The South Carolina Ports Authority announced 2017 container volume increases of 13 percent and the strongest July on record.

Since the calendar year began, SCPA has handled 1.3 million TEU, compared to 1.14 million TEU during the same period last year. The port moved 182,411 TEUs in July, breaking the previous record of 177,265 TEUs achieved in July 2016.

Last month was also a record July for pier container volume, or box volume. SCPA handled 103,319 boxes at the Wando Welch and North Charleston terminals, exceeding the July 2016 record of 100,366 pier containers.

“SCPA handled record container volumes in July in spite of model year transitions in the automotive industry,” said Jim Newsome, SCPA president and CEO. “We look forward to continuing this momentum as fiscal year 2018 progresses and expect to see fairly strong volumes this fall.”

In the non-containerized cargo market, Charleston handled 42,420 tons of breakbulk cargo in July. Calendar year to date, the port has handled 471,961 tons.

Inland Port Greer handled 7,011 rail moves in July, pushing calendar year-to-date volume at the facility 31 percent higher than last year. Since January, 74,700 rail moves were handled compared to 56,870 during the same period in 2016.

Harbor deepening to 52 feet continues to move forward toward construction this fall having received $17.5 million in construction funding in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Fiscal 2017 Work Plan. The corps solicited bids for the first contract in the project in June, and the apparent low bidder for the contract was Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC, with a bid of $47,197,150. The USACE Charleston District still needs to complete several acquisition steps to verify the acceptability of the bid prior to awarding the contract, which is planned for September.