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Port Plan Creates Buzz
By
Mark Schreiner
Raleigh Bureau Chief
mark.schreiner@starnewsonline.com
RALEIGH
| From the dockside in
Charleston
to
New York
’s fashion district, they’re talking about the
N.C.
International
Port
project.
And according to the N.C. State Ports Authority, the world’s largest
shipping companies have asked – or will be asked – to partner in
the $1 billion venture that could bring one of the largest container
ports on the East Coast to
Brunswick
County
sometime next decade.
The state’s top elected leaders this morning will consider a portion
of the proposal. The project will pass an important milestone if the
N.C. Council of State approves the ports authority’s purchase of 600
acres of undeveloped industrial land for $30 million.
A briefing book prepared by the authority details plans for a port
that would dwarf existing facilities in
Wilmington
and
Morehead
City
.
The book explains the port’s bold plans: to develop a former pecan
grove on the
Cape Fear River
into a port that could move 2 million container units a year between
trucks and train cars and the largest oceangoing ships. By comparison,
the
Wilmington
port after planned expansions will process about 530,000 units a year.
The project would mean jobs and business development opportunities for
the region and state.
Despite the project’s promise, the briefing document is also frank
about questions that need to be resolved.
It will take the better part of a decade to get the port operating.
About $400 million of the project’s $1 billion budget will be needed
to dredge 9.5 miles of the
Cape Fear River
shipping channel.
Congress and the N.C. General Assembly will have to be persuaded to
come up with some of that money.
Important to the project is bringing on a private partner who will
provide a large chunk of the $600 million it will take to get the
project up and running.
Getting a private partner “is not a key consideration; it is the key
consideration,” said ports spokeswoman Susan Clizbe.
Several companies have made inquiries, she said, after stories began
appearing last month in newspapers and publications that cover
shipping issues.
The ports authority briefing book includes recent clips from
publications as diverse as
Charleston
’s Post & Courier and Women’s Wear Daily.
The
Charleston
paper was interested in how the plans might affect
South Carolina
ports, which are among the East Coast’s largest. In 2004, the
Wilmington
port ranked 34th among North American ports.
Charleston
is the continent’s fifth-busiest port.
John Hassell III, of the Maritime Association of the
Port
of
Charleston
, told the paper last month that the
North Carolina
proposal was creating “a growing buzz” on the waterfront there.
Women’s Wear Daily, which tracks news for the import-heavy fashion
industry, published a detailed story about the international port
project in its Jan. 10 issue.
So far, inquiries have been received from shipping giants SSA, Hanjin
Shipping and A.P. Moeller-Maersk. More are expected, Clizbe said.
The authority “expects to talk to the top 10” international
shipping companies once business development work begins in earnest,
she said.
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