AGENCY SAYS ITS PROJECT ISN’T “POACHING” FROM OTHER PORTS
|| By FITSNEWS || The S.C. State Ports Authority (SCSPA) is confident its harbor deepening project will result in big business for the Port of Charleston – even though several other regional dredging projects are underway contemporaneously. In fact one of those out-of-state projects, benefiting the Port of Savannah, was controversially spearheaded by South Carolina’s own governor, Nikki Haley.
Yeah … how’s THAT for “economic development.”
This week our attention was called to a recent article in Al-Jazeera quoting Hofstra University professor Jean-Paul Rodrigue, who is referred to by the publication as “an expert in the field of transportation economics.”
According to Rodrigue, multiple deepening projects in the Southeast – in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida – create a “zero sum game,” one in which “whatever somebody gains is going to be at the expense of the other.”
“The bigger ships are not going to create by magic more business,” Rodrigue said, referring to the next generation of larger container ships (which require deeper harbors to unload their goods).
Global economic jitters would seem to bear him out, too.
Environmental advocates said that wasn’t the point, though.
“The problem with this analysis is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a zero sum game as long as the participants all believe they will be on the positive side at the conclusion,” said Dana Beach, executive director of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL). “Poker is also a zero sum game, but people still play it.”
That’s true …
Port officials tell FITS they aren’t worried.
“Our study does not include poaching cargo,” one source close to the SCSPA told us bluntly.
Also, as noted, South Carolina’s project will dredge Charleston harbor to a depth of 52-feet, whereas Georgia’s project will leave the Savannah River at a depth of 47 feet. That’s still not enough to accommodate the 10,000 TEU (a.k.a. “twenty-foot equivalent unit”) ships making most of the calls on east coast ports.
11 comments
SC Ports Authority is riddled with corruption. It need to be exposed, and those engaged in the corruption and criminal conduct sent to federal prison.
I’m sure commenting under the name Corruption Buster will help.
That’s not news. What would be news would be g’ment and longshoremen leaving your port alone.
“The bigger ships are not going to create by magic more business,” Rodrigue said.”
————————————–
The most important economic statistic that improves living standards for the population as a whole is increased worker productivity. Of course, public policy must deal with worker dislocation and how the benefits of productivity are divided, but higher worker productivity is the only long term way to raise incomes.
The larger ships will be more efficient and cost effective and therefore improve worker productivity.
The best example of “public policy” is “The Forgotten Depression-1921: The Crash That Cured Itself” by James Grant.
What still boggles my mind is that the ship building industry was able to get every country and every port on the planet to go along with something that is costing governments and ports trillions(?) for something that isn’t really needed except to the people who want to build bigger ships.
I don’t think they would build bigger ships if there weren’t buyers. I don’t think Panama would spend all that money on expansion if there was no demand for it.
Unless of course, it’s cartel money. Ever been to Panama. It’s flush with cartel cash being used to fund giant condo projects that site empty.
Just because there is ginned up ‘demand’ does not mean something is actually necessary.
“necessary” is a very subjective word.
Almost right. If those port clearing jobs are going to private enterprise, then they usually make good economic and business sense.
If it’s all g’ment jobs, then more than half the costs will be wasted and the results will invariably be half-fast.
… Bohica.