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Charleston, SC - The Port of Charleston recently dedicated a new 100-acre breakbulk terminal with plans to strengthen its project cargo business.

"The new Charleston Navy Base terminal has greatly expanded our project cargo capacity," said S. Craig Lund, the Ports Authority's national accounts manager.

Less than a year ago, the South Carolina State Ports Authority finalized a lease on the former Charleston Naval Shipyard, which was closed in the mid-90s. The Ports Authority acquired a long-term agreement for 100 acres of high ground, three piers and a 60,000-square foot warehouse.

Over the past year, improvements to the terminal include dredging of berths to 36 feet, new Customs-certified perimeter fencing and a new fender system. This basically gives Charleston a brand new facility with substantial laydown areas for project cargo business.

"The South Carolina State Ports Authority is aggressively seeking new business to utilize this facility," said Lund. "While outbound Ex-Im financed shipments have been somewhat slow, I would expect these to turn around by later this year or in early 2001," said Lund.

"Considering this rebound and the expanded flexibility and capacity our Navy Base terminal offers, I would say Charleston is definitely well-positioned for the future," said Lund.

Charleston, SC - With nearly three million tons of forest products
crossing its piers over the past year, the Port of Charleston continues to be a
major player in the forest products trade.

In a recent 12-month period, Charleston moved 2.8 million tons of paper,
paper products, woodpulp and lumber products. The volume was overwhelmingly
export, with outbound shipments comprising 70% of volume and paper products
leading the way.

Charleston features approximately 40 liner carriers serving 140 countries, so
it's not surprising that 90% of the port's forest products business is
containerized. Even so, the percentage of breakbulk forest products continues to
rise as a result of several major initiatives.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority Board recently directed management
to shelve commercial redevelopment plans for portions of Union Pier Terminal in
downtown Charleston, a move that provides additional warehousing space for
longer-term transloading service agreements.

Charleston currently features more than 1.5 million square of warehouse and
transit shed space, including rail siding and access to both Norfolk Southern
and CSX railroads at all warehouses. The Ports Authority is an operating port,
allowing it to offer flexible, competitive transloading services.

Another valued-added service is bar-coded information exchange systems for
inventory tracking. Charleston is developing a port-wide breakbulk cargo
tracking system and expects it to be operational in the near future.

Charleston is also enhancing its forest products handling capacity with
expansion onto the former Charleston Naval Shipyard. Base realignment and
closure has resulted in an opportunity for the Port to acquire additional
storage capacity and berthing space. The first agreement signed late last year
provides more than 100 acres of open storage, covered storage and three piers.

FY99 vs. FY00 - Measured in TEUs

59,560

66,510

94,691

93,692

50,962

61,455

Charleston, SC - A prominent FOI attorney says that the South Carolina State Ports Authority's strategic plan is specifically exempt from public disclosure under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.

Contain the Port, an anti-port activist group, recently requested that the Ports Authority release its strategic plan. William L. Pope, a Columbia attorney who is recognized as an expert in sunshine laws, says in a written opinion dated June 21, "the strategic plan may be declared exempt from disclosure under the FOIA."

While Contain the Port's attorney referenced a section of the Freedom of Information Act that says plans must be released, it is subject to certain boundaries. In fact, S.C. Code 30-4-50 (A)5 says that while "written planning policies and goals and final planning decisions" are subject to the FOI act, disclosure is "subject to the restrictions and limitations" of Section 30-4-40, which protects trade secrets. Trade secrets are defined to include "commercially valuable plans."

Section 30-4-40 says that trade secrets "also include, for those public bodies who market services or products in competition with others, feasibility, planning, and marketing studies, and evaluations and other materials which contain references to potential customers, competitive information, or evaluation."

Pope cites the South Carolina law in the letter, stating that public bodies who market services or products in competition with others "may exempt from disclosure trade secrets which include feasibility, planning and marketing studies, evaluations and other materials, which contain references to potential customers, competitive information, or evaluation."

The Ports Authority battles with other states and cities in the region to attract ships and cargo to South Carolina's seaports. Over the past three years the Port of Charleston has become the nation's fourth busiest container port, handling cargo valued at $79 million every day. Market share has increased steadily at the expense of competing ports.

"South Carolina's port system is in a highly competitive market," said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president and CEO of the Ports Authority. "Ports in other cities are actively vying for our state's commerce."

"The strategic plan is a living, breathing document that is subject to continuing modification," said Groseclose. "It contains important competitive information and ever-evolving strategies, which
could be detrimental to our port's competitive position if disclosed."

Charleston, SC - In a bold move, the South
Carolina State Ports Authority is encouraging reporters to visit the
Ports Authority's Main Office at 176 Concord Street today to review
nearly two years worth of corporate charge card statements.

"The Authority's corporate charges are reasonable
and appropriate," said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president and CEO of the
South Carolina State Ports Authority.

Contain the Port, a group of anti-port activists,
recently requested all of the Ports Authority's American Express corporate
charge account statements for 1997 and 1998. Copies of the exact same documents
are being made available to the media today. Under the old system, which ended
in October 1998, corporate charge card bills were invoiced directly to the Ports
Authority. Individuals now pay their own bills and request reimbursement.

Included on the 202 pages of bills covering about 21
months are all charges that were incurred to every corporate
credit card paid by the Ports Authority. They include expenditures for travel
(such airfare and hotels), entertainment (such as meals and golf with customers)
and other business expenses.

While the charges totaled $440,355 for the entire
21-month period, the Ports Authority earned more than $144 million in revenues
from its shipping line and manufacturing customers in the same period.
Therefore, the Ports Authority earned $327 in revenue for every one dollar in
American Express charges for travel, entertainment and other business expense.

Every expense report filed by an employee must be
approved by the employee's supervisor, and is then reviewed by the Ports
Authority's finance department for appropriateness and documentation. The
Ports Authority also employs internal and external auditors to review accounting
practices.

"While the expenses are certainly reasonable,"
said Groseclose, "it is important to note that they were paid with revenues
earned from our customers, not with tax dollars."

The Ports Authority has not received operating subsidies
since 1959, when Senator Fritz Hollings was governor. Even with future port
expansion, the Ports Authority would not seek operating funds from the state,
only capital funds for hard infrastructure.

Many of the expenses were incurred by the members of the
Ports Authority's marketing and sales team, who travel the state and world
encouraging companies to bring their ships and cargo to ports in Charleston,
Georgetown and Port Royal. Entertainment expenses, such as meals and golf, are
common activities for salespeople.

In addition, top port officials visited several large
accounts in Europe and Asia in 1997 to continue its close relationship with
major port customers after the retirement of Don Welch. There are currently more
than 40 global ocean carriers that send ships to Charleston, carrying trade
between South Carolina and 140 countries around the world.

"Effective marketing is quite obviously a very
important part of the Ports Authority's legislated mission and is vital to our
success," said Groseclose.

Since 1998 when these expenses were incurred, revenues
have increased more than 25% to a projected $104 million next year. Charleston
is currently the nation's fourth busiest container port and handles
international cargo valued at $29 billion annually.

After fulfilling a request from
Contain the Port for summary expense report information earlier this year,
the group then requested four years of detailed expense reports for
executive, public relations and marketing staff to support these numbers.
This would have been a massive request requiring many man-hours.

Contain the Port later refined their
follow-up request to one year, 1998. The Ports Authority informed the group
that this request would require 120 hours of research because it involved
553 individual expense reports. This translates into about 13 minutes per
report, as each expense report would have to be retrieved from the filing
system, copied and stripped of personal information.

The total charge for producing these
documents was estimated at $2,505, or roughly $20 per hour (The Post and
Courier archives department charges $50 an hour for research). Not wanting
to cover the costs that their request would have caused, Contain the Port
then asked for copies of statements for all corporate credit cards from 1997
and 1998. Corporate credit cards paid by the Ports Authority were
discontinued in October 1998.

Copies of these statements were
retrieved in a relatively short period of time and have been forwarded to
Contain the Port, as requested. Therefore, there will only be a minor charge
to Contain the Port for compiling the documents.

Charleston, SC - James M. Micali, chairman and president of Michelin North America, Inc., has been named to the Board of Directors of the South Carolina State Ports Authority.

Yesterday the State Senate confirmed Gov. Jim Hodges' appointment of Micali, who was named to his current position at Michelin in 1996. He is a member of Group Michelin's College of Directors and is also responsible for support services in Michelin's North and Central American Geographic Area.

Michelin North America, Inc. is headquartered in Greenville, SC and employs more than 6,000 people at seven locations in South Carolina. Micali joined Michelin in 1977, holding a number of legal positions including two assignments in France. From 1990 to 1996, Micali served as executive vice president, legal and finance, for Michelin North America. Prior to that position, he was general counsel and secretary.

Micali received his J.D. degree from Boston College Law School in 1973 and his B.A. degree with Special Honors in 1969 from Lake Forest College in Illinois. Micali started his legal career as an associate with Higgins, Cavanah & Cooney in Providence, Rhode Island. He is currently a member of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Bars.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority operates public seaport facilities in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal and supports 83,000 port-related jobs across the state. Last year Ports Authority facilities handled more than 12 million tons of cargo valued at $29 billion. The Port of Charleston is currently the nation's fourth busiest container port, and South Carolina ranks sixth overall in dollar value of cargo handled.

Charleston, SC - For more than 80 years, one of America's greatest engineering and human accomplishments, the Panama Canal, played a substantial role in the design of commercial ships. Not any more.

Ocean carriers are regularly purchasing ships too wide, too long and too deep to transit the Panama Canal's smallest locks. These so-called "post-Panamax" vessels are rapidly becoming the norm in ocean shipping.

Based on the order book for these new modern marvels, Charleston has a lot at stake. Current customers of the Port of Charleston are purchasing every one of the ultra-large ships on order. Earlier this year, the U.K.-based shipping publication Containerisation International reported that post-Panamax ships represent "a massive 40% of all slots on order."

As recently as two years ago, there were those in government and the private sector that doubted large container ships would come to dominate the industry. They cited several ocean carriers that had not yet committed to these ships, which can cost up to $100 million each. The detractors were silenced in February of this year, when the world's two major holdouts, Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, both entered the big league with post-Panamax ship orders.

Med Shipping, which relocated its regional headquarters to Mount Pleasant, ordered 10 mega-ships. Two days later, Hapag-Lloyd, another major carrier in the Port of Charleston, placed an order for four of the largest container ships ever built.

Other major Port of Charleston customers that have ordered post-Panamax ships include Maersk Sealand, P&O Nedlloyd, CMA, Hyundai Merchant Marine, NYK, MOL, K-Line and APL. Post-Panamax ships are obviously not a vision, they are a reality.

The business rationale for moving to these larger ships is quite simple. First, a larger vessel allows the ship operator to achieve economies of scale. The standard benefit is a 20% cost savings. Second, shipbuilding does not lack competition and currency fluctuations have cut prices 25% or more, making today's post-Panamax ships cheaper than yesterday's smaller ships. Finally, ocean carriers are coalescing into global alliances and vessel sharing agreements, concentrating larger volumes into single services. The volume these consolidated carriers offer can justify, and fill, the larger ships.

The largest container ships afloat now carry the equivalent of 6,600 20-foot containers, are 1,138 feet long, 140 feet wide and can draw more than 47 feet of water. Charleston got it first look at super-ships in the summer of 1998, when the Regina Maersk made its maiden voyage to the United States. Charleston was one of three U.S. ports called on her initial visit, which brought real-world attention and a buzz to the undeniable move toward larger ships.

At the time, the Regina was the largest containership to ever call North America. But she was not alone, as several sister ships of the same size began sailing to Charleston without fanfare or media attention. The larger vessels, while profitable to the ocean carriers, present infrastructure, information and operational challenges to ports.

First, you have to be able to reach the dock, so channels must be deeper. While the Panama Canal limits ships to about 40 feet, "single-ocean" or "trans-Suez" ships have virtually no depth restrictions. One post-Panamax ship was stranded off the Charleston coast for nearly a day because of depth restrictions and weather conditions. To serve these larger ships and those already calling Charleston, the Ports Authority initiated harbor deepening in the early 1990s. The Corps of Engineers has already awarded approximately $100 million in contracts to complete the project over the coming three years.

Once alongside, cranes must be able to reach across the ship to take on and off the shipping containers. While the Panama Canal limits ships to 13 containers abreast, or 110 feet, the post-Panamax vessels are currently at 17 containers wide and growing. At a cost of $25 million the SPA ordered four of the nation's largest container cranes, which will be delivered this fall, bringing its inventory of post-Panamax cranes to 14. Larger ships also mean substantial surges in volume. A single ship can load and discharge 2,000 containers in a matter of hours. Information systems, handling equipment and land access routes all have to be in prime condition to speed the cargo to its destination. The Ports Authority's five-year, $165-million capital investment plan will strengthen these resources.

Charleston, SC - The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced that Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, has been selected to represent U.S. deep-draft ports on the Marine Transportation System National Advisory Council.

The MTS National Advisory Council was formed earlier this year to advise the U.S. Secretary of Transportation on issues raised by the marine transportation industry and on strategies to ensure a transportation system that improves global competitiveness. The council is composed of 31 representatives from across the country, including private sector organizations and public entities.

Groseclose is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Ports and Harbours and the Board of Directors of the American Association of Port Authorities, for which he previously chaired its Planning& Research Committee. He also serves on the Committee on Ports & Channels for the National Academy of Science's Transportation Research Board and is a past president of the South Atlantic & Caribbean Ports Association.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority operates public seaport terminals in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal, which handled international waterborne cargo valued at $29 billion in 1999. Charleston is currently the nation's fourth busiest container port and ranks sixth in dollar value of goods shipped.

Charleston, SC - A bigger share of the South American market and rebounding exports are driving double-digit growth at the Port of Charleston.

Last year container volume through the Port of Charleston hit all time highs, reaching 1.48 million TEUs, up 16% from 1.27 million TEUs in 1998. Through the first quarter of 2000, container volume is up 17% to 391,000 TEUs, putting Charleston on a pace to top 1.5 million TEUs this year.

More than 40 container carriers serve 140 countries direct from Charleston, providing service diversity across trade routes, but Latin America has clearly been the dominant driver of this growth.

In 1999, Charleston's South America business jumped 75% to well over 140,000 TEUs, Caribbean trade doubled and Central America volume was up 30%. Latin American trade through Charleston has grown eightfold since 1991, increasing its share of Charleston's total port volume from 4% to 15%.

Behind Charleston's increasing Latin American market share are several factors. To serve the Southeastern market carriers have begun using Charleston in favor of traditional hubs in South Florida. This trend has intensified as carriers seek to consolidate east-west and north-south services in fewer ports, and as more capital investment from firms doing business with Latin America pours into the Carolinas and Georgia.

Charleston's Asia business, 28% of total throughput, is also strong with exports to Northeast Asia up 18% last year to nearly 140,000 loaded TEUs. Healthy exports of citrus products point to continued strength over the coming year. Imports from Northeast Asia increased 14% last year.

Inbound shipments from Asia, especially China, are expected to expand dramatically as more and more distribution centers are constructed in the region. This trend and local factors in West Coast ports are driving larger volumes of Asian goods all-water through the Panama Canal.

Although considered a "mature" trade lane, North Europe generated well over 40,000 TEUs in new business for Charleston last year and remains the port's biggest market at 36% of total. Machinery, chemicals, resins, paper products, and auto parts for manufacturers such as DaimlerChrysler and BMW continue to be dominant cargoes. The other bright spot has been Med traffic, which increased 14% in 1999 primarily due to outbound cargo, and now represents 10% of total traffic. Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the India subcontinent each account for 3% of total volume.

Charleston, SC - Peter O. Lehman, executive assistant to the president at the South Carolina State Ports Authority, has been elected vice chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities' Planning and Research Committee. AAPA was founded in 1912 and today represents more than 150 public port authorities in the Western Hemisphere.

Lehman has also been elected vice chairman of a national trade advisory group. The Industry Consultations Program is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative. Lehman will represent industry views on the Advisory Committee on Small and Minority Business for Trade Policy Matters.

Lehman is a graduate of the New England School of Law, the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and Stetson University. He joined the Ports Authority in January 1997 after serving as director of the South Carolina World Trade Center-Charleston.