Aug. 8--Ports can provide a competitive edge for areas vying with other communities to attract new businesses, said John Hassell, interim CEO of the S.C. State Ports Authority.

Hassell was one of the keynote speakers at the 12th annual Regional Growth Summit Friday at Coastal Carolina University, which focused this year on the importance of ports to the Carolinas.

"I spent a lot of my career in the economic arena," said Hassell. "I spend my time talking about the great weather, productive employees and the low taxes. But, guess what? There are about 25,000 other communities selling the same thing. The one thing that sets us apart is that we have a seaport."

The recession has weighed heavily on ports in the Carolinas and elsewhere, but officials in both states have improvements and expansions planned that will position them for growth once the recession ends.

There are 327 official ports of entry in the U.S., according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The S.C. State Ports Authority runs two ports, one in Charleston and one in Georgetown.

North Carolina also has two ports, in Wilmington and Morehead City, said N.C. Ports Authority CEO Thomas Eagar, who spoke at the summit sponsored by CCU, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and The Sun News.

The shipping industry has slowed as the construction and manufacturing sectors have taken a big hit in the economic recession, Eagar said.

"There has been a 70 percent reduction in lumber volume," Eagar said. "We're having to work with our customers and forgo storage fees and take other measures to help our customers make it through the next year."

Still, plans are moving forward for expansion at both N.C. ports, and work is under way for approval of the N.C. International Terminal near Southport, N.C., in Brunswick County. That terminal will be a container facility, and the first phase is forecast to open in 2017. It is expected to handle 3 million TEUs (20-foot container equivalent units) when it is fully operational around 2030.

And work is under way for the first phase of a new three-berth, 280-acre terminal at the former Charleston naval base set to be completed by 2013. There also are plans to open a bi-state port in Jasper County in a partnership with Georgia.

Georgetown's port, which has seen business decline in recent years, is stuck in a Catch-22: It can't get the funds to pay for critical channel dredging unless it has more business; it can't sign the companies interested in doing business with them until the channel is dredged.

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