Manufacturing Economy
South Carolina’s Three Largest Factory Industries Held Just 36% of Its Manufacturing Economy
In 2024, South Carolina’s three largest manufacturing industries accounted for only 36.06% of its manufacturing value added. Its industry-mix HHI was 800.32, the lowest among the 44 complete states with at least $5 billion of manufacturing value added.
Editorial evidence cutoff: September 9, 2026. Published September 29, 2026. Observation periods are stated throughout; older figures are retrospective evidence.
A September 2026 supplier search built around one familiar industry can overlook much of a state’s manufacturing economy. South Carolina’s 2024 value-added table provides a retrospective check on that risk. The figures were present in the BEA archive by September 9; they describe a historical portfolio, not a new September ranking of plant activity.
South Carolina’s manufacturing economy is difficult to summarize with a single industry. In 2024, its three largest manufacturing groups accounted for 36.06% of the state’s manufacturing value added. Almost two-thirds was distributed across the other sixteen groups in the BEA classification. Motor vehicles mattered, but they were not even the largest category in that year’s value-added table.
Across states with at least $5 billion of manufacturing value added and complete industry records, South Carolina had the lowest concentration index. It also had the lowest top-three share. Those results describe a broad industry portfolio. They do not establish that South Carolina is the safest place to operate a factory or that its industries will withstand the next downturn better. The distinction is essential to making useful sense of BEA’s state industry accounts.
THE AUTO STORY LEAVES MOST OF THE TABLE UNREAD
Chemicals accounted for 13.51% of South Carolina manufacturing value added in 2024. Motor vehicles and parts represented 12.14%, and plastics and rubber 10.41%. Even taken together, those three groups covered little more than a third of the total. A supplier treating the state chiefly as an automotive market would be overlooking a large part of its measured manufacturing activity.
That does not imply every remaining category is an equally useful prospect. Value added is not purchasing expenditure, and broad industry labels conceal different customers and technical requirements. A chemicals operation and a plastics operation may buy very different machinery, maintenance services and process controls. The complete table provides a map for further investigation. It cannot substitute for identifying who buys a supplier’s particular capabilities, what standards they require, and whether their demand is accessible.
TWO MEASURES POINT TO THE SAME BROAD PORTFOLIO
The concentration index is calculated by taking each of nineteen industries’ percentage shares and adding their squares. Large shares have a disproportionate effect, so a state dominated by one industry receives a higher score. South Carolina’s score was 800.32 in 2024. This is an industry-mix measure within manufacturing, not a measure of how much manufacturing contributes to the whole state economy.
Because an index can feel abstract, the simpler top-three share is calculated alongside it. South Carolina ranks lowest on that measure too among the forty-four complete states above the $5 billion threshold. The agreement matters: its position is not merely an obscure consequence of one mathematical formula. Readers can inspect the largest groups directly and see the breadth that the index is compressing into a number.
THE SIZE CUTOFF DOES NOT CREATE THE WINNER
A state with a tiny manufacturing base can look unusual in a ranking because one small establishment or category shift moves its shares sharply. The main comparison therefore uses an explicit $5 billion minimum. It is an editorial scale filter, not a statistical law. Repeating the concentration ranking without that filter leaves South Carolina in first place for breadth across all fifty complete state portfolios.
The earlier observation also supports the finding. In 2019, South Carolina’s index was 840.36 and its top-three share was 37.91%. By 2024, both had declined. That five-year comparison does not prove a deliberate diversification strategy, but it establishes that the 2024 result is not a broad portfolio that suddenly appeared in the final observation. The ranking and historical comparison answer different questions: the first compares places; the second compares the state with itself.
A BROAD INDUSTRY LIST CAN STILL HIDE SHARED RISKS
The next step is to ask whether these nineteen categories actually represent nineteen independent sources of demand. They do not necessarily. Different manufacturers may sell to the same major customer, depend on the same transport corridor, buy from the same upstream producer, or respond to the same credit conditions. A statistical division into industries does not remove those economic connections.
Concentration can also exist inside a category. A broad industry group may contain a small number of large establishments, one dominant production program, or a narrow product specialization. None of that is visible in a nineteen-sector value-added table. Describing a state as diversified without explaining the level of aggregation can therefore overstate what has been measured. The data establish breadth across these particular industry groups; resilience and supplier redundancy require different evidence.
THE DENOMINATOR CHANGES THE QUESTION
South Carolina’s broad manufacturing mix should not be confused with a low dependence on manufacturing. The calculation divides each manufacturing industry by total manufacturing, not by the state’s entire economy. A state can have a very broad collection of factories while relying heavily on manufacturing overall. Another can have a narrow factory sector that is small relative to its services economy.
This distinction matters for both business reporting and economic-development claims. A promise to diversify a state’s economy might mean reducing dependence on manufacturing as a whole, expanding the range of industries within manufacturing, or increasing the number of independent employers within an industry. These are different objectives, with different denominators and different measures of success. The portfolio table addresses only the second. A scorecard that switches between them can manufacture an apparent improvement without documenting the intended change.
USE THE PORTFOLIO TO ASK BETTER COMMERCIAL QUESTIONS
For a business considering expansion into South Carolina, the table suggests a concrete research sequence. Start by identifying which of the nineteen industries purchase the relevant product or service. Then check the actual customer base, establishment locations, purchasing relationships and qualifications. Compare the business’s own exposure with the state portfolio: a diversified state does little for a supplier whose entire local revenue comes from one production program.
The September use is to broaden the questions asked of the market. A seller can investigate which parts of this historical portfolio actually purchase its products and whether recent customer evidence confirms their scale. State-level breadth is a starting map, not protection against a supplier’s own concentration in a few accounts.
For public claims about industrial strength, the appropriate next question is equally specific. Does a broader mix coincide with steadier employment, less volatile real value added, or faster recovery from a common shock? Those outcomes should be measured rather than inferred from the index. South Carolina’s portfolio is broad under two measures, with and without the size filter, and in both observed years. That is a substantial finding. Turning it into a claim about future safety would take additional evidence.
Sources and evidence
Evidence period: 2019 and 2024; full annual sector paths retained in source. The frozen evidence record lists the source files and verified hashes available September 9, 2026. Source revision: 5e4fb7726c3d40060c0151c086c903baae856cab. Later live-data updates do not alter the historical evidence in this article.
Published 2026-09-29.