South Carolina trade mission to visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi

By

Dan McCue on Monday, March 23, 2009

A delegation of 24 officials and businessmen from Orangeburg, the US county in which Jafza Americas is developing its $600 million (Dh2.2 billion), 1,324-acre project, is in the UAE on South Carolina state's first trade mission to the UAE.

The delegation is being led by Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer and includes representatives of state and local governments and businesses.

It also includes members of the South Carolina legislature, officials from Orangeburg County, representatives of one of the state's largest law firms, it's largest electric co-operative, and the University of South Carolina.

The names of businesses participating in the mission, that arrived on Friday and will visit both Dubai and Abu Dhabi over the next eight days, are being kept confidential by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which is facilitating the trip.

However, six of the participating companies are receiving "Gold Key Service" from the US Commercial Service during their stay, meaning they will have a series of meetings set up with potential buyers of their products while in the UAE.

The trip pairs South Carolina businesses and officials with potential trade partners in the UAE, according to Kara Borie, spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce.

Later this year, the department will facilitate trade missions to Poland, Columbia, and two missions to Panama.

Last week, the department and South Carolina State Ports Authority announced the state's export total reached $19.8bn in goods sold to 193 countries in 2008, a 20 per cent rise in exports over 2007.

Revamped Jafza plan focuses on Santee

By DAN McCUE, Special to The T&D Thursday, March 12, 2009

The ongoing economic uncertainties of the global economy have caused Jafza Americas to revamp plans in the United States, a move that will put full emphasis on plans for 1,324 acres in Orangeburg County.

Jafza, a subsidiary of Jafza International, a Dubai-based Economic Zones World company, will now focus on the physical development of the central South Carolina site, for the time being forgoing potential projects in Virginia, Ohio and Texas.

“This is not a retrenchment,” said Chuck Heath, managing director and senior vice president of Jafza International, who is visiting South Carolina this week to meet with government and economic development officials as well as representatives of the S.C. State Ports Authority.

“What we have done is take a decision that we want Santee (the community adjacent to Orangeburg, and the one who’s name Heath uses when speaking of the project) to keep moving,” he said. “We’ve got very good friends and supporters here and there’s no reason to stop the project in light of the current economic difficulties.”

Although Health conceded that the timing of when ground will be broken on the project is largely dependent of when the federal government finally gets banks to start lending again, he strongly asserted the economy’s current travails “don’t mean we can’t continue to move forward.”

“Obviously, Santee is still in the development stage. We’re fine-tuning our strategy, but we are not divesting anything. Those projects (in other locations) that we have not committed to have stopped; but if we’ve bought land and have committed, we’re committed. As far as North America goes, we’ve decided to settle all of our resources and assets on Santee.”

A sign of Jafza’s continued seriousness in regard to the project is selection of Nexsen Pruet, which has offices in Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, to serve as its attorneys here.

In addition, Heath said Jafza is in receipt of its wetlands jurisdictional letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which it had to secure before formally applying for development permits for the first phase of the project. The letter deals with wetlands mitigation and other environmental issues.

“We are most definitely making progress,” Heath said. “But in this economy, things sometimes will go more slowly than you might like.”

Continued growth

Speaking directly to the economic global crisis, Heath said the biggest effect in Dubai has been in the property development sector. A major player like Nakheel, one of Jafza’s sister companies, has had to reschedule, postpone and even cancel some projects.

By contrast, Heath said, Dubai Ports, the sister entity most closely aligned with Jebel Ali, Jafza’s massive logistics and warehousing park and namesake, “has been doing extremely well in a difficult environment.”

“We will slow to single-digit growth this year, but we’ll still experience growth,” he said. “Of course, the problem is, we’ve grown accustomed to double-digit growth.”

Jafza itself, meanwhile, is moving forward with the development of phase II of its free zone project in Djibouti, after a phase 1 consisting of light industrial units, warehouses and office facilities sold out.

“It’s the most modern container shipping terminal in East Africa,” Heath said with evident pride.

Its parent company, Economic Zones World, is also moving ahead with business park developments in China and India.

Turning his comments back to the South Carolina project, Heath said in an economic climate where there are limited resources available, it’s important to commit to having your assets generating revenue.

“No matter what business you’re in, whether you are selling ballpoint pens or airplanes, you always need to generate revenue – and that’s another reason to really hunker down and focus on Santee. Right now, I’m sitting here with an asset that’s not generating revenue. And in this climate, I’d rather have only one such property for a short time than two and longer range hopes for development.”

The Santee plan

Clint Murphy, vice president of the Jafza International’s Americas operation, said in moving forward with actual construction, Jafza would likely emphasize building to suit for committed tenants rather than creating building on spec for prospective tenants.

“Obviously, some spec buildings will remain part of the mix as we move forward with the 135-acre first phase of the project, but given what’s going on in the economy right now, we have a little bit less of an appetite for that right now,” he said.

The plan is now to build the first buildings on the site in early 2010.

“Right now I’d say we’re in client/relationship mode, rather than aggressively marketing the site,” Heath said. “I mean, how can you market a site when I can’t tell them precisely where the access road will be or where the utilities are – all of which will become clear later this summer when we expect to reward the design contract?”

“Until then, we’ll continue to introduce potential clients to who we are and what we are doing,” he said. “And that will take place mostly outside of the Middle East, our local market, where Jafza is already a well-known entity.”

As an example of the kind of outreach Jafza is already doing, Heath pointed to a reception hosted in India last month by the S.C. State Ports Authority.

“I was invited to participate and make a presentation and was happy to do so,” Heath said. “It’s all about awareness-building.”

Heath was scheduled to meet for the first time with John Hassell, the ports authority’s interim president and CEO, on Wednesday, and with Gregg Robinson of the Orangeburg County Development Commission on Thursday to discuss continuing such efforts.

The revamping of its strategy was accompanied by the departure of Steven Eames, who has overseen the project since Jafza bought the property for $22-24 million in September 2007.

Eames, a former member of the Australian Special Forces and a veteran of infrastructure planning for three Olympic games, became known as something of a planning visionary through his work on the project.

Over the course of the project’s first year, Eames focused on improving the road and rail efficiencies for the site, believing that those efficiencies would be a value-added, not just for Jafza’s customers, but also for the state of South Carolina as a whole.

His leaving the project comes just days after the Orangeburg County Development Commission began to circulate a proposal to create a $700 million “global logistics corridor” linking the Port of Charleston to the Global Logistics Triangle in Orangeburg, and then to the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, where time-sensitive cargo could be flown out of the state.

“I’m a supporter of the corridor, and frankly, that concept was one of the reasons we made the decision to go with the South Carolina site, as opposed to the two or three others we were looking at back then. If you remember, after we talked to Congressman Jim Clyburn, Gregg and the folks at the OCDC, and heard their explanation of what the logistics triangle and corridor could be, we made a decision on Santee in 24 hours,” Heath said.

Moving forward

The first real day of acting on its new focus will come Thursday, when Jafza Americas will open the requests for qualifications it requested from professional civil engineering firms interesting in competing for the design, permitting and construction administration work for the first phase of what will ultimately be a $600 million project.

Murphy said the design work would include coming up with plans for the roads and utilities that will need to crisscross the Jafza property, and “perhaps the design of some building pads.”

The Request for Qualifications was sent to more than 50 civil engineering firms that have expressed interest in Jafza. Firms receiving the RFQ are mainly from South Carolina, though some are from Georgia.

Jafza will select no more than six firms through a private evaluation process, and only then will those firms be asked to submit requirements to a Request for Proposals.

As Heath indicated, finalization of the RFP is expected this summer.

“Sometimes, given the state of the economy, it seems like we’re working a little harder than we used to,” Heath said. “But in the end, the results will show that it was well worth the effort.”

Dan McCue is an independent business journalist and writer in Charleston.

Centerpiece of $700 million Land for inland port would be given by Jafza

By DAN McCUE, Special to The T&D

Concerned that far more than a soured U.S. economy is eroding the state's position in the global supply chain, the Orangeburg County Development Commission is promoting a $700 million plan to create a "global logistics corridor" extending from the Port of Charleston to Columbia.

The proposal, outlined in a white paper distributed to the state's congressional delegation and the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs during a two-day trip to Washington in February, calls for the creation of a new freight rail shuttle service between Charleston and Orangeburg. Containers would then flow in all directions from a planned 61-acre intermodal yard.

Gregg Robinson, the OCDC executive director, said while much of the plan would fall outside the parameters of project deadlines of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, the stimulus should "free up some of the normal or traditional sources of funding, such as the federal highway fund, over the next several years."

That said, Robinson made plain that he sees the plan as part of the economic recovery process.

"What we're putting out there is a regional solution to a statewide problem -- a plan that will create hundreds of construction jobs in the near term and thousands of sustainable jobs over the next 20 years," he said.

"My philosophy is, build the infrastructure, add the value businesses need to be successful, and then get out of the way and let the private sector do its thing," Robinson said.

Politicians pushing

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham described the proposal as "one of the most transformational projects in South Carolina by creating thousands of new jobs and generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue at the local, state and federal level."

"I have been pleased to work with the Orangeburg County Development Commission in their effort to make the corridor a reality," Graham said, vowing to work with the commission, state leaders and their partners in moving the global logistics corridor forward."

U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, who, like Graham, has been securing funds for infrastructure projects in the area since Jafza International purchased 1,324 acres in South Carolina last year, said he reiterated his support for the Global Logistics Triangle and the corridor now being promoted, during his meeting with Robinson and other Orangeburg County officials in Washington.

Clyburn dedicated $4.6 million in the House-passed omnibus appropriations bill for improvements to the I-95/U.S. 301 interchange adjacent to the site and $10 million for the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency, which will serve it.

He did so, he said, " to contribute to the success of this tremendous economic development initiative, and I will continue to support this project with available federal funds as they are needed."

Clyburn also inserted language into the federal economic stimulus package -- known formally as the American Recovery and Redevelopment Act -- that directs 10 percent of rural development funding in that law to persistent poverty counties.

The law defines "persistent poverty" as a county having a poverty level of 20 percent or more over the last 30 years. Orangeburg County qualifies as one of those counties.

"These funds could be helpful to the county in its efforts to develop the Global Logistics Triangle and help achieve the goal of job creation in the region," Clyburn said.

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said the proposal "represents a real opportunity for our state, of which we're still learning the details. We'll be following all of the various moving parts of this project as it goes forward."

The corridor is an extension, rather than a replacement of, the Global Logistics Triangle concept the OCDC has been employing as an economic development strategy for the past eight years.

At its heart will be a logistics and distribution park for the processing and distribution of both import and export cargo.

"The way we see it, the park will be a centralized, regional facility where multiple distribution centers will be located, along with ancillary businesses related to the movement of import and export cargo, such a trucking firms and logistics providers," Robinson said.

The Jafza link

The linchpin of the plan is Jafza South Carolina LLC, which has already invested more than $22 million in the development near the convergence of Interstate 95, Interstate 26 and U.S. 301.

The Dubai-based company has provisionally agreed to donate 61 acres of its site, as well as public access to all roadways leading to and from its property, for the creation of an intermodal hub.

The Jafza project, which will be developed in five phases through 2032, is currently undergoing zoning approval for its entire 1,300-acre parcel. The first phase of the project, expected to get under way later this year, will focus on light manufacturing and assembly-type businesses.

Robinson described the creation of the intermodal hub as a public-private partnership, with some of the players known -- Jafza, Orangeburg County, among them -- and others to be determined.

He said the creation of a shuttle service between the Port of Charleston and the intermodal hub is essential to the commercial viability of the global logistics triangle, but will also help to shift trucks away from the congested Charleston metropolitan area.

"The model we're pointing to in discussing the concept is Front Royal, an inland port created by the Virginia Port Authority in 1989 to compete with the Port of Baltimore in serving the lucrative Ohio Valley market," Robinson said.

Prior to the economic slowdown, the intermodal yard in Virginia was handling 30,000 cargo containers a year, reducing the number of trucks that had been contributing to congestion on nearby interstates, and serving to boost economic development in surrounding counties.

"We see this as adding value not just for one county, but for all of them, because there isn't a county in this state that is not in some way touched by the Port of Charleston," Robinson said.

From Orangeburg, some cargo would remain on rail, while the rest would leave the site by truck. The long-term plan calls for time-sensitive shipments to be directed to Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

"This really is about though-put," Robinson said. "We have an amazingly efficient port. In terms of container moves, it is one of the most efficient in the world.

"The creation of the intermodal facility and shuttle train system will only increase the volume of containers it can handle," he said.

Columbia airport

Michael Flack, executive director of Columbia Metropolitan Airport, said he didn't know anything about the proposal but said the airport would embrace the opportunity to be included in such a corridor.

"Certainly we would be happy to be part of that effort as it ties in to our air cargo operations," Flack said. "Our proximity to Orangeburg and Interstate 26 makes that an easy proposition.

"At the same time, both UPS and FedEx have good operations at this airport, so I would think that their participation would have to be helpful," he said.

Robinson deflected a suggestion that the proposal might be seen as favoring one developer -- Jafza -- over the Rockefeller Group, Hillwood Development and others developing distribution centers along the Interstate 26 corridor near Jedburg.

"I think this proposal will only enhance the success of their projects," he said. "Having more containers coming through the Port of Charleston rather than somewhere else is good for everybody."

Robinson also asserted that the plan would benefit truckers by moving their activities inland, and away from the overburdened roads around Charleston.

"There's an awful lot of backlash and conflict that they wouldn't have further inland, and they'd also be the beneficiaries of higher cargo volumes," he said.

Robinson said based on numerous studies conducted over the past five years, the corridor project would raise personal income in Orangeburg County by $130 million and generate an additional $382 million in additional business activity, while creating 3,765 jobs.

He said the project would also generate $450 million in additional business activity in the rest of the state, amounting to a $164 million increase in personal income in the state's other 45 counties, with the creation of an additional 5,294 jobs.

Robinson said if the strategy is implemented, by 2020, the county would be receiving an additional $12 million in tax revenue from activities directly related to the corridor, with the state receiving another $22.5 million, and the federal government approximately $54 million.

Rail connection

But Robinson readily conceded the plan is not without challenges and that even with state and federal support, some heavy lifting needs to be done -- particularly in regard to the rail connection between the Port of Charleston and the proposed intermodal site.

To begin with, he said, the efficiency of the shuttle service would be dependent on there being "dual, competitive rail access" to the port's terminals, including the new, $600 million facility being built at the former Charleston Navy base,

A memorandum of understanding between the S.C. State Ports Authority and the city of North Charleston currently prohibits cargo-laden trains from leaving the north side of the new facility, where the Norfolk Southern railroad's tracks enter the Navy base. CSX Transportation has rail access from the south side of the property.

The OCDC plan calls for the S.C. Public Railways to run the shuttle train between the port and Orangeburg, after acquiring sections of rail near Creston and Pregnall currently belonging to the respective railroads, and getting permission to operate over existing CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks between Pregnall and the terminals.

"In our view, S.C. Public railways is the entity best positioned to provide fair, equitable, efficient and competitive rail shuttle service under our proposal," Robinson said.

S.C. Public Railways, a division of the State Department of Commerce, is in effect a holding company that owns and operates three railroad companies; two terminal yard-switching operations within Port of Charleston facilities, and a short line railroad in Berkeley County that serves BP Chemicals and Nucor Steel.

S.C. Public Railways President Jeff McWhorter confirmed that "very preliminary" discussions with the two railroads have occurred, but declined to discuss the specifics of those talks.

"There are some real benefits to the rail component of the proposal, a big one being the better management of congestion on Interstate 26," he said. "Another benefit would be cleaner area around Charleston, while also increasing capacity for the ports."

McWhorter, who accompanied Robinson to Washington, said he came away from the series of meetings hopeful that the project could receive funding through the federal stimulus package.

"Something we did learn is that the whole idea of projects having to be shovel ready for the receipt of funding is something that will be continuously evaluated," he said.

Ports Authority

And then, there's the matter of the current state of the Ports Authority itself, the subject of three bills before the Legislature that could result in major changes to its operating structure.

Senate Bill 392 and House Bill 3128 would dissolve the ports authority board of directors and invest power in a new director to be appointed by the governor. Senate Bill 351, on the other hand, would retain the board structure but require members to have extensive business experience relevant to running the port.

The bill would also require the ports authority to draft long-range strategic and financing plans, and would require that whenever the new executive director of the ports authority is hired, their duties be explicitly spelled out.

State Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, a sponsor of Senate Bill 351, said while aspects of the global logistics corridor proposal are laudable, "I think we have to determine precisely what kind of port we're going to have before we talk about spending money on infrastructure.

"We have a ports authority without an executive director, and a debate over the kind of ports authority board we have or even if we have one at all; there are still a lot of questions to be answered," he said.

But as he assessed the port, Grooms appeared to be in accord with key elements of the OCDC proposal, namely the rail connection to the north side of the Navy Base terminal.

Grooms described the MOU between the Ports Authority and the city of North Charleston as a "flaw in strategic vision."

"On a day-to-day basis, operationally, no one can touch us," he said. "But it was certainly short-sighted to cut off Norfolk Southern's access to the new terminal simply for the sake of a deal with North Charleston to ease resistance to the new terminal."

Offering his own assessment of the port, Robinson said, "Obviously, right now we are in a down time in terms of global trade, but that's precisely what makes now the time to act: We have time to establish a world-class and efficient infrastructure before the high-volume trade activity we've been seeing in recent years resumes, which everyone agrees it will."

Dan McCue is a journalist based in Charleston.

Jafza Americas to be part of $700m project

By

Dan McCue on Wednesday, March 04, 2009

From: Emirates Business 24/7

Jafza Americas, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Economic Zones World, is being cast as the cornerstone behind an ambitious $700 million (Dh2.5 billion) plan to restore South Carolina's place in the global supply chain.

The proposal was outlined in a white paper distributed to members of the US Congress and the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs by the Orangeburg County Development Commission (OCDC) last week.

It calls for the creation of a new freight rail shuttle service between Charleston and Orangeburg, where containers would then flow in all directions from a planned 61-acre intermodal yard on Jafza's property.

The OCDC is a local economic development agency in South Carolina that has been working closely with Jafza on its inaugural American project, is taking the lead on championing the plan.

Gregg Robinson, the OCDC's Executive Director, said while much of the plan would fall outside the parameters of project deadlines of the $787bn federal economic stimulus package, passage of the stimulus package should "free up some of the normal or traditional sources of funding", such as the federal highway fund, over the next several years.

That said, Robinson made plain that he sees the Orangeburg plan as an integral part of the economic recovery process, both for the state and the Port of Charleston, which like other ports around the world has seen its cargo volumes shrink as a result of the global trade slump.

"What we're putting out there is a regional solution to a statewide problem – a plan that will create hundreds of construction jobs in the near term and thousands of sustainable jobs over the next 20 years," he said.

"My philosophy is, build the infrastructure, add the value businesses need to be successful, and then get out of the way and let the private sector do its thing," Robinson added. Senator Lindsey Graham described the proposal as "one of the most transformational projects in South Carolina by creating thousands of new jobs, and generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue at the local, state, and federal level."

Graham and Congressman James Clyburn have been securing federal funds for infrastructure projects in the area since Jafza International purchased the land last year.

"I have been pleased to work with the Orangeburg County Development Commission in their effort to make the corridor a reality," Graham said, vowing to work with the commission, state leaders and their partners in moving the global logistics corridor forward.

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Governor Mark Sanford, said the proposal "represents a real opportunity for our state, of which we are still learning the details".

"We will be following all of the various moving parts of this project as it goes forward," Sawyer said.

The corridor is an extension, rather than a replacement of, the Global Logistics Triangle concept Orangeburg has been employing as an economic development strategy for the past eight years.

Intermodal hub

At its heart will be a logistics and distribution park for the processing and distribution of both import and export cargo. "The way we see it, the park will be a centralised, regional facility where multiple distribution centres will be located, along with ancillary businesses related to the movement of import and export cargo, such a trucking firms and logistics providers," Robinson said.

The linchpin of the plan is Jafza South Carolina, which has already invested more than $22m in the development of 1,324 acres near the convergence of Interstate-95, Interstate-26, and US Highway 301. The Dubai-based company has provisionally agreed to donate 61 acres of its site, as well as public access to all roadways leading to and from its property, for the creation of an intermodal hub.

The Jafza project, which will be developed in five phases through 2032, is currently undergoing zoning approval for its entire 1300-acre parcel. The first phase of the project, expected to get under way later this year, will focus on light manufacturing and assembly type businesses.

Robinson described the creation of the intermodal hub as a public-private partnership, with some of the players known – Jafza, Orangeburg County, among them – and others to be determined. He said the creation of a shuttle service between the Port of Charleston and the intermodal hub is essential to the commercial viability of the global logistics triangle, but will also help to shift trucks away from the congested Charleston metropolitan area.

"The model we are pointing to in discussing the concept is Front Royale, an inland port created by the Virginia Port Authority in 1989 to compete with the Port of Baltimore in serving the lucrative Ohio Valley market," Robinson said.

Throughput

Prior to the economic slowdown, the intermodal yard in Virginia handled 30,000 cargo containers a year, reducing the number of trucks that had been contributing to congestion on nearby interstates, and serving to boost economic development in surrounding counties.

"We see this as adding value not just for one county, but for all of them, because there is not a county in this state that is not in some way touched by the Port of Charleston," Robinson said.

From Orangeburg, some cargo would remain on rail, while the rest would leave the site by truck. The long-term plan calls for time-sensitive shipments to be directed to Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

"This really is about thoughput," Robinson said. "We have an amazingly efficient port. In terms of container moves, it is one of the most efficient in the world.

"The creation of the intermodal facility and shuttle train system, will only increase the volume of containers it can handle," he said.

Michael Flack, Executive Director of Columbia Metropolitan Airport, said he did not know anything about the proposal, but said the airport would embrace the opportunity to be included in such a corridor.

"Certainly we would be happy to be part of that effort as it ties in to our air cargo operations," Flack said. "Our proximity to Orangeburg and Interstte-26 makes that an easy proposition. "At the same time, both UPS and FedEx have good operations at this airport, so I would think that their participation would have to be helpful," he said.

Robinson deflected a suggestion that the proposal might be seen as favouring one developer – Jafza – over the Rockefeller Group, Hillwood Development and others developing distribution centres along the Interstate-26 corridor near Jedburg.

"I think this proposal will only enhance the success of their projects," he said. "Having more containers coming through the Port of Charleston rather than somewhere else is good for everybody."

Higher cargo volumes

Robinson also asserted that the plan would benefit truckers by moving their activities inland, and away from the overburdened roads around Charleston.

"There is an awful lot of backlash and conflict that they would not have further inland, and they'd also be the beneficiaries of higher cargo volumes," he said.

Robinson said based on numerous studies conducted over the past five years, the corridor project would raise personal income in Orangeburg County by $130m, and generate an additional $382m in additional business activity, while creating 3,765 jobs. He said the project would also generate $450m in additional business activity in the rest of the state, amounting to a $164m increase in personal income in the state's other 45 counties, with the creation of an additional 5,294 jobs.

Robinson said if the strategy is implemented, by 2020, the county would be receiving an additional $12m in tax revenue from activities directly related to the corridor, with the state receiving another $22.5m, and the federal government approximately $54m. But Robinson readily conceded the plan is not without challenges and that even with state and federal support, some heavy lifting needs to be done: particularly in regard to the rail connection between the Port of Charleston and the proposed intermodal site.

To begin with, he said, the efficiency of the shuttle service would be dependent on there being "dual and competitive rail access" to the port's terminals, including the new, $600m facility being built at the former Charleston Navy base, A memorandum of understanding between the SC State Ports Authority and the City of North Charleston currently prohibits cargo-laden trains from leaving the north side of the new facility, where the Norfolk Southern railroad's tracks enter the Navy base. CSX Transportation has rail access from the south side of the property.

The OCDC plan calls for the SC Public Railways to run the shuttle train between the port and Orangeburg, after acquiring sections of rail near Creston and Pregnall currently belonging to the respective railroads, and getting permission to operate over existing CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks between Pregnall and the terminals. "In our view, SC Public Railways is the entity best positioned to provide fair, equitable, efficient and competitive rail shuttle service under our proposal," Robinson said.

Increasing capacity

SC Public Railways, a division of the State Department of Commerce, is in effect a holding company that owns and operates three railroad companies; two terminal yard-switching operations within Port of Charleston facilities; and a short-line railroad in Berkeley County that serves BP Chemicals and Nucor Steel.

SC Public Railways President Jeff McWhorter confirmed that "very preliminary" discussions with the two railroads have occurred, but declined to discuss the specifics of those talks.

"There are some real benefits to the rail component of the proposal, a big one being the better management of congestion on Interstate-26," he said.