South Carolina Ports Briefly Shut Down, Citing ‘Software Issue’

Update: As of 2:30 p.m., SC Ports’ gate and yard operations are online and gates are now open.

Cargo pickup and drop offs are now accepted at all marine terminals and Inland Port Greer. The complex will extend gates until 7 p.m. Tuesday at Wando Welch and North Charleston terminals to support cargo owners and carriers.

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The South Carolina ports temporarily shut down operations Monday and remain closed Tuesday morning stemming from a “vendor software issue” that impacted one of its servers.

As of 11 a.m, the SC Ports’ operating system is back “up and running” and vessels are being worked on, the ports’ authority says. Cargo operations are still unavailable, with gates to the ports remain closed for loading and unloading.

The software issue first forced the SC Ports Authority to suspend all cargo operations at the Port of Charleston as well as at South Carolina’s intermodal rail facilities Inland Port Greer and Inland Port Dillon. No cargo pickup or drop off occurred during this process.

According to a statement from the ports, work is “progressing.”

“SC Ports has made further progress on our gate issue, but it is not entirely resolved,” said the authority in an update posted on its website at 10 a.m. Tuesday. “We understand the impact that this issue is having on our partners in the industry. We are moving to hourly updates to keep our maritime partners and customers posted on our progress.”

An initial update Sunday evening first indicated that the issue would delay Monday’s port opening to 10 a.m., the opening was postponed two more times before the authority called off operations for the day at 1 p.m.

While the authority initially said it expected to reopen the ports at 5 a.m. Tuesday, it revealed in the morning that it was still trying to bring systems back online, and is still “working through some issues bringing our gate systems back up.”

Although the first Sunday update said the incident did not appear to be a cybersecurity issue, ensuing updates throughout Monday into Tuesday morning removed any mention of cybersecurity.

The ports have referred to it as a “fluid situation.”

Charleston’s Port and Courier newspaper reported that three containerships were scheduled to dock at the Port of Charleston’s Wando Welch terminal on Monday—the ONE Wren, Maersk Innoshima and Long Beach Express. According to MarineTraffic, all three are currently moored at the terminal.

According to the report, the port authority said workers could continue working those ships. However as of yesterday, no cargo was being loaded to trucks and that the gates were closed.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 11 container ships are at anchor off the coast of the Port of Charleston awaiting to enter the port, according to Marine Traffic.

South Carolina’s ports had a strong March, handling 216,410 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of throughput last month, up 12 percent year-over-year, and 118,481 pier containers, up 11 percent from last year. The Port of Charleston reports at 52 feet, making it the deepest harbor on the U.S. East Coast.

The issue comes as there has been a major push by the Biden administration to strengthen port infrastructure and improve security capabilities at the gateways, with the White House earmarking $20 billion over the next five years to bolster these initiatives.

As part of the investment, Biden signed an executive order giving the Coast Guard the authority to control the movement of vessels that present a known or suspected cyber threat to U.S. maritime infrastructure, and be able to inspect those vessels and facilities that pose a threat to cybersecurity.

While there has been no official word on what caused the software problems, cyberattacks have been growing concern for ports, with national security officials saying the U.S. shouldn’t be as reliant on foreign-made cranes, particularly out of China. Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka even acknowledged the possible risks in February, telling Bloomberg, “they’re collecting data, they’re looking at information.”

The U.S. maritime system hasn’t experienced a significant impact from a cyber breach in recent years, but Port Houston previously fell victim to an incident.

In August 2021, suspected foreign government-backed hackers breached a computer network at the Texas port. The breach was detected early, which prevented any operational disruptions. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Jen Easterly revealed to a Senate committee a month later that the organization believed a “nation-state actor” was to blame for the attack. The origin was never publicly revealed.

Internationally, a cyberattack forced one of Australia’s largest port operators, DP World Australia, to suspend operations for three days in November last year.