Construction of the 145,000-square-foot facility off Patriot Boulevard is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The company will then move from its existing site at the end of Leeds Avenue to the new facility….

A half-billion-dollar investment and more than a thousand new jobs hinged on two key factors.

South Carolina was competing with two other states and Mexico for Daimler AG’s only North American plant, where it will build Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans. In the end, the German automaker chose the Palmetto State based largely on its location and its willingness to train the company’s workers, Gov. Nikki Haley said….

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City and business leaders have not discussed “Project Unicorn” openly, with many citing confidentiality agreements. But during a City Council meeting on Thursday, Summey said a newly approved road is related to the project.

City Council unanimously approved an agreement between the city and Weber USA Corp. to build Weber Industrial Drive in North Charleston. The new road will extend from the intersection of Future Drive at Palmetto Commerce Parkway to Patriot Boulevard, according to City Council documents (.pdf)….

The trade publication reports that 65 percent of 138 shippers surveyed last week plan to permanently divert cargo away from West Coast ports because of recent labor problems between port owners and union workers that exacerbated congestion at the busy terminals. An agreement between the two sides was approved late last month, but shippers say they don’t believe that will completely solve the congestion problems.

Nearly 23 percent of shippers said they will send their cargo to ports in the Southeast, including Charleston. Northeast and Gulf Coast ports, tied at 16.1 percent, were the shippers’ second choice….

That is a 13.1 percent increase over 2013 totals and is the fifth consecutive year that exports have set a record in South Carolina, mirroring record-setting increases nationally that topped $2.35 trillion in 2014.

BMW vehicles made at the German manufacturer’s plant in Greer helped the state become the nation’s top exporter of automobiles. With a 21 percent increase over 2013, BMWs accounted for $9.2 billion of the state’s export sales. More than 260,000 vehicles were exported from BMW’s Greer plant, totaling more than 70 percent of the plant’s total volume.