Port of Charleston Leatherman Terminal Pause: What It Means for Importers

## Port of Charleston Leatherman Terminal Pause: What It Means for Importers

South Carolina Ports Authority paused container operations at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston on August 1, 2026. The agency announced the move on June 25, saying the industry "faces numerous headwinds, an uncertain trade forecast, and tempered volumes," and framed the pause as a cost-competitiveness decision rather than a capacity or labor problem. Container work has since been consolidated onto the Wando Welch and North Charleston terminals, which SC Ports says have sufficient capacity to absorb the shift in the short term.

For importers routing freight through Charleston, the pause is not a shutdown of the port. It is a consolidation of volume onto two terminals instead of three, and consolidation of that kind changes yard dynamics even when the topline vessel queue looks fine.

Why SC Ports Made This Call

The stated rationale is demand softness layered on real cost pressure, not an operational failure at Leatherman itself. 2026 has been a volatile year for ocean freight: tariff rates have shifted repeatedly (see our tariff stacking guide), the Strait of Hormuz saw military conflict that pushed fuel prices higher, and several major gateways front-loaded an early peak season in response to tariff-timing uncertainty. The Port of Los Angeles has separately forecast a 7% slowdown in container traffic for the coming year — Charleston's move fits that same pattern of ports trimming fixed costs against a softer, harder-to-predict volume outlook.

SC Ports President and CEO Micah Mallace described it as a decision made with maritime partners "to achieve long-term, sustainable growth," adding that the port wants to "retain current business and attract new business to Charleston." Leatherman's expansion project — from an initial 700,000 TEU capacity toward a planned 2.4 million TEU at full buildout — remains underway; the pause affects near-term operations, not the long-term buildout plan.

The Capacity Number Worth Correcting

Charleston's own promotional materials, and a fair amount of trade coverage published earlier in 2026, described Leatherman as having reached "full operational status" with roughly 1.5 million TEU of annual capacity. The terminal's actual initial capacity is closer to 700,000 TEU, with the 2.4 million TEU figure representing the finished, multi-phase buildout — not where the terminal stood when the pause was announced. That gap matters for anyone using Charleston capacity claims to plan routing: the "crown jewel, bottleneck eliminated" framing was ahead of where the terminal actually was, and the August pause is the clearest evidence of that gap. We have corrected the capacity figures in our Port of Charleston 2026 terminal guide to reflect this.

What Changes for Importers Right Now

Three practical effects follow from consolidating three terminals down to two:

- Appointment slots get tighter. Wando Welch and North Charleston already run electronic appointment systems for truck pickup and delivery, with slots opening 7-14 days out and filling fast in peak season. Absorbing Leatherman's share of volume onto the same slot pool means booking earlier matters more than it did in July. - Bunching risk rises even with a calm vessel queue. SC Ports and independent tracking both describe Charleston's physical vessel queue as low right now. The risk is not ships stacking up offshore — it is cargo bunching at fewer physical yards, which shows up as temporary dwell spikes when several vessels discharge into the same footprint within a tight window. - Rail and drayage patterns shift. Leatherman's long-term role is tied to the Navy Base Intermodal Facility. With that volume routed through the active terminals in the meantime, inland rail schedules and local drayage timing around Wando and North Charleston are the pieces most likely to need adjustment.

None of this shows up yet in Charleston's headline dwell-time numbers, which have run close to two days on average through the first half of the port's fiscal year. The risk is concentrated in short, sharp windows around vessel bunching — exactly the kind of disruption that is hard to see coming and expensive to absorb without a buffer.

Why This Strengthens the Case for Bonded Storage

A terminal consolidation that raises bunching risk is a direct argument for keeping freight that does not need to move immediately off the terminal clock entirely. Cargo held on a warehouse entry (type 21) in a CBP-bonded facility near the port stops accruing demurrage and per-diem risk the moment it is devanned, and duty is not assessed until withdrawal — see our bonded warehouse guide for the mechanics. That is a materially different risk position than freight sitting on the terminal waiting for an appointment slot in a tighter, more consolidated yard.

It also reduces exposure to General Order risk. A 15-day entry window that felt comfortable when appointment slots were plentiful gets less comfortable when the same slot pool is serving two terminals' worth of demand instead of three. Devanning into bonded storage near the port — rather than leaving cargo on the terminal against the clock — is the more conservative move while Charleston works through this consolidation.

What To Do If You Import Through Charleston This Fall

Book appointment slots earlier than you have been, particularly for shipments arriving within a few days of a large vessel string. Build slack into your entry timeline rather than running it to the 15-day GO deadline. And if a shipment does not have a firm destination or buyer lined up yet, moving it into CBP-bonded storage minutes from the port — rather than leaving it on the terminal or letting it drift toward General Order — keeps you in control of both the duty clock and the demurrage clock while SC Ports works through this consolidation.

The pause is described as short-term, and SC Ports has not given a date for Leatherman's return to service. Until it does, importers routing through Charleston should plan around two active terminals, not three.

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