(Photo/Courtesy South Carolina SPA) South Carolina State Ports Authority CEO Bernard S. Groseclose is looking forward to the expansion of the Port of Charleston.

By Dan McCue and Melinda Copp

Thanks to China and India’s embrace of containerized cargo shipping, every major container seaport in North America handled record amounts of cargo in 2005.

So fast has the trade grown, and with the promise of more to come, that the ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are feverishly seeking to build new terminals, expand the ones they have and deepen their navigation channels to support the booming seagoing trade.

“The reality is that our nation’s international trade volume is growing faster than our infrastructure’s ability to handle it,” said Marion Bull, the S.C. State Ports Authority’s manager of market research. “While municipalities and the federal government struggle to find ways to prioritize, fund and permit projects, the cargo keeps coming. 

Charleston was chosen to host last year’s inaugural conference, presented by Seattle-based publisher Marine Digest and Cargo Business News, because of its longstanding reputation as a highly productive port.

The Port of Charleston continues to be one of the busiest container ports in the United States and ranks fifth in terms of the value of the cargo passing through it, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Trade Data Branch.

By the leading port efficiency measure, container moves per dockside crane per hour, the Port of Charleston ranks second only to Hong Kong, the world’s busiest port. Fifty-two percent of the cargo imported or exported in the Southeast U.S. passes through one of the SPA’s five terminals.

Against that backdrop, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released on Dec. 15, 2006, its final Environmental Impact Statement for the Port of Charleston’s proposed expansion project. The document will ultimately determine the fate of the proposed port expansion at the former Charleston Naval Base, which will cost an estimated $1 billion.

“The need for expansion is past due,” said Byron Miller, director of public relations for the SPA, noting that the project has been on the table for close to 10 years.

“Port expansion is essential for our competitiveness as a state,” said Kristine Hartvigsen, communications manager for the S.C. Chamber of Commerce. “We understand that the port will reach capacity in 15 years, and we need to be proactive. The port bolsters the economy, provides jobs and helps businesses be competitive.”

South Carolina’s ports contribute 282,000 jobs, $9.4 billion in wages and $2.5 billion in state and local taxes. Not only is the SPA a major economic driver, it also is a national defense asset, said Miller, who pointed out that a third of the equipment and supplies used in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom were shipped through the Port of Charleston.

If the SPA gets the permit to move forward on its expansion project in April, it will take approximately six years to complete construction, but the pressures to handle an increasing volume will be constant.

“The volume of cargo passing through our ports is unprecedented,” said Aaron Ellis, spokesman for the American Association of Port Authorities. “In light of what we’re seeing, it’s critical that our ports improve their connectivity with navigation and the nation’s transportation assets as a whole, while maximizing their ability to handle the volume of trade coming in.”

Ports across North America are collectively spending more than $2 billion a year on cranes and other cargo-handling equipment, dredging projects to deepen their navigation channels and computers and software to keep up with the traffic, Ellis said.

“They’re not only expanding facilities, they’re building new terminals to handle these greater volumes. That’s become quite a trend around the country,” he said.

The SPA has plans to improve the facility to meet increasing short-term demands. It plans to spend $150 million on new, more-efficient container-stacking cranes and other equipment.

The proposed North Charleston terminal will provide approximately 3,510 feet of berthing space and 280 acres of container support area. An integral part of the expansion plan is a $9.6 million environmental and community mitigation plan to offset any impacts. This expansion, combined with the SPA’s near-term improvement plan, is expected to handle growth by the Port of Charleston’s existing customer base through 2024.

“Personally, I think the Port of Charleston is in a great position to grow its volume in regard to trade from the Far East,” said Michael Maloni, an assistant professor of management at Pennsylvania State University and author of a recent survey regarding port capacity.

Among the factors he cited were the depth of the navigation channel, local roads and their access to the highway systems and its proximity to major metropolitan areas such as Charlotte and Atlanta.

“Another factor that’s important to consider is what’s driving cargo from the West to the East Coast: congestion,” he said. “That really plays to the Port of Charleston’s strength, which is its ability to move cargo quickly and efficiently.”

“The thing about the Port of Charleston, looking at it historically, is that once they begin to move in one direction or another, they do so aggressively,” said John C. Martin, a prominent economic analyst for the port industry. “That’s what’s made it an excellent port.

“In the end, the thing ocean carriers respond to most is definitive action. They’re in a dynamic industry, so they’re not impressed with something that’s promised 10 years down the road. The ports that win out in the years ahead are going to be those who walk the walk. Talk will only get you so far, and that’s at the back of the pack.”