Sources: Maersk Decision On Charleston Port Imminent
Multiple sources have confirmed to FITS that a decision from Danish shipping giant Maersk Sealand regarding its relationship with the Port of Charleston is expected any day now – and perhaps within the week.
The company was the port’s biggest client until it started re-routing its vessels to Savannah, GA and Wilmington, NC earlier this year in the first stages of a planned withdrawal.
Last December, Maersk announced that it was leaving Charleston altogether in 2010, which resulted in the resignation of S.C. State Ports Authority President Bernard Grosecose and frantic negotiations on the part of state lawmakers and port officials to keep the company in town.
The SPA pitch was made two weeks ago in Charlotte, with one S.C. official telling FITS that the company was given a deadline to respond to the offer that “approximated the March 3 pullout of the Tarragona.”
The Tarragona is a Maersk vessel that is scheduled to depart from Charleston for the final time a week from today, part of a revision of the company’s South Atlantic Express that was announced on Feb. 4.
“They have no excuses now (for leaving),” the official said. “They got everything they asked for from us.”
Even before Maersk’s stunning December announcement – which also spawned a legislative showdown between free market supporters and big government backers – the Port of Charleston was rapidly losing ground to the competition.
Under the leadership of SPA Chairman Bill Stern, the port of Charleston has dropped from No. 4 to No. 8 in the nation in container traffic.
Also, Ports Authority board members have done everything within their power to block the development of a deep-water port in Jasper County.
According to newly-elected State Senator and former SPA board member Tom Davis, at the heart of both problems is a fundamental failure on the part of the state to engage private capital by loosening its outdated “total state control” management approach.
“We have companies willing to invest right now,” Davis said last week on the Senate floor. “Why are we turning them away?”
Comments
By Clueless in Charleston on February 24th, 2009 at 7:37 am
So if we give Maersk everything they wanted and they still leave, what should that tell us ?
How much of the Port of Charleston’s overall container business does Maersk represent?
If we can not utilize our existing 3 public terminals in Charleston, shouldn’t we build more terminals?
By Clyde Smoak on February 24th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Interesting that Tom Davis tells anyone that will listen that we have a company ready to invest right now. What you don’t hear him say, is that the company is SSA Marine and the Union.
Tom Davis is no free market supporter. He is nothing more than another politician being bought and paid for by the unions. His pockets were being lined while he was involved by the Ports and now as a Senator. I dare he call himself a Free Market Republican!!!
By west_rhino on February 24th, 2009 at 10:40 am
One wonders at the shortsightedness of not attracting other lines to come into Chucktown leaves me wonderin about the “professionals” attracted to run the SPA. Understanding that some of the more accessable (for ships) terminals are on sites that are more desirable for condos to be built by bubbas of Riley, why haven’t we built on Daniel Island or better yet, built up the harbor that doesn’t require as much dredging, Beaufort, which has better access to I-95 and is closer to the high speed rail corridor that was gerrymandered to Savannah and Wilmington, with the exclusion of Charleston. What’s with that? Who was at the helm (in DC) looking at Charleston real estate while it was still on the up bubble? There is more her than meets the eye and I wouldn’t be suprised if it has something to do with the departure of the navy base and shipyard on the Cooper with big eyes on the now busted real estate market.