Maersk Line, which accounts for 25 percent of Charleston’s container business, is threatening to leave the port unless the South Carolina State Ports Authority revises its contract to reflect sagging volumes, the Journal of Commerce reported.
The port authority’s proposal to keep Maersk would leave the International Longshoremen’s Association with less work, a suggestion the union says it will not accept.
The issue at hand is whether Maersk Line will remain in Charleston after its SCSPA agreement expires in 2010.
Maersk Line has said that the company cannot remain in Charleston if it means losing money.
Throughout 2008, Maersk has been charged shortfall fees for not meeting the volume agreed upon in the Danish carrier’s contract with the port.
That contract, valid through 2010, required the SCSPA to purchase more than US$8 million in equipment and devote space and staffing to Maersk at the Wando Welch Terminal.
Maersk signed its current contract more than two years ago, when volume was rising and forecasts were optimistic.
To mitigate the penalties Maersk faces for not meeting volume, the port authority proposed two solutions. One would modify the license agreement, reducing Maersk’s space and taking back some of the equipment purchased by the port authority.
The other would move Maersk’s operations to a common-use area in the container yard, where non union employees would perform jobs that the carrier now contracts out to union workers.
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