News and Updates

Reflecting on SeaGate’s 20-Year Anniversary

Written by Kevin Glover, President of SeaGate Terminals

In 2000, our legacy company Southern States Phosphate and Fertilizer ceased production of fertilizer after decades of changing market conditions, leaving an aging warehouse structure and 25 acres of property near the Savannah River underutilized. Shortly thereafter in 2001, SeaGate Terminals was founded and began operations with these assets, our strong customer relationships in the fertilizer industry, and a lot of grit.

We discovered very early the importance of listening to our customers, understanding and solving their challenges in value-adding ways, and doing what we say we are going to do in matters big and small. In operating by these principles, we developed deep trust with our customer base and our service offerings continued to expand to include stevedoring, bagging, screening, packaging, and more as customers further integrated our value-creating operations into their supply chain.

As we took on new opportunities within our customer’s operations, we began to see the mutual benefits of maximizing our existing land assets and partnering with our customers to develop or expand their operations on-site. In addition to our customers’ real estate needs being met, our co-development partners saw benefit in utilizing additional value services such as our building services, maintenance operations, coordinated warehousing and third-party logistics, raw material supply, and more.

We have even seen this co-development model create new business opportunities for our customers, as their proximity to other industrial users created natural synergies. The result of this model is efficiently coordinated services that allow customers the flexibility and freedom to focus on their core business activities.

What began in 2001 with an initial successful shipment and warehousing of granular urea has grown into a full-service material handling and logistics operation, specializing in – but by no means limited to – bulk products like salt, soda ash, and of course, fertilizer. Today, our portfolio includes three sites, two terminals, and over 650 acres of land for development. A variety of bulk products cross our docks and flow through our terminals, and our team continues to learn and flexibly meet our customers’ needs.

We are proud to partner with many respected customers and tenants who continue to trust us with critical aspects of their supply chain and operations. We still have the same grit that we started with 20 years ago, and we’re still hungry to understand our customers so we can turn pain points into value. Even though market conditions, regulations, and many other aspects of life and business change in 20 years, our commitment to doing what we say we will do hasn’t changed and won’t change. We add value to our customers’ stored products – it’s what we do; it’s who we are. Today and every day.