A recent report issued by the South Carolina Department of Commerce highlighted the Palmettos State’s growth in exports during 2013 while showing a current spike in residential building permits and a small variation in home sales from last year.
South Carolina saw an increase of 3.98 percent to $26.1 billion in exports in 2013 and experienced an export growth rate 85 percent higher than the 2.14 percent rise of the United States.
Regional states such as Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina also witnessed a surge in export growth last year, though Alabama and Virginia experienced a slight decrease.
Overall, South Carolina’s share of the United States export total grew from 1.62 percent in 2012 to 1.65 percent last year.
The state’s leading providers in export growth during 2013 were aircraft with an $888 million increase, nuclear fuel elements with a $278 million increase, and passenger vehicles with a $116 million increase.
China pushed ahead of Canada last year as South Carolina’s chief destination for exports and received around $4.8 billion in goods. The state exported $3.7 billion in goods to Canada, $3.2 billion to Germany and $1.8 billion to Mexico.
Throughout January 2014 the total of residential building permits issued by the state of South Carolina was 29.6 percent higher than in January last year.
Although residential building permits were up, the state’s real estate sales were slow the first month of 2014, falling two percent from the same month one year ago.
Statewide, home sales were also down in early 2014 from the same time last year, seeing a drop in sales volume from 3,641 to 3,567. Both Greenville and Spartanburg saw changes from January 2013 to January of this year as Greenville experienced a small improvement in sales volume from 512 to 527, and Spartanburg saw a minor dip in sales volume from 226 to 194.
