

Where Is the Port of Charleston Located?

The Port of Charleston consists of a series of terminals some of which are less than a mile away from downtown Charleston proper. In all, there are six terminals in the port, covering the mouths of the Cooper and Wando rivers. Across these terminals, the port boasts 25 industrial cranes used to handle containerized cargo.

As far as total dimensions of the channels themselves, Charleston’s docks have a depth of 13.7 mt and a maximum width of 304.8 meters.

How Many TEUs Can the Port of Charleston Handle?

The specific number of TEUs—a common metric for containers—handled by the Port of Charleston varies year to year. In our most recent report (The State of North American Ports by Desteia), we found that the port handled over 1.9 million TEUs in 2023 alone. Although, we should note, that, at the time of writing our report, the Port of Charleston had yet to release official figures for the years 2022 and 2023—at least in the data sets we considered in our research—, so we used a statistical approximation to better understand port dynamics

[iframe]https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bOXM6/2/|CustomHeight=700px[/iframe]

Over the last six years, the port exhibited mild variance when in containerized cargo. While cargo grew steadily between 2018 and 2019, reaching over 1.85 million TEUs before dropping to 1.82 million TEUs at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thereafter, in 2021, total TEUs handled grew to 2.1 million—a growth rate of 19.2% in the span of a year. Thereafter, given broader trends, we predicted a mild set back in 2022 followed by a mild rise in 2023 to 1.94 million TEUs. Put together, these figures suggest a considerable growth rate of 7.8% in the last six years—a figure that’s just slightly behind the national average of 8.8% for that same period.

What Cargo Is Handled in the Port of Charleston?

The most recent data from the port of Charleston suggest a high variance in the types of goods it handles. Together, the ten largest categories of goods account for 67.25% of all containers handled at port. The largest category, by far, are Furniture, Sporting Goods, and Toys, which account for 9.7% of goods or over 191,000 TEUs. They are followed closely by Machinery Parts (9% of goods), forest products (7.2%), and textiles (7.1%). None, however, account for over 10% of cargo, indicating that there is no set of goods that clearly dominates the port.

[iframe]https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/UqMAC/1/|CustomHeight=700px[/iframe]

Where does the port of Charleston import and export?

The port of Charleston is closely connected with the entire world, which might come as a surprise given its location on the Atlantic. Yet, despite this fact, the largest number of TEUs for both imports and exports handled at the port came from North East Asia, with over 482,000 TEUs in imports and 156,000 TEUs handled in exports. In close second, in terms of regions, is Northern Europe with over 341,000 TEUs in imports and 151,000 TEUs in exports. Surprisingly the Caribbean, being the closest region to the port, is the smallest importer and exporter.

[iframe]https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eai1B/2/|CustomHeight=700px[/iframe]

The above data also suggests that, by and large, the Port of Charleston serves as an exit point for U.S. merchandise. Looking just at 2022—the last year for which data was made publicly available—, imports far exceeded exports. In all, the port saw 1.3 million TEUs in imports while, in that same year, it handled just 624,000 TEUs in exports. Meaning that imports were over double the size of exports.

How does the Port of Charleston Compare to Other Ports? 

The port of Charleston is a vital exit point for crucial for US trade, both to the Atlantic, but also reaching as far as Asia. In total, it handles 3.09% of all containers in North America, and little above 3.8% of all US trade—resulting in billions of dollars of revenue for South Carolina. As a result, we found that Charleston has the 10th largest port in the region when it comes to containerized cargo and 8th largest in the US, comparable to the ports of Oakland in California and Tacoma in Washington. However, it is worth noting that Charleston is far from being one of the largest ports in North America and its total TEUs in 2023 only accounted for about 22.5% of those handled by the port of Los Angeles (the largest in the US).

[iframe]https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PuqsT/3/|CustomHeight=700px[/iframe]

(Data from Desteia)