Testing is expected to occur next year on the turbine, which can power up to 8,000 homes, the paper reported.
The turbine is part of Clemson’s wind -turbine research facility dedicated in late 2013. The 82,000 square foot facility’s mission is to help create the next generation of wind technologies and reduce energy costs.
The new inland port slated for Dillon, SC will have five-day/week service, instead of the originally planned two-three day/ week service, authorities said.
“Forest products and agriculture products are both target export commodities for the facility,” a state ports authority spokesman said.
According to Charleston newspaper The Post and Courier:
The Dillon facility will handle about 45,000 containers in its initial full year of operations, with the SPA hoping to boost capacity to 220,000 cargo boxes annually as the area attracts new distribution centers and manufacturers. The Upstate facility, by comparison, handled 121,761 containers in fiscal 2017, which ended June 30.
Congratulations to Augusta Fiberglass Coatings, Inc. for its continued growth, resulting in 12 more jobs and another $625,000 investment in its operations in Blackville, SC. For more information, click here.
Dillon County, right on Interstate 95 and site of South Carolina’s new inland port, will be the location of American Scrappers’ new distribution and logistics center for the U.S. East Coast.
The company says it will invest $15.5 million and bring 200 new jobs to the area.
Kortrijk and Greenville,SC have been Sister Cities for nearly two decades. SC Connect helped join citizens in Belgium and South Carolina to rekindle the cultural and business connections.
At the beginning of 2017, Ward Vleegen had a short time to make a big impact.
As head of the newly created Transport and Mobility Group, he was charged with building a new division within the much larger AGORIA group – Belgium’s largest employer and trade association.
Ward Vleegen, head of Agoria’s Transport and Mobility Club in Belgium
Vleegen knew what he was doing – he’d been creating collaborations within the automotive industry for more than a decade, but his board and members were serious about building business – not simply joining another network.
The prospect of a U.S. trip was discussed almost from the time the group began in November of 2016.
“My steering committee asked for a very focused approach, and not just a general visit,” Vleegen said.
About the same time, the Upstate SC Alliance, home to BMW’s largest manufacturing and plant as well as the North American headquarters of Michelin, asked SC Connect to help it make inroads into Belgium.
BeneluxConnect reached out to Vleegen and his group. Cautious at first, Vleegen over time warmed to the idea and helped arrange a meeting with members of his group and the Upstate Alliance during their Belgian visit in June.
Gathering at the club’s modern offices in downtown Brussels, the Upstate representatives outlined the scope and depth of South Carolina’s automotive industry, and the opportunities for Belgian ingenuity.
Once that happened, “We could see that the (Belgian) companies that were present were interested in South Carolina,” Vleegen said. “And that, for us, meant ‘okay, we have to move this forward.’”
Through the summer of 2017, Vleegen, the Upstate SC Alliance and SC Connect worked to connect the Transport and Mobility Club to the South Carolina automotive sector.
As a result, members of the Belgian group traveled to the SC Automotive Council’s annual conference in 2018 and presented to state industry leaders on agile manufacturing, one of the group’s specialties. BeneluxConnect – through its sister company SCConnect – prepared an extensive online portfolio for the trip, which you can view here.
Vleegen knows he would have made the contacts within South Carolina sooner or later. But he credits SC Connect with speeding the process by making the personal connection.
“Meeting the people was definitely an added value,” he said. ‘That was a big added value.”
In the fall of 2016, leaders of Greenville, SC and Kortrijk, W. Flanders began planning a visit to cement their Sister City relationships.
It was a long-dormant relationship that had been revived that summer by a trip of Greenville representatives to Belgium.
SC Connect was asked to facilitate, and began working with Greenville Sister Cities International, the City of Kortrijk and the chambers of commerce of both Greenville and West Flanders.
Stijn Van de Velde of Greenville Sister Cities
“I needed someone to actually go around and make connections,” said Stijn Van de Velde, who led the Sister Cities effort. “There’s nothing like physical contact, eye-to-eye meetings and handshakes on location.”
“People in responsible positions also want to be approached in a professional manner, and SC Connect does that,” he said.
Relationship Began a Century Ago
The trip would build on a relationship that began during World War I, when the US Army’s 30th Infantry Division that trained in Greenville participated in the Battle of the Somme in Flanders during the First World War.
The relationship accelerated during the textile industry’s heydays, when Greenville billed itself as the “Textile Capital of the World” and hosted Belgian business leaders at its international convention. Friendships strengthened through the years with garden club exchanges, photography exhibits and student exchanges between Furman University and the Catholic University of Leuven (KULAK) in Kortrijk.
Things formalized in 1990 when Kortrijk invited Greenville representatives to ceremonies marking Kortrijk’s 800th anniversary.
Since the 1990s, Kortrijk and Greenville have evolved away from textile-based economies. Greenville has attracted large manufacturers, such as BMW and Michelin, as it developed a reputation for precision engineering and advanced manufacturing.
Kortrijk, with its many family-owned businesses, developed a unique culture of creativity that inspires its flourishing manufacturing and design industries. Today, its medieval city hall anchors a modern region known for such companies as Delta Lighting, Barco, Bekaert and many others that integrate smart design into manufacturing.
Building a 21st Century Partnership
Van de Velde, a West Flanders native but now a Greenville businessman, organized the trip of Greenville representatives to Kortrijk in June of 2016. That led to plans for a return trip of Kortrijk leaders to Greenville in the spring of 2017.
Working from Belgium, SC Connect worked first to create an exchange that brought a marketing specialist from the W. Flanders VOKA to the Greenville Chamber of Commerce for a week. The exchange deepened the ties.
Then, as Van de Velde pulled the visit together from Greenville, SC Connect met with Kortrijk leaders from education, government and business to organize the Belgian delegation. That involved multiple trips to City Hall, Rotary Clubs, non-profit offices and the chamber of commerce.
Real-World Results
The result: 11 Belgians made the trip, including Kortrijk Mayor Vincent Van Quickenborne and representatives from Catholic University of Leuven, DesignRegion Kortrijk, HOWEST University and VOKA-W. Flanders. They were joined by the Belgian Consul and trade representatives from Atlanta for a week-long visit.
Greenville Mayor Knox White (l) and Kortrijk Mayor Vincent Van Quickenborne share a moment during 2017 Sister City visit of Kortrijk to Greenville.
The groups mixed well — so well, in fact, that the two mayors disappeared at one point during the farewell dinner, sneaking off to a reception where the Greenville mayor needed to appear before returning to the Kortrijk party.
Since that visit,
Furman and HOWEST have restarted discussions about how their students and teachers can work together.
Nanotechnology researchers at KULAC and Clemson have begun exploring collaborations, and
Discussions are underway for ways to connect high school age students from both communities.
“I think it wouldn’t have worked without SC Connect,” said Van de Velde. “Without the eyes and ears, without the boots on the ground, the face to face meetings, the glue to hold things together.”
BMW Invests Another $600 Million in SC. That makes the Greer, SC facility BMW’s largest plant in the world, 25 years after it first started production.
