S.C. Ports Authority packs huge state, regional economic punch

South Carolina’s seaports inject $13.6 billion into the Midlands economy each year and provide a critical passageway for raw materials and finished goods into and out of the state, a new USC study finds.

The water ports at Charleston and Georgetown also account for nearly 48,000 jobs each year in the 15-county area of the Midlands, and those jobs generate $2.6 billion annually in labor income, said the study, conducted by the USC Moore School of Business.

The study was released at the Michelin tire plant in Lexington County on Wednesday during the third stop of a statewide tour by port and state officials to tout the ports’ economic impact. Officials are discussing the ports’ local impact on the Lowcounty, the Upstate, the Midlands and the Pee Dee.

“All of the rubber that we use to make tires has to come from somewhere overseas and this port is where we bring (in) the vast majority of that,” said Roy Chamlee, Michelin North America’s S.C. governmental affairs director. “To us, the port is extremely important.”

Natural rubber, of course, is not grown in the United States.

Michelin North America, headquartered in Greenville, is one of four major tiremakers with manufacturing plants in the Palmetto State. It also was one of the state’s first major international tire manufacturers, opening its first S.C. plant in 1975. The company now employs more than 8,500 workers in South Carolina.

Last year, South Carolina became the leading tire manufacturer in the United States. But it’s not just tires that drive the state’s seaports, experts note.

Overall, the state’s two seaports have a $53 billion annual impact on South Carolina’s economy, the USC study reported, generating 187,206 jobs directly or indirectly and accounting for $10.2 billion in labor income.

“The economic impact, just in terms of its sheer size, is significant,” said Joey Von Nessen, the USC research economist who conducted the study.

About 9.3 percent of the state’s gross domestic product – that is, all the goods and services produced in the state in a year – can be directly or indirectly tied to the S.C. Ports Authority, he said.

Since the end of the Great Recession five years ago, South Carolina’s economic growth has been dominated by export-oriented industries that are primarily large port users, Von Nessen said.

The result is an increasing growth rate across multiple industries, Von Nessen said.

Also, jobs related to industries that heavily utilize the ports tend to generate more related jobs than businesses that don’t use the port, the study reported. For every 10 jobs in the state that are directly supported by Ports Authority operations or port users, the study said, an additional 14 jobs are created elsewhere in the state, yielding a 2.4 employment multiplier effect.

Other South Carolina jobs register a 1.8 multiplier effect, the report states.

South Carolina’s transportation equipment manufacturing sector, which includes both tires and automotives, has surged during the past five years, Von Nessen said. From 2001 to 2007, that sector grew by 11 percent, he said. In the past five years, the sector’s growth is up to about 45 percent.

The S.C. Ports Authority owns and operates seaports in Charleston and Georgetown and the Upstate inland port at Greer, near the BMW plant.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 7:49 PM with the headline "S.C. Ports Authority packs huge state, regional economic punch."