History of The Ports in Georgia

• 1793 – At Mulberry Grove Plantation on a bluff above the Savannah River, a young teacher named Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, forever transforming the agricultural landscape of the South.

• 1819 – The S.S. Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean from the United States to Europe, sails from Savannah in May, arriving in Liverpool, England 29 days later.

• 1820 – By this time, Savannah is the 18th largest city in the United States and has already established its reputation as an international shipping center, with exports exceeding $14 million. Cotton remains the principal export until the Civil War, making up 80 percent of the agricultural products shipped from Savannah.

• 1833 – The Central of Georgia Railway (with the city of Savannah as its largest stockholder) receives its charter from the Georgia legislature.

• 1843 – The Central of Georgia line from Savannah to Macon is completed, allowing more cotton to be shipped from the interior of the state to the port of Savannah.

• 1854 – A major September hurricane floods local rice and cotton plantations, greatly injuring the port and shipping concerns. To make matters worse, more than 1,000 people die in one of the area’s worst yellow fever epidemics.

• 1864 – Union Gen. William T. Sherman delivers his famous telegram to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, presenting “as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah with 150 heavy guns … and about 25,000 bales of cotton.”

• 1872 – By now, Savannah has once again achieved commercial prosperity through the export of inland-grown Georgia cotton.

• 1880s-1920 – Savannah becomes the world’s leading exporter of naval stores products, including pine timber, resin and distilled turpentine. By 1905, Savannah’s exports, chiefly cotton and naval stores, are greater than the combined exports of all other south Atlantic seaports.

• 1903 – The United States acquires the Panama Canal Zone. They continue the earlier work done by the French.

• 1914 – The Panama Canal opens.

• 1920s – The boll weevil devastates the Southern cotton industry and Savannah port activities turn to new industries to fill the void.

• 1930s – The large-scale pulp-and-paper and food processing industries of Union Bag (later Union Camp) and the Savannah Sugar Refinery (Dixie Crystals) keep Savannah’s port at the forefront of import and export in the South.

• 1941-1945 – Savannah’s port plays a prominent role in World War II, as one of the nation’s most active Atlantic shipyards for the construction of Liberty Ship transports.

• 1945 – The Georgia Ports Authority – with control over the deepwater ports in both Savannah and Brunswick – is created by an act of the Georgia legislature in response to the post-World War II economic boom.

• 1948 – The GPA acquires land on the Savannah River in Garden City, creating Garden City Terminal to handle bulk and general cargoes and, later, containerized cargo.

• 1956 – Gov. Marvin Griffin signs a bill to make Brunswick and Bainbridge state ports.

• 1957 – The Legislature approves over $8 million for the state ports.

• 1958 – Ocean Terminal is purchased from the Central of Georgia Railway. It will later become a roll-on, roll-off terminal, handling primarily automobiles and wheeled heavy equipment.

• 1959 – The state purchases Whitehall Plantation for port expansion.

• 1960 – State docks at Brunswick dedicated.

• 1961 – A $16 million expansion is revealed with Savannah getting the lion’s share of the money.

• 1962 – Gov. Ernest Vandiver dedicates the improvements at Ocean Terminal.

• 1963 – The report for 1962 reveals that Savannah ranks second on the east coast behind Norfolk, Va.

• 1964 – Plans are made to build warehouses at the Garden City Terminal.

• 1965 – A strike by Longshoremen in the early part of the year shuts down shipping.

• 1966 – A joint effort between the state and federal government to widen and deepen the Savannah channel is established. Over $28 million is committed to the project.

• 1967 – The port is ranked 10th in the nation for handling general cargo.

• 1970 – Savannah is ranked 6th among U.S. ports; a new terminal opens.

• 1971 – The port is selected as a main entry point for S.S. Kresge Co. (present day Kmart).

• 1972 – The first container terminal opens; container service with Japan begins; a second container terminal is planned.

• 1973 – The port is considered for a Trident submarine base. St. Marys was eventually chosen.

• 1975 – A master dispatch center at Garden City terminal opens. It serves all agents, lines, receivers, shippers and others.

• 1977 – Plans are made to widen the harbor 100 feet.

• 1980 – A 175-ton capacity crane opens.

• 1981 – $6.5 million in damage is done when a GPA crane falls.

• 1982 – Rumblings about the height of the Talmadge Bridge costing potential business begin.

• 1983 – The Talmadge Bridge sustains damage when a ship rams it.

• 1985 – The GPA purchases the 2,200 acre Drakie Plantation.

• August 1990 – The port moves equipment on ships for Operation Desert Shield.

• March 1991 – A new, higher Talmadge Bridge opens.

• August 1999 – Chinese stowaway are discovered on a ship in port.

• September 1999 – The port is evacuated, along with the city, in the face of Hurricane Floyd.

• January 2000 – Dollar Tree chooses Savannah as the new location of a new distribution and shipping center. The port was one of the factors leading to the decision.

• June 2000 – Maersk Sealand signs a contract with the Georgia Ports Authority. The shipping giant will be making regular Savannah stops.

• 2001 – Jasper County begins exploring the possibility of a port.

• September 2001 – After the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the port begins strengthening its security measures.

• February 2002 – Pier 1 proposes a new distribution center.

• 2002 – Mary Musgrove’s trading post is discovered on port land. The site is catalogued before being graded over for a new container berth.

• January 2003 – The port once again deploys the military for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

• March 2003 – Savannah’s port is ranked the fourth busiest in the country.

• June 2003 – The ports receive $2.5 million to upgrade security.

• August 2003 – The port brings in the returning military equipment from Iraq.

• June 2004 – The G-8 Summit is held at Sea Island.

• February 2005 – K-Line America Inc. makes Savannah a stop.

• September 2005 – Two super post-Panamax cranes come on-line.

• February 2006 – More battle gear returns.

• May 2006 – Savannah is poised to overtake Charleston to become the number 4 container port in the country.

Sources: New Georgia Encyclopedia (http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Home.jsp); Georgia Port Authority (http://www.gaports.com/index2.html); Time Almanac 2006; Savannah Morning News files.

Compiled by Mary Carr Mayle and Julia C. Muller

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INFORMATION GRAPHICS

Unloading a Container PDF What is e Teau? PDF How Ports Work PDF Proposed Jasper County Port PDF Infrastructure PDF Imports & Exports PDF

Savannah’s focus on customers pays off

© Morris News

By Walter C. Jones, Morris News Service

SAVANNAH, Ga. - You could say that the port of Savannah owes the steady growth that’s put it on pace to become the fourth busiest container port in the country to luck.

That is if you define luck as preparation meeting opportunity.

A huge opportunity came to the Georgia Ports Authority nine years ago when a railroad merger’s communications breakdown on the West Coast snarled much of the train traffic west of the Mississippi. Shippers were looking for a way around the bottleneck and some decided to bring their cargo the “all water route” through the Panama Canal to their East Coast markets rather than over the “land bridge” from the West Coast.

The temporary rail snarl would serve as a test of sorts of the alternate passage.

The port of Savannah was ready for the test.

Shippers were surprised to find that the all-water route was cheaper and in many cases faster than the shorter land bridge during backups. Lower fuel and handling costs also favored the all-water route.

A lockout of West Coast dockworkers in 2002 was another opportunity to reinforce the test.

“It kind of made people open their eyes,” said Harry Buscher, export operations manager with freight-forwarder V. Alexander & Co. Inc. in Nashville, Tenn.

Major importers like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target concluded that divvying up their business between several ports made sense, especially if they could build distribution centers nearby to sort the goods for delivery to stores in that region.

Target Corporation has 23 distribution centers around the United States, but is building a warehouse in Savannah and a distribution center down the road in Midway for its 44 stores in Georgia and those in neighboring states.

“What we look for when we are scouting locations is all the capabilities,” said Leana Michaud, Target spokeswoman. “You need to have the infrastructure necessary.”

And that’s where “preparation” was in place and waiting for “opportunity” to show up.

“Georgia was sort of ahead of the curve in terms of making large investments in infrastructure,” said Jeff Humphreys, director of the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth. “We had the infrastructure. We kept expanding that infrastructure sort of ahead before it was really needed, which allowed us to grow as opportunities came.”

For instance, the port is in the midst of a 10-year, $700 million capital improvement campaign.

Humphreys, who is on contract with the Georgia Ports Authority to calculate the harbor’s economic impact, notes that the infrastructure he’s referring to is more than just having the cranes, dredging and dock space ready along the Savannah River. It’s also the widened Interstate highways, the railroads that crisscross the state, and even the world’s busiest airport.

“The growth of air cargo at Hartsfield International Airport is part of the important ingredient in Georgia becoming a global logistical hub,” said Harvey Donaldson, director of The Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech.

Georgia has two of the Top 25 Logistics Friendly Cities in the country, Atlanta and Savannah. Only Texas, Ohio, California and Florida matched that, according to the magazine Logistics Today, which ranked the country’s metropolitan areas on their local distribution industry and various transportation assets.

In the 2005 ranking of the 362 logistics-friendly cities in the United States, some of Georgia’s largest cities compared well, including Augusta, 129; Macon, 137; Dalton, 147; Gainesville, 154; Valdosta, 174; while others fell below average, including Brunswick, 217; Columbus, 258; Albany, 280; Rome, 295; Warner Robins, 298; Hinesville-Fort Stewart, 301; and Athens, 329.

The result is a state network so that cargo moves efficiently out of Savannah and on to the end-use customers.

That’s why communities around the state are coordinating with Savannah and Atlanta to market themselves as part of that logistics framework, Donaldson said.

“All (Georgia cities) have global focus these days. There is much less competition between Atlanta, Macon and Savannah these days and they are saying, 'Hey, there is a lot of synergy between us,’” he said.

So how did the Ports Authority prepare Savannah for opportunity?

Some of it was geography. Savannah is both one of the closest East Coast ports to the Panama Canal where Asian imports come, and it is also near most of the booming Southeast markets.

Plus, the curve in the coastline makes it the western most port on the East Coast, putting it closer to the Midwest than Charleston, S.C., or Norfolk, Va., for instance. That little curve also protects it from hurricanes which follow a straighter line up the coast.

Strategy also played a role.

Doug Marchand, when he became director of the Ports Authority in 1994, listened to requests from some Georgia exporters who were shipping their goods to out-of-state ports. If more ships bearing imports called in Savannah, they’d be available for Georgia exports.

“What we really needed was some imports,” Marchand said. “We had imports, but we needed a much stronger import program. And we set about to attract some of the retail-distribution cargo.”

Pier One was already using Savannah. So, he recruited Home Depot and a Wal-Mart distribution center in Statesboro to become what he called his “anchor tenants.”

Retailers today move cargo in steel containers that can hold a thousand cartons of pickles or dozens of sofas. Special cranes lift them off the ships, set them on special tractor-trailor trucks and rail cars for quicker, cheaper handling.

The Savannah port geared up with the cranes, trucks and railroad connections to handle containerized cargo.

The strategy worked.

Savannah is one of the best balanced ports, with 47 percent exports and 53 percent imports, compared to other cities, like Los Angeles, where ships routinely depart almost empty.

At the same time, Marchand sought out Asian trade long before other East Coast ports considered it, so Savannah had made contacts in place as the import volume from that part of the world mushroomed.

And the growth has been stellar. Five years ago, it had grown to handling 1 million containers annually. Today, it’s at twice that level and still growing, expanding 15 percent last year.

“It feeds on itself, he said. “... It’s kind of like the more imports you get, the more ships you get, and then you got room on the ships for Georgia exports to go the other way. You’ve got other retailers that are jumping on the ships because Wal-Mart, Target and others are coming in on those ships. And you have opportunities with new retailers and new import accounts. So it feeds off of itself.

“It’s been extremely fun to watch.”

Besides cranes to accommodate containerized cargo - including one 374-foot-high, 1,400 ton monster that’s the largest of its kind in the world, the port has also made other improvements. It developed special rail yards for moving containers from ship to train without having to make shippers fuss with hiring truck drivers and handle extra paperwork as is common on other ports.

Savannah’s port is rare because it is operated by a solitary entity, the Ports Authority. For one thing, it controls a single span of nearly 10,000 feet along the waterfront where ships of any length can dock, the longest single container terminal in the Eastern United States.

But there is a bigger benefit to one operator: coordination.

Operations at most ports are divvied up among many organizations, one for trucks, another for truck maintenance, a third for cranes, and so forth. In Savannah, everything meshes.

“If I want to do something in Georgia, I only have to call the Georgia Ports Authority,” said freight-forwarder Buscher. At other ports, several companies must be called for each operation.

Marchand has empowered veteran port employees to answer those calls from customers and to cut red tape.

New initiatives have cut transaction errors in half, down to 4 percent in the last six months.

It may not fit the stereotype of union longshoremen in a government operation, but these workers keep focused on efficiency and the final customer. Rank-and-file workers quote their productivity figures and brag about them.

One of those is Steve “Shag” Collum, a Ports Authority crane operator.

“The big thing to production is everything has to click,” he said. “... Seconds turn into minutes. We’re in the top echelon in the world in production.”

People in the industry say the port’s customer focus is what sets it apart, especially the way it looks at all of the customers. Most ports cater just to the shipping lines that call once or twice a week with their huge container vessels. The Ports Authority has 37 sales offices around the world with sales agents who try to keep them happy.

But the Ports Authority also reaches out to other types of customers: the trucking companies, the distribution centers, the retailers and others up the logistics chain.

Hugh Buford, general manager of Dollar Tree’s 670,00 square-foot distribution center about five miles from the port, said he’s worked at other centers near other harbors, so he can compare them to Savannah.

“I’d say the customer service we’ve gotten is tremendous,” he said. “We can just pick up the phone.”

And he adds that at the ports operated by others, “nobody every called me up and asked me how I was doing.”

Lee Hardeman, president of Lee Hardeman Customs Broker Inc. in Atlanta recalls the response he got from the Ports Authority when a container was delayed after a Customs Service inspection. The port apologized and changed its procedures so the problem wouldn’t happen again.

“We used not to recommend Savannah for some of our customers because they were having some problems down there. This was before Doug (Marchand) took over,” he said.

Marchand says the potential was always there, but it was a matter of capitalizing on it with a productive attitude.

“We don’t even think of ourselves as an arm of government. We think of ourselves that we’re operating a business,” he said.

“We think 'how can we be more business like, how can we get a better return for the investments we make?’ That goes through every decision that we make. That process includes, 'is this a good business decision for us to make?’ Not is it something that is just government, really.”

Walter Jones can be reached at walter.jones@morris.com or (404) 589-8424.

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Security ongoing focus at ports
By Vicky Eckenrode, Morris News Service

© Morris News

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks sharply altered the way security officials viewed their jobs at the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.

Today, more than four years and millions of dollars in upgrades later, those security measures are still evolving as threats are balanced against the constant demand to keep goods moving.

“Pre-9/11, it was definitely narcotics and trademark (infringement),” Steven Bronson, chief officer for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the Savannah port. “Now, it’s terrorism and stowaways. The No. 1 mission is terrorism and terrorist weapons.”

Criticism started early that the federal government was concentrating too much of its attention and funding on sealing up commercial airports while ignoring seaside entrances. The nation’s ports have received $708 million in security grants since 2002 - a fraction of the $3.8 billion requested.

In Georgia, Savannah and Brunswick officials have received more than $4.8 million to put up fences, install security-camera systems and buy handheld machines to detect explosives.

Before the 2001 attacks, port operators were largely on their own to develop and pay for security programs.

The federal funding, an ongoing point of contention for port operators who will soon face more mandates to identify workers and visiting transporters through a federal system, still has reshaped how cargo is handled in Savannah.

Before 9/11, about 20 federal agents were assigned to the port. Today, there are 90. The port has an additional 60 police officers of its own.

By the end of the year, the facility will have equipment in place to check every container for radiation beforeit leaves the grounds.

Savannah customs officials are aiming for a moving target of sorts in trying to have enough staff and equipment to meet toughing standards for port security.

“As they’re (the port) growing, we’re growing too just to keep up with the growth of commerce,” Bronson said.

The issue of port security moved back into the spotlight following last year’s controversy about an Arab-government-owned company’s plans to take over operation of several American ports. While the Georgia Ports Authority doesn’t contract out its operations to private companies like the one Dubai Ports World bought, Savannah harbor officials are nonetheless watching to see how new legislation will impact Georgia facilities.

Congress is currently debating bills that would boost security measures yet again while increasing funding levels.

The concern is that terrorists see the nation’s seaports as an open, unmonitored door because of the more than 9 million containers entering through them each year and try to smuggle in a bomb, nuclear weapon or biological hazard.

In May, the House approved a bill dubbed the SAFE Port Act that would authorize $2.4 billion to put nuclear and radiological detection systems in place. It also allows for more customs inspectors to be stationed at other countries’ ports to check cargo before it enters domestic waters.

Meanwhile, the Senate Homeland Security committee passed a similar measure. The GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act would provide incentives to importers that voluntarily report more information by letting them move through the security channels quicker.

It also proposes creating joint operations centers for federal, state and local officials to coordinate a response after an attack at a port and come up with ways to make sure trade continues.

“Experts have repeatedly told me and members of the committee that our ports are one of our biggest vulnerabilities,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a co-sponsor of the bill said when it passed her committee. “Our bill will help build a coordinated approach to maritime and port security across all levels of government and with our overseas trading partners.”

Funding has been a sticking point. The debate often focuses on whether taxpayers should pay for the extra measures through the federal government or if the shipping companies should pay since they have a business interest in keeping a terrorist attack from shutting down the trade lanes.

But relying on additional user fees from shippers to meet security mandates could add to the cost of moving products and ultimately get passed onto consumers.

Another area that makes port operators wary is whether the increased measures eat away at efficiencies since transporting goods from ships to trucks to stores often depends heavily on swiftness. Most factories relying on parts from overseas also depend on quick turnaround to save money on warehousing.

“What they’re trying to do is improve the means without bogging it down badly,” said Aaron Ellis, spokesman for the American Association of Port Authorities trade association. “The big concern is that we continue to see rapid increases in cargo volumes coming though ports with bigger ships. We need to move that cargo as fast as we can. We keep seeing improvements.”

So far, the changes in Savannah have not impacted truck operations moving in and out of the terminal, said Vickie Brown, an agent for Falcon Transport in Port Wentworth.

“It doesn’t take really any longer to get through,” she said. “They just check them quick.”

Another measure that will soon affect the companies and workers who regularly operate at the port is a biometric identification card, possibly by the end of the year.

An estimated 750,000 port workers nationwide are expected to eventually start using a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC by turning in fingerprints and biographical information like address and date of birth. Truck drivers, rail workers and anyone else who has access to port facilities will be required to use the cards.

The Department of Homeland Security already conducts background checks on port workers in preparation for the credentials.

Port operators will be expected to install the necessary card readers or upgrade existing entrances, but are still waiting to see if this year’s security grants include money for the technology.

The biometric ID cards, though supported by port groups, continues to beg one economic question: whether the money will follow the ideas for tightening up access around trade seaports.

The Senate included $227 million for port grants in an emergency supplemental spending that is pending in Washington, but the House did not include any grant funds in its version.

“Ports are very concerned and interested in the fate of that legislation because that’s real money, and that’s real money that’s needed to pay for the TWIC implementation,” Ellis said. “The estimate for marine terminals is between $299 million and $325 million.”

Reach Vicky Eckenrode at (404) 681-1701 or vicky.eckenrode@morris.com.

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Ports’ reach extends to jobs, business across state

By Vicky Eckenrode, Morris News Service

ATLANTA - When Korean automaker Kia announced it would build a plant near LaGrange, politicians from across west Georgia hustled to get out press releases trumpeting the 5,500 jobs that would be created as a result.

But there’s another economic engine churning out that many new jobs each year without the hoopla: the state’s ports.

The port system is credited with playing some part in 7 percent of the state’s employment base. Considering Georgia added more than 92,000 jobs last year, about 6,440 of those can be traced directly or indirectly to Savannah and Brunswick’s shipping docks.

Both port facilities have enjoyed several years of rapid growth, bolstering local job markets and transportation-related businesses. Because that happened, the paychecks and businesses depending on the shipping activity along Georgia’s coast rippled throughout the state.

Jeff Humphreys, director of the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, who studied the impact state’s deepwater ports for the Georgia Port Authority, estimated the facilities contributed $35.4 billion to the state economy, or about 7 percent, with most of the money coming from companies that use the port to move materials in or out.

The ports also supported nearly 276,000 full- and part-time jobs, Humphreys said. That includes 120,000 workers hired directly because of port-related business, such as longshoremen, truck drivers and warehouse workers at distribution centers.

The other jobs stem from the extra money port users, such as manufacturers or wholesalers, have because they are able to do international business shipping through the ports. The increased sales help pay salaries of factory workers and retail employee.

The estimates are based on the ports’ activity in 2003. Humphreys said he will start working on an updated study later this year looking at 2006 and expects to see even higher numbers.

“I think it’s safe to say that port activity has increased substantially since 2003,” he said, noting that the growth occurred while Georgia’s manufacturing base shrunk. “But the manufacturing jobs that remain are much more dependent on the port. The manufacturers that are surviving are typically manufacturers that are becoming more integrated to the global economy.”

That contribution became noticeable when most of the state’s economy dipped after 2001.

“The ports sailed through the recession and really didn’t get hit at all,” said Humphreys. “Cargo volumes rose throughout the recession. It helped offset some of the other declines.”

Humphreys said that influence is not showing signs of waning.

In fact, port officials expect to set new records with more than 2 million containers moving through Savannah this fiscal year. If so, that would move Savannah ahead of Charleston to become the nation’s fourth-largest container port.

Statewide reach

From Atlanta-based transportation companies dispersing ship-arriving products around the country to Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Athens sending chicken as far as Russia and China, the docks play an essential role.

A couple of hours inland from the containers ships in Savannah, Thiele Kaolin headquarters is based in Sandersville near where the company mines the white clay that is used to add a glossy sheen to paper.

For Thiele, which has to compete with Brazilian mines for customers, having a port the size of Savannah nearby is key, company officials said.

“It’d be impossible to do what we do because our material is so heavy,” said Randy Maybury, export sub manager for the company, which ships out more than 100,000 tons a year through bulk form and in containers. Other modes of transporting the clay would be more cost-prohibitive because of its hefty weight.

“A tremendous part of our business - 40 percent - is exported,” said Martha Yates, Thiele’s customer service manager. “It’s (exports) increased over the years.”

When it comes to selling Georgia goods to other countries, the state has seen increases in recent years along with the growth in port activity.

In 2004, the state’s export growth hit 20 percent, though that has been deflated more recently because of a drop in sending out transportation equipment like jet airplanes and farm tractors produced in the state, according to the Georgia State University Economic Forecasting Center.

But Rajeev Dhawan, the center’s director, said the softening should not be a concern for the Savannah and Brunswick ports because imports are expected to continue rising.

“It’s not an asset that just benefits the coast,” Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Doug Marchand said. “You could go through and look at all the different business, whether they’re imports or exports, throughout the state, and they benefit by the state of Georgia having this asset here available for their business to use.”

For Randy Branch, who owns a 4,000-acre South Georgia farm in Baxley, the Brunswick port allows a way to unload the wheat he finished harvesting last month as a rotation crop.

“One hundred percent of this wheat is being exported,” said Branch, who grows about 300 acres of the crop and sends it as well as cotton through Brunswick. “We’re real close to the port, so it’s beneficial for us.”

Pitching for jobs

While economists have tried to measure the sales and employment impact of the ports, the facilities play a role that can be harder to define.

State and county level officials trying to lure employers to start new operations often tout the shipping facilities as a selling point.

“We emphasize the ease of getting in and out of the Savannah port. That is something that’s very important to people who’re looking in this area,” said Walter Sprouse, the executive director for the Richmond County Development Authority in Augusta.

Last year, the county ranked seventh in the state for the amount of goods its companies exported through the ports system.

“Many times you see a number of small companies utilizing the ports as well,” Sprouse said.

When it comes to going after a major employer, such as a manufacturer that can potentially put thousands of Georgians to work, the ports’ operations are part of the discussion, state officials said.

Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Craig Lesser pointed to the recent commitment from Kia Motor Corp. to build a $1.2 billion auto plant in West Point with plans to eventually create 5,500 new jobs in the state.

Lesser said the fact that the South Korean automaker was already importing cars through the Brunswick port helped convince company officials to pick Georgia as the site of their first American manufacturing facility.

That type of reach is one reason why the port system tends to fare well as lawmakers decide whether to add money to the state-owned facilities each year.

The ports make enough money from users to run themselves for the most part.

Last fiscal year, the Ports Authority took in $149 million through operating revenue and spent nearly $118 million for operating expenses. But when it comes to expensive building and equipment investments, the ports turn to the state’s coffers, lobbying for part of the $18.7 billion state budget.

Instead of being viewed as a Savannah-centric project, leaders from both sides of the political aisle have included money for improvements.

Most recently for Savannah’s port, that has included a $109 million expansion of the Garden City Terminal by adding another berth that is expected to increase capacity by 20 percent.

“I have always been impressed, even when I first started and Republicans were way in the minority, that the leadership of the Senate and the governor always saw the port as of statewide importance and didn’t use it as a club on the local delegation,” said Senate President Pro Tem, Eric Johnson, R-Savannah. “The port was never considered pork. They were wise enough to see the statewide impact and continued to make the investment.”

Reach Vicky Eckenrode at (404) 681-1701 or vicky.eckenrode@morris.com

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By Kirsten Singleton, Morris News Service

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The question isn’t if America’s East Coast port system will expand, Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said.

It’s where.

“Port capacity is the big issue of the day,” Fulghum said. “You have to have the capacity to accommodate the increased container volume in order to participate in the global economy.”

Since January 2005, Jasper County and the South Carolina Ports Authority have been locked in a battle over who will develop a 1,863-acre site along the Savannah River near Hardeeville, S.C.

Jasper County has a contract with SSA Marine, worth $450 million to $600 million, to develop and operate the port.

Under the proposal, the county would own the land and would receive a $4 million annual payment from SSA Marine, in addition to a $2-per-container charge, which is expected to generate another $1 million to $2 million each year.

Fulghum thinks the Ports Authority just wants to stand in the way of the Jasper development in order to minimize competition with its port in Charleston.

But Ports Authority spokesman Byron Miller sees no reason the Jasper port should operate outside the rest of the South Carolina system, which includes Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal, which has been closed.

“Under the Ports Authority’s leadership, (Jasper) can be complementary (to Charleston),” Miller said.

Georgia has a stake either way.

The Georgia Department of Transportation currently owns the proposed site, which Jasper County and the South Carolina Ports Authority, independently, are trying to condemn.

Georgia uses the property to dump sediment from dredging the river’s shipping channel, and is concerned about losing access to more than half of the 5,000 acres it owns there.

Georgia DOT filed suit both in South Carolina and federal court after Jasper County began moving to condemn part of the property, but negotiations are ongoing that might eventually have the transportation department turning over part of its land.

There’s also the potential impact across the river on the Savannah Port, owned by the Georgia Ports Authority.

“People have said, 'Oh, my God, the world’s going to come to an end if we have another port over there,’” said Doug Marchand, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, “Well, the fact of the matter is we’ve got a strong port over here, with a strong infrastructure built around it, good road and rail system built around it - better than they could ever have. So, we feel pretty good about ourselves.”

Two Interstate highways and two main-line rail lines run within a few miles of the Savannah port, enabling cargo to quickly reach retail markets across a third of the nation. Freight arriving into a port in Jasper County would have to travel a greater distance to tap into those major transportation arteries, putting that port at a slight disadvantage, according to Marchand.

But with the global volume of containerized cargo increasing 4.5 percent annually, there may be plenty of business for a new port to go after. And business translates into jobs.

SSA Marine estimates that 450 people would be employed at the Jasper County port itself, with up to 95,000 affiliated jobs created regionally, including in Georgia.

“Economies don’t recognize man-made borders,” said Jake Coakley, SSA Marine’s regional vice president.

Even it out-of-towners take some of those jobs, Fulghum believes the port would revitalize a county that needs new development.

Although unemployment in the area is among the lowest in the state, poverty is high.

Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, said many Jasper County workers earn minimum wage.

And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Jasper County’s poverty rate of 28.9 percent was more than twice that of South Carolina’s in 2002.

Even if the dispute ends immediately, a significant employment impact is years away.

Coakley believes the first phase of the Jasper port could be running within five years of acquiring the site.

Miller said, based on history, it’s more like 6-8 years.

In either case, competition will be stiffer by the time the Jasper site is ready for operation.

Virginia authorities are moving forward with a planned $2 billion port expansion near Norfolk.

And expansion of the Jacksonville, Fla., port - set to be completed in 2008 - is expected to more than double the amount of cargo that port handles annually.

Another challenge for ports on either side of the Savannah River comes in the form of bigger ships. To accommodate the largest behemoths - so-called super post-panamax ships - the river would have to be deepened possibly to a depth that would poison the region’s underground drinking water supply.

That environmental limit on harbor depth could restrict the long-term growth potential of both the Savannah and proposed Jasper County ports.

Nevertheless, South Carolina is plodding through the legal system.

The state Supreme Court ruled in April that the county has the right to develop the port, but that the Ports Authority’s eminent-domain powers trump the county’s.

Both groups are pursuing condemnation of the land and other legal avenues in hopes of gaining final control over the project.

“While South Carolina (Ports Authority) sits around, poking Jasper County with a stick in the eye” other states are making progress, Coakley said.

Said Miller: “The Ports Authority is anxious to move forward. However, it needs to be done in the proper way.”

kirsten.singleton@morris.com or 803-414-6611

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Port faces challenges to continued growth

By Walter C. Jones and Vicky Eckenrode, Morris News Service

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ATLANTA - What’s guaranteeing the port of Savannah continues its role of generating new jobs and giving consumers more choices of affordable goods?

Nothing.

That’s why port officials want you to keep investing a tiny portion of your taxes toward the equipment, paving, dredging and other aspects of keeping the harbor at least a couple of steps ahead of the shipping industry’s demands.

They operate a sophisticated public-relations department and lobbying campaign to tilt opinions their way. They print an award-winning quarterly magazine, a glossy annual report, give speeches to community groups across the state, and host frequent delegations of legislators.

In next year’s budget, the Savannah port will receive $1.4 million to pay the interest on $16 million in bonds needed for purchasing cranes and paving spots for the increased number of cargo containers in transit. That’s .008 percent of the state budget.

All together, the Georgia Ports Authority plans to spend $700 million on expansion and equipment from 2005 through the following 10 years. Some of that will come from bonds the authority will sell separate from obligations on taxpayers, and much of that money will come from fees it charges shippers. Those fees in the last fiscal year totaled $149 million, leaving $31 million that gets plowed back into capital investments.

The money will go to buy cranes and to pave storage space for the added volume of containers. The enhancements are to keep the cargo flowing without delays that might cause shippers to look for other ports.

Still, more money is needed, according to authority Executive Director Doug Marchand.

“If you ask any port director what his single biggest challenge is, I would venture to guess it all revolves back in one form or another to capital,” he said. “How do you continue to get the money that it takes to build very expensive facilities with these very expense cranes and other infrastructure? How do you get the money to keep your harbor deep enough for these big ships that are coming in more and more frequently?

“So it all revolves around capital.”

The current crop of state political leaders has been sympathetic, but there is no guarantee who will win in November. Nevertheless, the authority’s budget request was granted without reduction by the legislature this year.

And Gov. Sonny Perdue gushed about the port in April when he climbed onto a giant crane to move the first cargo container in the newest berth.

“Because every container like this one is a source of jobs for Georgians, they will lead to jobs processing, manufacturing, harvesting and creating the cargo inside for export, and jobs distributing, trucking and selling the cargo inside for import,” he said.

Yet, some fiscal conservatives say there is a limit to what government can spend.

“We can’t expect government to pick up the infrastructure costs every time you turn around,” said Benita Dodd, vice president of the market-oriented think tank Georgia."

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ATLANTA - Every day, Georgians take advantage of the state’s ports, often without realizing it.

For tens of thousands, it’s picking up a paycheck built off the international trade Georgia companies have developed by utilizing the port system.

© Morris News

And for untold numbers of Georgians, the ports touch their lives daily in countless ways, from food to clothing, cars to electronics, furniture to lumber. As international commerce increases, there’s a strong chance many of the items you use, eat or wear have entered through docks in Savannah and Brunswick.

With the fastest-growing port in the country, Savannah’s facilities provide a steady stream of business into the state, though much of it goes largely unseen by most Georgians.

If the ports, which are owned by a state agency, were a public company, it would be the 88th largest in Georgia in terms of revenue.

But its ability to affect the state goes beyond a single retail chain or corporation. Much like Atlanta’s airport or the interstate system, the ports exist as a tool allowing thousands of other Georgia businesses to make money.

Doug Marchand, the Ports Authority’s executive director, compares the impact to something any Georgian living in the state during the buildup to the 1996 Olympics can relate better to.

“We did a little ciphering ourselves, and the answer came out that the Georgia Ports Authority’s economic impact is like an Olympics every year,” he said. “It might be two or three Olympics now.”

Through the massive construction effort to prepare for the Olympics in Atlanta and the spending from millions of visitors, the event brought in an estimated $5.1 billion.

Meanwhile, every day container vessels pull in and out of the state’s ports, bringing with them $18.6 billion in direct sales or revenue for Georgia businesses annually.

The fact that the port activity is sustained makes it even more substantial, said Jeff Humphreys, director of the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, who has studied the ports’ economic impact for the authority.

“Even with the per dollar impact, you can count on it again and again,” he said.

But the ports’ rapid growth did not come overnight.

Officials invested in future expansion, which paid off when a variety of factors sent more ships to call on Savannah and Brunswick.

The explosion in U.S. trade with Asian countries and traffic jams at larger ports on the West Coast shuttled business this way.

And the growth in people moving to the Southeast prompted more retail shops, furniture stores and car dealerships, all of which needed their products shipped in close by and quickly.

“I think Savannah has built themselves as America’s retail port,” said George Hearn, Southern region managing director APL, a shipping and logistics company that has four routes a week stopping in Savannah on the way to Europe, Asia and Latin America. “I think everybody says there’s a crane, there’s a ship, there’s a port. We’ll there’s a lot more to it than that.”

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Reach Vicky Eckenrode at (404) 681-1701 or vicky.eckenrode@morris.com.