South Carolina

South Carolina Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, South Carolina exported $38.0 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from South Carolina supported an estimated 116 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from South Carolina and Jobs

• South Carolina was the 17th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, South Carolina goods exports were $38.0 billion, an increase of 28 percent ($8.3 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 11.6 percent of South Carolina GDP in 2024.
• South Carolina goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 116 thousand jobs (latest data available). Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from South Carolina and Jobs

• In 2024, South Carolina exported $37.2 billion of manufactured products.
• South Carolina exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 112 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $19.2 billion of South Carolina's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are chemicals ($4.7 billion), plastics & rubber products ($3.1 billion), machinery, except electrical ($2.5 billion), and fabricated metal products, not elsewhere specified ($1.5 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of South Carolina Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 6,537 companies exported from South Carolina locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 5,485 (84 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 13.2 percent of South Carolina's total exports of goods in 2022.

South Carolina Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Germany. South Carolina exported $5.0 billion in goods to Germany in 2024, representing 13 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Germany was followed by Canada ($4.2 billion), Mexico ($3.6 billion), China ($3.4 billion), and South Korea ($2.7 billion).
• South Carolina’s exports to major world areas included:

• 39 percent of South Carolina’s goods exports ($14.9 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in South Carolina depends on Exports

• South Carolina is the country’s 34th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $1.1 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2023 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
• Top Agricultural exports were:

	2023 Value	2023 State Rank
other plant products	$264 million	23
cotton	$216 million	10
broiler meat	$123 million	10
soybeans	$98 million	22
other livestock products	$56 million	25

International Investment Creates Jobs in South Carolina

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 184,900 South Carolina workers. Major sources of foreign investment in South Carolina included Germany, France and Canada.
• Foreign investment in South Carolina was responsible for 9.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

South Carolina’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in South Carolina recorded goods exports: Augusta-Richmond County ($1.2 billion), Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia ($11.5 billion), Charleston-North Charleston ($9.5 billion), Columbia ($2.2 billion), Florence ($1 billion), Greenville-Anderson-Greer ($15.4 billion), Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal ($86.4 million), Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach ($206 million), Spartanburg ($2.3 billion), and Sumter ($122.3 million).