It could well be the biggest economic reversal in Charleston since the Navy packed up and left a decade ago. Earlier this week, Maersk, Inc. announced it will leave the Ports of Charleston over the next two years, and it's anyone's guess how much it will affect the area.
Maersk spokesmen blame the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) for its the decision. According to the Post and Courier, the ILA "rejected the company's proposal to move the so-called common area of the port and allow State Ports Authority workers to perform jobs that would otherwise fall to union labor."
Although labor unions have become a convenient scapegoat (and one must admit, much of the heat is warranted), the real issue is what will happen next.
Folks who visit Charleston may not realize how busy a shipping center it is, but it's huge. Three container terminals, plus plans to build a fourth on the old Navy base. A smaller breakbulk terminal downtown. A handful of smaller, vest-pocket shipping interests, and several oil docks. For years Charleston vied with Savannah for fourth place among the busiest shipping entities in the nation.
If shipping is the largest industry in the region, Maersk is clearly the largest customer. Now, the huge Danish company -- the world's largest shipping line -- accounts for 20 percent of the containers moving in and out of Charleston, and until recently its share was 30 percent. The Wando-Welch shipping terminal, on the Mount Pleasant side of the Cooper River, has room ("berths") for four container ships. Two of those berths are reserved for Maersk/SeaLand ships, and there have been times a Maersk ship has had to borrow one of the other berths. Using that as a yardstick, Maersk/SeaLand accounts for more than half of the business at the Wando docks. All the others -- MOL, Evergreen, Hanjin, MSC -- are bit players by comparison.
While it's possible the pullout is merely a bluff by Maersk to force a better deal -- such things are possible -- you may soon hear the sound of wagons circling in Charleston. Expect thousands of jobs to be affected in the area.
Although Maersk is closemouthed about where its ships will call, I'm betting on Savannah. Apparently the ILA is not as strong there, and there is already a network of warehouses and distribution centers in the area. Charleston does not have this; there are plans to build along the I-26 corridor (including about 12 million square feet of warehouse space in nearby Jedburg). However, already-existing distribution centers are a lot more useful for storing containers and shipped goods than something that merely exists on paper. And, with Maersk planning to pull out, this may well put most of these plans in doubt.
I deal with a lot of Maersk containers on my job, and one trucking firm -- Bridge Terminal Transport (BTT) hauls the bulk of those. Six months ago, BTT had the busiest bunch of trucks at the rail yard where I work. That has slacked off considerably, and now the drivers are wondering about their future.
"I'm real curious what we're going to get now," one BTT driver told me.
Other drivers, you can bet, are looking to jump ship. That is, if there's a place to jump to. While BTT's business has slacked off considerably at the rail yard, it's been that way with most of the truckers. It's just that the decline was most noticeable with BTT and Maersk containers. For most of the drivers I deal with, the local lobs from port to rail yard are their bread and butter.
Maersk won't just affect one trucking firm. The shipping company is big enough that all haulers will feel the bite, and this is not a good time for it. Business has been abominably slow in the past few months anyway, with many truckers (and as I mentioned in an earlier post, rail companies) cutting back.
Frank, a BTT driver, says he's not especially worried. His response surprised me; he's one of those guys who will complain about anything and everything. It's just part of his personality -- even when things are going great, he'll think of something. He's one of those guys who comes in just to give me a hard time, knowing I'll give it right back.
"Something else will come along," Frank says. "Ome door closes, another one opens."
I can't muster that same sense of optimism, though. The economy has been bumpy in the Lowcountry, and things just got more contentious.
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