If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, being considered a threat by a much larger competitor has to be a close second.
The Port of New York and New Jersey and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority took note of Savannah's emergence as a leading container port nearly five years ago when it launched the Portfields Initiative, a project to develop a system of distribution warehouses patterned after Georgia Ports' successful operation.
Now, it seems, the mammoth West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach - the No. 1 and No. 2 ports in the nation by a wide margin - are starting to look eastward to what they consider a growing threat from the upstart East Coast port.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported the twin ports moved about 2.5 million fewer containers in 2009 than the year before - "the equivalent of shutting down the country's fourth-busiest seaport, Savannah, for the entire year."
Despite the significant slip, rebounding from a dismal 2009 isn't the biggest concern facing Southern California port officials. Their larger worry, according to Times reporter Ronald D. White, comes from new competitors, including Savannah.
That's quite a change from just a few years ago.
In 2006, container trade at Los Angeles and Long Beach hit a high of 15.8 million, more than double the containers handled in 1998. Volume at the two ports last year totaled around 11.7 million.
"The days of Los Angeles and Long Beach being the one big river for trade - with just trickles for everyone else - are over," Asaf Ashar, a professor at the National Ports and Waterways Institute in Washington, told the Times.
"Now you have as many as seven contenders vying for the same business, and each one of them has very big plans."
Certainly Savannah is one of those contenders, having grown from fewer than 1 million 20-foot containers moved in fiscal 2000 to a peak of 2.6 million about eight years later.
Today, Savannah's port lags only Los Angeles, Long Beach and the New York/New Jersey Port Authority in containers moved.
And Savannah has big plans, the biggest of those to deepen the Savannah River channel from 42 to 48 feet, a move expected to allow the port to eventually grow to an annual volume of 6.5 million containers.
Twice in the past few weeks, GPA executive director Curtis Foltz has expressed optimism that the final approval on deepening - which requires OK's from several major federal agencies - will come before the end of 2010.
If that should happen, it will likely keep the big boys on the West Coast looking over their shoulders for years to come.
S.C. ready to unveil cruiseport concept
After months of meetings and planning, the South Carolina State Ports Authority is ready to debut a concept for a new cruise terminal.
The authority, which announced last fall it was working with the city of Charleston to replace the nearly 40-year-old brick and cinderblock terminal, said Thursday the concept will be unveiled at a community meeting Feb. 9.
A 55-acre tract on the waterfront around the terminal is being redeveloped.
Carnival Cruise Lines this spring plans to permanently base its 2,000-passenger ship Carnival Fantasy in Charleston. The ports authority expects 67 cruise calls in the city this year.
Business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for Savannah Morning News. She can be reached at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com or 912-652-0324.
Doug Marchand to Step Down as Georgia Ports Chief
Peter T. Leach
Sep 18, 2009
The Journal of Commerce
Curtis J. Foltz to replace long-time executive director Jan. 1
Doug J. Marchand, the long-time executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, announced at Thursday’s State of the Port Address that he will step down Jan. 1, 2010. Marchand’s focus on marketing helped turn Savannah into the second-largest container port on the U.S. East Coast.
Marchand will remain as executive advisor through the end of 2010, while GPA’s Chief Operating Officer Curtis J. Foltz will become the new executive director on Jan. 1.
Marchand plans to remain active with the GPA as its executive advisor. In this role, he will continue to assist with the Savannah harbor expansion plan, strategic growth and development plans, marketing and sales efforts and the Jasper Port planning efforts.
“Under his leadership, Savannah has grown to the fourth largest container port in the nation and is recognized as the fastest-growing container port in America,” said Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, who attended this year’s State of the Port Address. “All told during his tenure, GPA more than quadrupled the number of containers shipped through our ports here in Georgia,” Perdue said.
In his final Savannah State of the Port Address, Marchand announced that Kia Motors and its part suppliers had selected the Port of Savannah to ship parts and supplies to its plant. This business will represent an increase of more than 15,000 20-foot containers annually in the first year of operation.
Marchand is credited with developing the beneficial cargo owner or port retail concept in the maritime industry.
This strategy increased the number of distribution warehouses in proximity to the Port of Savannah and leveraged the presence of the GPA’s shipping customers to attract international retail customers such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target, Ikea and others. He also implemented the industry’s first customer-focused operation protocol.
Marchand also announced that the GPA has positioned itself for future success, by delivering jobs and other economic benefits to the state. “Despite the international slowdown in business, we have increased services and business at our facilities in Savannah,” said Marchand.
“Our ability to weather this storm is due in large part to the addition of 12 new or reconfigured services in fiscal year 2009. As the economy begins to turn around and vessels begin loading to capacity, our services will enable us to rebound faster than our peers with a much larger market share,” Marchand said.
The Owner-Operator Trucker may be Banned from Port Terminals
August 28, 2009
The ports of Los Angeles, Oakland and New York-New Jersey have sided with the environmental backed labor group coalition that wants Congress to amend federal law so that ports will be exempted from the federal act that prohibits state and local entities from regulating interstate commerce.
The labor groups, especially the Teamsters union, view the proposed amendment as a way to open the door for unionization removing the owner-operator truckers that dominate harbor trucking in the United States.
The strategy would be similar to what the Port of Los Angeles attempted to do in its clean-truck program. Los Angeles attempted to require that over the next five years harbor trucking companies phase into their operations employee drivers. Unions, by law, can not organize drivers under an independent contractor status clause but they are free to attempt to organize companies with direct employee drivers.
This could change the makeup of who hauls any cargo within a 40 mile radius of the port terminals forcing individual owner-drivers out of the business entirely. If the coalition succeeds this may effect over the road ocean freight as well as local city dray work.
*************************
Past News Articles:
Port of Savannah Truckers Protest Lack of Fuel Surcharge Payments
By Dorothy Cox The Trucker Staff
3/13/2008
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Intermodal truckers at the Port of Savannah held a press conference March 11 at the port’s front gates to protest not getting fuel surcharges passed along to them.
According to a news release from the drivers, who now have an association called the Intermodal Owner Driver Association or IODA, the meeting was held to inform the public and the media “about what is really happening to diesel fuel surcharges that the American consumer, along with most steamship line customers, are paying.”
Most of the fuel surcharges “never make it to the individuals that actually buy the fuel,” they said.
Keith Liverman, a driver and member of IODA, hastened to add that “We are not on strike and we are not boycotting the port. We want the industry to understand we can no longer just stand by while individuals or companies collect surcharges belonging to us and use this money for their own personal profit.”
He said, “Legislation needs to be introduced in Georgia that would make it illegal to use this money for anything other than what it was intended for.
“We believe that in exchange for working during these tough times, we have earned the right to make enough money to support our families.”
B.J. Langford told WSAV news in Savannah that he doesn’t receive a surcharge, just a flat fee for picking up cargo. “My average paycheck is dropping anywhere from $250 to $300 a week,” said Langford. “It’s coming directly out of my pocket to move the same freight I was moving last year.”
The port haulers were hoping their event would put some pressure on companies not passing along surcharges.
