By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

The conceptual plan for the 800-acre Orangeburg County terminal includes an intermodal rail terminal, a container yard, an intermodal barge terminal and extensive room set aside for warehousing and distribution facilities.

Roughly three-quarters of the property will be set aside for distribution centers and warehouses, according to Carolinks President Lucy Duncan-Scheman, and she expects rents for those buildings to be a big revenue generator for the company.

“Our pitch to the companies we’ve spoken with is that we’re going to offer you big savings on your trucking/logistics costs, and we’d love to talk to you about building a distribution center to your specifications on our property that will make those logistical savings really pay off,” Duncan-Scheman said.

“Think about why most people don’t take public transportation. It’s because public transportation doesn’t take you directly from your home to your final destination. It requires you to make some of the trip—to and from the bus stop, for instance—yourself.”

With a distribution center on site, Duncan-Scheman said Carolinks can guarantee customers door-to-door service.

Although Carolinks has yet to sign a contract with a single client, her plans for the Orangeburg property are already taking on a global flavor, Duncan-Scheman said.

Two years ago, Carolinks’ parent company, Safe Ports Inc., sponsored a South Carolina World Trade Center trade mission to India. Now she wants to bring India to South Carolina in a more permanent sense.

“Trade between the United States and India is increasing dramatically, but there are still many obstacles to that trade that Indian businesses have to confront on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “One thing we want to do in Orangeburg is to dedicate a portion of the property to Indian businesses, allowing them to establish distribution centers, showrooms and assembly plants here and helping to facilitate that trade.”

Also likely to add to the flavor of the Orangeburg site are businesses from Latin America, businesses with which Duncan-Scheman and her husband, L. Ronald Scheman, a former director of the Organization of American States Agency for Cooperation and Development, have had a longtime association.

“Right now, the Latin American trade is heavily in food products, but I can see them exporting lumber and textiles. Latin American companies, I think, will be a very typical customer of ours,” Duncan-Scheman said.

Helping to solidify the international flair of the project is Carolinks’ close affiliation with the South Carolina World Trade Center, which is currently developing a world trade park and education research center, in collaboration with South Carolina State University, in the same general area as Carolinks’ Orangeburg facility.

One component of the SCWTC project is a foreign trade zone that Mark Condon, the organization’s executive director, said could be as large as 3,000 acres or as small as 20 acres, depending upon the outcome of an ongoing feasibility study.

“Regardless of its size, one thing we’re definitely looking at is sharing it with Carolinks,” Condon said. “They’re taking a highly ambitious approach and trying to solve multiple global issues with one project. We want to help them be as effective as they possible can, and one way to do that is to work together and not duplicate our efforts.”

A Foreign Trade Zone is a neutral, secured, enclosed area legally outside of U.S. Customs’ territory and located in or adjacent to a port of entry. Foreign or domestic merchandise may enter this area without formal customs entry, payment of customs duties or government excise taxes, and without thorough examination.

Access to land that is designated a Foreign Trade Zone would boost Carolinks’ efforts to establish assembly plants at its Orangeburg facility because importers pay higher duties on product parts when they leave FTZs than on assembled goods, Condon said.

“That’s why big manufacturers like BMW and Fuji and even Global Aeronuatica set up FTZs when they open plants here,” Condon said.

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