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Article published Apr 2, 2005
Company shows interest in port projects

CHARLESTON -- A private company says it's interested in competing proposals to build shipping ports in South Carolina.SSA Marine said it would consider working with the State Ports Authority to build and operate a $600 million terminal in North Charleston, but the company already has plans to partner with Jasper County on another new terminal in the southern part of the state.The SPA and Jasper County are battling in court over a proposal to develop a new terminal on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, and the company plays a key role.The company has made a deal with Jasper County to pay for, design and run a $500 million terminal there, but the SPA is vying to build a public terminal on the same site.The authority has argued that property in Jasper County, often called the best remaining site in the Southeast for a deep water port, should not be turned over to a private developer but should instead remain in the state's hands.The SPA sent out requests last month to more than 30 private firms around the world asking for financial help to design and develop the new terminals in Jasper County and at the former Charleston Naval Base.The authority has said it intends to keep the terminals public and maintain state control over the facilities whether it has private investment in the projects."Expressing an interest and getting something accomplished are two different things," said Jake Coakley, a spokesman for SSA Marine. "We have an interest in both projects, but we already have a current partner on the Jasper County terminal. Until we sit down and find out what the parameters are, we won't know what's (possible with the SPA)."He said a similar attempt several years ago by the SPA to recruit financial support for a terminal on Daniel Island -- a project that later failed in the face of residents' opposition -- was not what SSA Marine had in mind."We expressed an interest in Daniel Island, but the port authority wanted people to put up money but then they would still control the whole thing," Coakley said.SSA is one of 18 shipping lines and terminal operators that have expressed interest in working with the SPA on the multimillion-dollar projects, lauded as the most promising way for the state's ports to stay competitive.Other interested companies include APM Terminals, Ceres Terminals, Hanjin Shipping, Evergreen America and Maersk Inc. have said they would consider collaborating on one or both of the projects, according to the SPA's list of potential partners. Port officials now are setting up meetings with all the firms to determine which groups might have viable proposals.Building the terminals, both of which could also require hundreds of million dollars in new access roads, is an expensive proposition for the SPA to undertake alone."We need the flexibility to look at how we can take the model of what we have now and change it or modify it to make it beneficial for everybody," SPA chief Bernie Groseclose said Thursday."This type of (public-private) arrangement leaves a lot of potential for long-term working agreements and for private interests to be involved anywhere from the permitting process to the design and construction of the terminal."