Maersk Pulling Out Of Charleston
The Port of Charleston’s biggest customer is “gone baby gone.”
Maersk-Sealand, the Danish-based global shipping giant, announced earlier today that it is pulling out of the Port of Charleston for good after failing to reach an agreement with the S.C. State Ports Authority and members of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
Maersk accounts for 25% of the container traffic to flow through the Port each year.
From the Charleston Post and Courier:
Maersk will move one line, representing one-quarter of its local business, in early 2009 and will completely depart no later than Dec. 31, 2010, when its contract in Charleston ends.
Although we hinted that this move was imminent in our story yesterday, we had no idea it would happen so fast.
Apparently it caught the Ports Authority completely by surprise, although we had been told by an official at the agency earlier this week that Maersk pulling out was “a real possibility.”
Amazingly, as recently as three years ago Maersk was looking to pump over a billion dollars in new capital investment into our state, money which the State Ports Authority rejected in order to maintain “total state control” over the management of our port infrastructure.
Stay tuned to FITS for more on this in tomorrow’s editions …
Comments
By Tradd on December 18th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
South Carolina just got served.
By Here's and idea.... on December 18th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Privatize it. Now.
By Steve on December 19th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Despite past problems, according to the Post & Courier the problem this time was the International Longshoremen’s Association, not the Ports Authority.
“The South Carolina State Ports Authority offered us a workable solution that involved a move into the common yard, but we need the consent of the local ILA to accomplish the move,” said Dana Magliola, a Maersk spokesman, in a written statement. “The ILA refused to consent, and so we are forced to move.”
By Silence the Noise on December 19th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Fits right again BIN….because we know you keep score.
By fitsnews on December 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Steve-
Not so fast. We spoke w/ several folks involved in these negotiations over the last few days. The SPA could have resolved this by forgoing the shortfall fees but didn’t.
They forced Maersk to choose between two options, knowing which one they would take, and knowing they would then be able to play the whole “it’s the union” card.
Don’t get us wrong, unions are an abomination to our economy and this union exercised incredible stupidity in sacrificing hundreds (if not thousands) of jobs in the long run trying to protect a few dozen in the short term.
Having said that, the SPA is not clean here, which we have no doubt will come to light as this disaster progresses.
FITS
By Maersk moves business to its new terminal in Norfolk on December 19th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Come on guys- it doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Anyone , other than our mentally challenged elected officials, could see that Maersk was just biding time in Charleston until they got their new terminal up and running in Norfolk. Maersk was 50% of the SPA’s container business 4 years ago.
In a global recession, a private company consolidates and runs business through its own terminals . On the other hand , we have SPA Groseclose and his minions continuing plans to build another under-utilized terminal in Charleston.
Maersk’s new terminal in Norfolk blows away the truck only Wando terminal . Why truck containers to the sparsely populated South Carolina market when you can rail containers all over the Midwest cheaper from Norfolk?
It is depressing to see the press and politicians not delve into reality and continue to tout the SPA public agency spin.
Name me one politician who is asking the tough questions that will turn our port into a well run asset for our state.
By Maersk leaving equal bigger bonuses for port execs on December 19th, 2008 at 12:52 am
With port volume continuing to plummet, I have to assume port executive bonuses should double or triple this next year.
By Roger on December 19th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Good news for the ‘closed shop’ union off Norfolk Southern delivering those trucks from Norfolk. Hope my stock goes up! Long Shoreman will survive and prosper! Some of the best paid employees in the State…… Some of you guys are just jealous that your little weasel jobs don’t come close in pay! Go vote for more repubs and watch the wealth keep shifting to the well off!
By David on December 19th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Charleston is not the only port with declining volumes and not the only place the Maersk made committments to. The Georgia Ports Authority relieved Maersk of the shortfalls there in “good faith” in order to maintain a valued customer. Why cant the SPA do the same?
This is not a union issue but an issue where the Supreme Port Authority is simply chasing away their biggest customer and eliminating a lot or Revenue of SC.
By CL on December 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
“Go vote for more repubs and watch the wealth keep shifting to the well off!”
And you keep voting Democrat so the wealth can disappear. The economy is not a zero sum game. Under capitalism, we have witnessed the greatest wealth generation in human history. Yet politicians on both sides have amnesia on this point and fall all over themselves to cripple the operation of the free market. I will continue to vote Republican, because it is the only party where you find candidates who remember that our prosperity is a result of capitalism, not in spite of it. And I would ask you remember that Obama gave you fair warning in his nomination speech:
“This was the moment, this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation . . .”
By An economics question for the team on December 19th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Ok gents- it’s econ 101 time -South Carolina style. Let’s say you are running the state – and you get to call the play here.
Your State Ports Authority is handling 1.7 million TEU’s per year in 2008. The economy is going into a tailspin. Maersk handles 20+% of your port business’s volume and says goodbye – so long – see you later. Now you are left with handling only 1.36 million TEU’s. Your 3 existing terminals can handle 2.5 million TEU’s at current capacity.
You are scheduled to build the most expensive container terminal in the U.S. with no guarantee of any future business to utilize it –
The state legislature has already committed $167 million dollars to fund part of a port access road to your proposed new terminal -which by the way is incapable of handling rail .
Other agencies desperately need funds now- not for business that might happen 4 or 5 years from now – but to keep law enforcement and public health agencies running.
What play are you going to call coach?
By BIN News Editorial Staff on December 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Silence, Silence! sic(k) willie never broke this story. As noted above we don’t need a weatherman to tell us that sic(k) willie is blowing.
Uhhh, sorry. To tell us the wind is blowing.
All we need to do is look around.
That’s all sic(k) willie did.
He looked at information available to everyone, claimed to talk to secret sources deep inside the issue (notice he never ever names his sources – wonder why?) and tried to take credit for a story that is as plain at the wart on the back of his head.
The only sources sic(k) willie has are the dust bunnies under his bed.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Always Flair and Balanced
By Bin News is a misnomer on December 20th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Bin News – I do not know anything about you – except I have never heard any “news” come from you. Sic Willie has posted hundreds of stories – apparently you think that two of them were off the mark. Ok we all get that especially since you have brought it up over a hundred times – we get it.
Sic Willie fills a big void in the news business – What we read in the print newspapers is bland and fairly non thought provoking –
The mainstream press has been wrong on issues of much greater importance than strom’s problem – -you know like us finding WMD in Iraq – I suggest you go bark up that tree – boys are dying due to that error.
I, and many other readers, like Sic Willie’s track record- if you don’t – go away and leave us alone. If you have the intelligence and necessary skills to actually find “news” start your own blog and see who drops by -
By Barry Joel Mullinax on April 10th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I just got layed off I been too the port for over 2 years or longer now I [just got layed off] I got a frind who will let me yous his truck. if some body will let me pull containers for them. I got my TWIK and my GA Port authority . so Whats up for me
Trackbacks