The vessel skips Charleston
Your box lands at another South Atlantic port and the tariff that applies is the one where it landed.
Who pays depends on the cause: the carrier for its own schedule change, the shipper for a late gate-in.
Port profile · Charleston, South Carolina · USCHS · figures read 07/26–07/29/2026
Port of Charleston is three container terminals under one name, and the tariffs price the name rather than the terminals
⚑ The short answer
- Port of Charleston is three container terminals rather than one: Wando Welch, North Charleston and Hugh K. Leatherman, all operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority. A quote naming the port without naming the terminal has left out the field that decides your drayage distance and your gate.
- Port of Charleston does not appear as its own named group in any rate line we extracted from the nine import tariffs. The rate charged here comes from each carrier's ports-not-named-separately group, so no per-port median for Charleston exists in our reading and the cell says so rather than guessing.
- Charleston and Savannah are shaped in opposite ways. Savannah concentrates its containers in Garden City, 1,345 acres and 9,693 feet of continuous berth and the largest single-terminal container facility in North America; Charleston spreads the same job across three separate terminals with three separate gates.
- Container terminal queries for Charleston are answered as an address, not as a cost. This result set returns a local pack, a map, a phone number and a schedule, and carries no People Also Ask block and no AI overview at all — so nothing in it answers what landing a box here costs.
Three container terminals, not oneNamed by none of the nine tariffsThe thinnest profile on this site, and it says so
- UN/LOCODE
- USCHS
- CBP port code
- 1601not verified against the CBP list — gap I
- Port authority
- South Carolina Ports Authority
- Container terminals
- three — Wando Welch · North Charleston · Hugh K. Leatherman
- One terminal address seen
- 1000 Remount Rd, North Charleston, SC 29406appears in the results; no port document read — consensus, not primary
- Named in the nine tariffs
- no — it falls in the residual group
- Own free-time rule
- not checked yet
threeContainer terminals under one port namethe one thing established here, and it changes how every quote reads
$260Median first paid day of carrier demurrage8 tariff lines name it or price it through a group · nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
$487Median first paid day, working reefer — 1.87× the dry boxspecial equipment $385, tank $385, dry $260 — and the reefer clock is half the dry one · nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
unreadContainer volumeno figure read for this port — gap D
unreadDwell in daysnothing read, and nothing published in these results — gap E
Is Charleston the biggest port on the South Atlantic?
Port of Charleston cannot be ranked against its neighbour from anything we have read, and the reason is worth stating plainly: no volume figure for Charleston has been read at all. Savannah’s roughly 5.7 million TEU for calendar 2025 has nothing to sit beside — not because Charleston is smaller, but because the second number does not exist on this site yet.
The word largest also splits here. Savannah runs one container terminal and Charleston runs three, so largest facility and largest port are different questions with different answers. How the coast compares on what can actually be compared: the East Coast ports compared. How the volume tables are built, and why this one has no rank column: how the volume tables are built.
Savannah figure: Georgia Ports Authority · read 07/26/2026 — the neighbour’s number, labelled as such.
Free time at Charleston comes from a group line, and the port's own rule is not located
Port of Charleston runs on days written for somebody else. Eight of the nine carriers publish a number of free days — four with most of them, five with COSCO — and not one of those lines names Charleston. The days apply through a residual group, and the hour the count begins does not appear in any tariff we have read.
Port of Charleston’s own authority may publish a rule that settles both. We did not locate the document, which is a weaker finding than the one on the New York or Los Angeles profiles, where the authority’s tariff at least ranks in the port’s own results and we simply have not opened it.
How this profile is built · what we are paid
- Every figure below carries the document it was read from and the date it was read. A figure we have not read does not become a number: the cell says whether the document is unpublished, located but unopened, or simply not checked yet.
- The port’s own tariff outranks anyone’s summary of it, including ours — where the rule or tariff number is known it is printed so you can cite it.
- No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear on this page or to be described in any particular way, and no link on this site is a referral link.
Container discharged at Charleston · free time comes from a group line that never names this port
discharge
clock starts — hour unread
first paid day
free time runs
charges accrue
| Port | The authority’s own rule | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Savannah | GPA Rule 34-025, starts at the first 12:01 AM after discharge | read in fullread 07/26/2026 |
| New York and New Jersey | PAMT FMC No. PA-10 — read, and it sets no free time at all | read in fullread 07/31/2026 |
| Los Angeles | Tariff No. 4 | found, not read |
| Charleston | not located | not checked yetgap B |
| Long Beach | not located | not checked yetgap B |
What an empty-looking cell means: found, not read — the document exists and is identified, but we have not opened it not checked yet — we have not read the document yet
| Whose tariff | Scope | The clock starts | Source · read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Ports Authority | Savannah, Rule 34-025 | first 12:01 AM after discharge | GPA Rule 34-025 · read 07/26/2026 |
| Maersk | Los Angeles and Long Beach imports | first 3:00 AM after discharge | Maersk, USA Imports · read 07/26/2026 |
| Seaboard Marine | US imports | first 08:00 of the first working day after discharge | Seaboard Marine, 11/05/2024 · read 07/26/2026 |
A tariff that does not name your port still runs a clock on it. The absence of Charleston from the rate lines does not suspend anything. It means the days and the money that apply here were written for a group rather than for this port.
What a box picks up at Charleston
Port of Charleston is the only profile on this site where the cost stack is empty end to end, and the block opens with that rather than burying it. No rate line in the nine tariffs names Charleston, no terminal tariff has been read, no local fee schedule has been located and no drayage set exists for any US port.
What can be published instead is the mechanism: which lines exist, who bills each one, and where the document that settles it lives. For contrast, the market quotes $290 to $370 per TEU for terminal handling at Savannah — that is the neighbour’s figure, it has no document behind it, and it is not Charleston’s.
What a 40-foot import container picks up at Charleston — six lines, none of them read
Every line on this stack is hatched. Nothing about the cost of a box at Charleston has been read from a document.
The same stack where the tariffs do name the port: the cost stack ranked port by port. What terminal handling costs where anyone publishes it: what terminal handling costs by port.
Nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–07/29/2026 — none names Charleston.
Who issues each charge at Charleston
| Charge at Charleston | Billed by | Owed by | The document that sets it | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage | Ocean carrier | Consignee or the counterparty named on the invoice, not both | the carrier’s US import tariff, through a group that does not name Charleston | not publishedthe source does not distinguish this port — an absence of a line, not a cheaper rate |
| Terminal storage | South Carolina Ports Authority or the terminal operator | Cargo interest, usually via the carrier | a terminal tariff we have not read | not checked yetgap A, at all three terminals |
| Terminal handling | Ocean carrier | Whoever the Incoterm assigns | the carrier’s tariff, by port | not checked yet |
| Drayage | Motor carrier | Cargo interest | a quote, not a published tariff | not publishedgap F — and here the terminal decides the distance |
| Chassis per diem | Chassis pool or carrier | Motor carrier, passed through to you | the pool tariff | not checked yetgap G |
| Local fees | The port authority or the terminal | By fee | a fee schedule we have not located | not checked yetgap J |
What an empty-looking cell means: not published — the source publishes no figure here not checked yet — we have not read the document yet
Every amount here is unknown and every biller is known. That is not a consolation prize. Knowing which party issues a charge tells you who to ask, which document to demand and who cannot lawfully bill you for it — and none of that depends on us having read the rate.
The three Charleston terminals, and why the port name is not enough
Port of Charleston is three container terminals under one name, and the query that brings most people here asks for the container terminal in the singular. Wando Welch, North Charleston and Hugh K. Leatherman are different places with different gates and different distances to the same warehouse.
How the pair of neighbouring ports actually differs — one gate against three: how savannah and charleston actually differ.
| Terminal | Named in any tariff? | Address | Gate hours and appointments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wando Welch Terminal | no | not checked yetgap H | not checked yet |
| North Charleston Terminal | no | 1000 Remount Rd, North Charleston, SC 29406appears in the results — consensus, no port document read | not checked yetgap H |
| Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal | no | not checked yetgap H | not checked yet |
What an empty-looking cell means: not checked yet — we have not read the document yet
“Port of Charleston” is not an address. A quote that names the port without naming the terminal has left out the field that decides the road distance and the gate you will queue at. With three sites under one name, that is the field to ask for first.
Dwell at Charleston: nothing read, and nothing published in these results
Port of Charleston has no dwell figure on this page, and unlike New York or Houston there is no visible demand for one either: this query returns no questions block, no AI answer and nothing about dwell in the related searches. The absence is on both sides, and only one of them is ours.
For the shape of what is missing: Savannah, next door, has three dwell figures in circulation — about 3.9 days import, roughly 20 hours rail and about 9.1 days yard. Those are the neighbour’s numbers and they say nothing about Charleston.
The cell on this page reads not checked yet rather than no data exists, because we have not looked at the authority’s own publications — that is gap E and it is a statement about us.
Local fees at Charleston: none read at all
Port of Charleston local fees: none read, and no document holding them located. Every row below says so. The two rows that carry figures belong to other ports and are labelled with them, so the shape of the missing row is visible.
| Fee | Port | Amount | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any local fee at this port | Charleston | not checked yetgap J — and the schedule itself is not located | not checked yet |
| Clean Truck Fund rate | Los Angeles, for contrast | $10 per TEU · $20 over 20 ftPort of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 | Motor carrier, passed through |
| Sustained Import Dwell Fee | Houston, for contrast | $45 per unit per day from day 8Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 | Cargo interest, billed by the port itself |
What an empty-looking cell means: not checked yet — we have not read the document yet
Neither of those figures applies here. They are on this page to show what a read local fee looks like — a rate, a start day, a biller — so that the empty Charleston row above is legible as a missing document rather than as an absent charge.
What the South Carolina Ports Authority publishes
Port of Charleston is the thinnest profile on this site: no median, no volume, no dwell, no local fees, no located authority tariff and not one primary source read for this port. The ledger below says so line by line, and the page ships anyway, because the one thing that has been established — that this is three terminals and not one — changes how every quote for it should be read.
| What an importer needs | Published? | Read by us? |
|---|---|---|
| How many container terminals, and their names | Yes — three, named | established from the resultsread 07/26/2026 |
| The port authority’s own tariff | not checked yetnever located — gap B | not checked yet |
| Free time in days | not checked yetgap B | only through a group that does not name Charlestonnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| Container volume, dated | not checked yetgap D | not checked yet |
| Dwell with a definition | not checked yetgap E | not checked yet |
| Terminal storage tariffs | not checked yetgap A | not checked yet |
| A local fee schedule | not checked yetgap J | not checked yet |
| Gate hours and terminal addresses | not checked yetgap H | found, not readone address seen in the results, from no port document |
| Confirmed 1 of 8. The South Carolina Ports Authority may publish every one of the rest — we have not read them, and an empty register on this page is a record of our search rather than a finding about the port. | ||
What an empty-looking cell means: not checked yet — we have not read the document yet found, not read — the document exists and is identified, but we have not opened it
Every port we cover, with the same eight questions asked of each: every US container port we cover.
Getting the box out of Charleston
Port of Charleston is where the missing terminal name in a quote costs identifiable money: three terminals mean three different distances to the same destination, and the road leg is the line this site cannot price at any port.
| Destination | How the box moves | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | road, or rail to an inland ramp | not publishedgap F — and the distance depends on which of the three terminals |
| The Carolinas | road | not publishedgap F |
| The Midwest | rail, then road | not publishedgap F |
What an empty-looking cell means: not published — the source publishes no figure here
Which port Atlanta cargo should actually come through: which port your atlanta cargo should enter through.
What goes wrong at Charleston, and who pays
The box is held
A customs or agency hold does not stop the clock; free time keeps running while the container sits.
Cargo interest pays the storage; the hold clears through your broker.
The cargo is abandoned
Charges do not stop accruing because nobody collects the box.
The named consignee, and the liability survives the abandonment.
The call moves to another Charleston terminal
This is the local one. A service switched from Wando Welch to North Charleston changes the gate and the road distance without changing the port name on your paperwork — and a quote without a terminal name will not show it.
Cargo interest, through a drayage bill nobody quoted.
What we have not read on this block. The hold types, who lifts each one, at whose cost and within what deadline are gap Q, and the carriers’ own rollover terms are gap R. This block describes the shape of each failure and who the bill lands on; it does not publish deadlines we have not read.
Both of the first two have their own page: when the ship skips your port and what to do when the box will not move.
Your rights under US federal rule
If a Charleston demurrage invoice arrives
Port of Charleston demurrage arrives on a carrier’s invoice, not the port’s, and that invoice answers to a federal rule: 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024. The rule has been before the D.C. Circuit twice since, and the decision of 09/29/2025 changed who may be billed — so the text to read is the current one at eCFR, not a summary of the 2024 announcement.
One local reconciliation comes first here. Check which terminal the invoice names: with three terminals under one port name and a rate that comes from a group line rather than from a Charleston line, the terminal is the first thing to line up against your own record.
What the invoice has to contain, and how the dispute runs: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
Descriptive, not legal advice. The tariff and the invoice in your own file govern your case.
Licensed intermediaries around Charleston
Port of Charleston sits in a metro we have not counted in the Federal Maritime Commission’s register of ocean transportation intermediaries. For scale, the neighbouring Savannah metro has eleven organisations in it — that is Savannah’s number and not Charleston’s. The two standing caveats apply wherever the count is made: it is a metro figure rather than a port figure, and absence from the register is not a finding about a company.
What this register covers, and what it does not. It covers the ocean leg. It does not license drayage carriers and it does not license terminal operators, so the absence of a company from it is not a finding about that company. Half of the route you are buying is regulated by a different agency.
FMC OTI register download · read 07/28/2026.
Sources for the Charleston figures
- serp consensusThree container terminals and their operator, established from the results · read 07/26/2026
the only substantive fact established for this port - serp consensusOne terminal address seen in the results · read 07/26/2026
- verified primaryNine US import demurrage tariffs — none names Charleston · read 07/28–07/29/2026
- verified secondaryGeorgia Ports Authority figures used on this page as the neighbour’s · read 07/26/2026
This is the shortest sources block on the site, and honestly so: zero primary documents have been read about this port itself. How each status is defined: how every figure here is sourced.
Questions about the Port of Charleston
How many container terminals does Charleston have?
Three: Wando Welch, North Charleston and Hugh K. Leatherman, all operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority. The head query for this page asks about the terminal in the singular, which is where most confusion starts.
What is the address of the Charleston container terminal?
The question is incomplete because there are three. The one address these results give is North Charleston at 1000 Remount Rd, and it comes from the result set rather than from a document we opened.
How much is demurrage at Charleston?
No line naming Charleston appears in any of the nine import tariffs we read. The rate comes from each carrier's group for ports not named separately, so no per-port figure exists in our reading.
Savannah or Charleston?
They are shaped in opposite ways: one terminal against three. The pair is decided by the rail at the terminal rather than by channel depth, and on the Savannah side that rule is at least located while here it is not.
How many free days at Charleston?
Whatever your tariff's group line says — four with most carriers and five with COSCO. None of those lines carries the name Charleston, and the clock runs regardless.
What is the dwell time at Charleston?
No figure has been read, and this result set does not publish one either. The absence is on both sides, and only one of those sides is ours to fix.
What are the port charges for containers at Charleston?
Six lines exist and the biller of each is known. Not one amount has been read, so the page publishes the mechanism and marks every figure as unread rather than filling it in.
Does the port publish its own tariff?
We did not find one. That is a statement about our search rather than about the authority, which may well publish it — the register on this page records what we read, not what exists.