At least one business relationship links the South Carolina waterfront to the Dubai Ports World dust-up.

Seattle-based SSA Marine, which has been pushing to build and operate a container terminal in Jasper County, has offices in Mount Pleasant and stevedoring operations at the Port of Charleston.

SSA also is a partner in a Pennsylvania maritime business with Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., a British company that United Arab Emirates-owned DP World is buying for $6.8 billion.

SSA and P&O each control half of Delaware River Stevedores Inc. That joint venture has a contract to manage Philadelphia's Tioga Marine Terminal. It also loads and off-loads fruit, steel, plywood, containers, cocoa beans and other cargo from ships docked in Camden, N.J., and Wilmington, Del.

SSA spokesman Bob Watters said his firm's new alliance with state-owned DP World was a "passive" move, given that it had no say over P&O's decision to sell its port operations. "By default, we've become partners," he said Thursday.

Watters said SSA plans to keep its 50 percent ownership of Delaware River Stevedores, which hires union labor through the International Longshoreman's Association. He said SSA and DP World have no plans to pursue other business deals together.

SSA, a unit of Seattle's privately held Carrix Inc., is best known in South Carolina as the company that wants to compete with the State Ports Authority. Under an agreement struck in early 2005 with Jasper County, it agreed to build a $450 million container terminal on the Savannah River. The SPA challenged the legal merits of the deal, saying it has the exclusive right to develop and run public marine terminals in the state. The state Supreme Court heard arguments from both sides last year but has yet to issue a ruling.