Navy Base Intermodal Facility (copy)

The State Ports Authority's $400 million North Charleston rail yard was scheduled to open in July.

The S.C. State Ports Authority is pushing back the opening of its new $400 million rail yard on the former Navy base until next year, partly because of global trade uncertainties.

The agency had planned to start moving containers from its Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston in July.

The projected date has been moved up to early 2026, SC Ports CEO Barbara Melvin said at a June 11 meeting of the Maritime Association of South Carolina. 

"This is a business decision by us," she said afterward.

Melvin stressed that the SPA could meet its long-stated goal of unveiling the Navy Base Intermodal Facility next month, even though three of the six cranes and one of the two rail loops aren't ready.

She estimated the development is 80 percent completed. 

"But as we approached the end of the project some things happened," Melvin said Wednesday. 

The most pressing issue is the economic uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war, which has put the global shipping industry on edge.

That includes the SPA. Melvin said the ports authority, like numerous private companies, has struggled to forecast its business outlook for its July 1 fiscal year. 

"Uncertainty is not good for business," she said.

Against that backdrop, the SPA decided the time isn't right to open its $400 million investment.

"We don't want to do that right now because there are already cost-structure questions about tariffs and other things that supply-chain people are dealing with," Melvin said. "So there are good times in business to make moves like this and bad times. I think there's enough strain on ... the supply chain to say, 'Let's figure out what's going on before we introduce a new product.'"

Palmetto Railways, part of the S.C. Commerce Department, began planning for the 118-acre project more than 15 years ago. The SPA took it over in 2021.

Melvin said the state-backed investment will fill a huge competitive void for the maritime agency, which runs the only major East Coast port that doesn't offer cargo shippers rail service near its docks.

Two other issues factored into the delay.

They include the SPA's decision last year to allow union workers to operate the cranes at all of its terminals for the first time in its history after losing a high-profile labor dispute. That's created contractual wrinkles about the use of remote technology at the rail site. A committee is working to iron them out, Melvin said. 

"It's not a hardship. It's just an added step we didn't really anticipate when this facility was planned long ago," she said.

Also, the SPA needs more time to train the crane operators to learn to handle equipment that's brand new to the port.

The rail yard will be served by two major railroads,  CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern. They did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. 

Melvin said the two rail companies and state lawmakers are aware of the delay. She plans to discuss the decision at the SPA's board meeting next week. 

"I think in times like this, doing it right, with a lot more reliability and certainty, is more important than ... forcing the opening on a date when we now have all these additional factors we didn't know were going to exist," she said.

Contact John McDermott at 843-937-5572.

John McDermott has been the business editor of The Post and Courier since 2006. He's written about all facets of the South Carolina economy, served in the U.S. Air Force and is a graduate of the University of Hawaii-Manoa journalism program.