Jim Newsome: SC Ports Authority

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

March 7, 2017 Jim Newsome of the South Carolina Ports Authority joined us this past Tuesday. Mr. Newsome became President & CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority on September 1, 2009 and is only the fifth leader in the history of the organization. He was previously President of Hapag-Lloyd (America), Inc., which is part of the world’s fifth-largest ocean shipping company.

Prior to joining Hapag-Lloyd in 1997, Mr. Newsome was with Nedlloyd Lines from 1987 to 1997. He was Executive Vice President of the Americas for Nedlloyd Lines and President of Nedlloyd Lines (USA) Corporation based in Atlanta. In this capacity, he was the first non-Dutch member of the Executive Committee of Nedlloyd Lines and was responsible for North and Latin America and the Transatlantic trade. He held other senior management positions within that company. Before that, Mr. Newsome spent 10 years with Strachan Shipping Company, where he was President of their Hoegh Lines Agencies subsidiary in Jersey City, NJ. He held other positions in Houston, Texas and New York City, with Strachan.

March 5th marked the 75th anniversary of the state owned and operated port and they recorded record container volume in January 2017. The port considers itself a major strategic asset, generating about $200 million in business with about $30 million in operating earnings. It is also the No. 9 port in the US in container volume at 2M TEUs and has about $53 Billion in indirect economic impact, 187,600 jobs, $10.2 billion in labor income,10 percent of total annual gross state product and $912 million in tax revenue.

Recent and new initiatives include the retrofitting of the Wando Terminal for 14 TEU ships, recruiting of Volvo to the state, a rapid rail program, inland port, moving 1000 containers a day and continuing work on Leatherman terminal. Newsome indicated they are now working on cultural change at the Authority.

Although global trade is slowing, population growth and manufacturing growth in the Southeast will create good jobs and benefit the port as well. He expects the port to grow at 2x the port market. He did acknowledge that container shipping is a troubled industry, losing $10B in 2016. Consolidation and stabilization will make the industry profitable again as it is increasingly driven by large ships as 5 TEU ships are going away (a 10 TEU ship arrives in Charleston in May). The Ravenel Bridge was designed to allow these large ships to pass under it.

The Port has a number of advantages including being an ocean port with 2 lane traffic which is critical for maintaining schedules. Harbor deepening process has been relatively fast (6 years vs 20 years for Savannah) and dredging should begin in fall for the $510M project.

The inland port has also been phenomenally successful and the next one will be in Dillon, SC.

He concluded with the 3 priorities of the Ports Authority. Terminal Optimization; for more efficient operations. Investment of over $2B in the next 5 years on Leatherman Terminal, Inland Port in Dillon and Jasper Ocean Terminal and implementing cultural change in order to be the preferred port in the top ten.                                          

— Don Baus, Keyway Committee Chair