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 Daily Port Update

Subject:
Date:Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Priority:Normal
Notice:
URGENT INFORMATION - NONE

PORT LIMITS/INFORMATION
------------------------
Maximum Depths - (Fresh)
Harbor Entrance - 47.0 ft
Main Channel - 45.0 ft

BERTH LIMITS/INFORMATION:
-------------------------
Current maximum drafts allowed at berths:

Amerada Hess - Max draft of 40'00
Kinder Morgan - berth 1 - 40'00
Kinder Morgan - berth 2 - 40'00
Kinder Morgan - berth 3 - TBA
Kinder Morgan - berth 4 - Max draft 39'00, tide needed for anything
deeper than 36'00 BP - Max draft 32'6" Low water / Salt Wando Terminal -
Max draft 46'00 - Max BM 187'00 North Charleston Terminal - Max 42'00 -
Max BM 187'00 CST - Max draft 47'00 - Max BM 187'00 Nucor - Max draft
25'00 (movements daylight & tidal restricted), Max LOA 450', Max Beam 52'

Per pilots - restrictions for Tanker movements:
Drafts of 36'00 or less may transit at anytime Drafts of 36'01 to 40'00 -
window: Start in 1 Hour before low water until 2 hours before high water
Drafts of 40'01 to 41'00 - window: start in 2 hours after low water until
2 hours before high water
Drafts of 41'01 to 42'00 - window: start in 3 hours after low water until
3 hours before high water

VESSEL TRAFFIC:
---------------

HESS - MOSCOW SEA - IN 2020/7TH ETS 2000/9TH
KINDER MORGAN 1 - YEOMAN BROOK - IN 0146/8TH ETS 1600/9TH

=============================================
FEDERAL, STATE & LOCAL FILING REQUIREMENTS:
---------------------------------------------
96 Hours - advance notice of arrival required by USCG

48 Hours - advance receipt of crew list by Immigration for any vessel
arriving from a foreign port, or arriving coast wise with detained crew.

24 Hours (minimum) - Foreign cargo must have manifest submitted to
Customs & Border Patrol AMS. Bond must be filed for Foreign flag vessels
or U.S.
flag arriving with foreign cargo aboard.

24 Hours - advance notice to Pilots

24 Hours - advance fax of crew list and approved visitors required by
Terminal.

PRIOR TO ARRIVAL - as of 11/15 - Mandatory Right Whale reporting by all
vessels - for information - www.nmfs.noaa/pr/shipstrike.com

72 Hours - post port call, the Port Authority requires bill of lading
figures for all bulk cargo.

Port Security - All persons doing business within Port Authority property
must have security pass from SCPA. All persons wanting unescorted access
to any vessel must have a valid TWIC.

=========================================

NEWS ARTICLES:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

12/5/2008

Ports Authority, Neighborhoods Announce Additional Funding for Community
Projects

North Charleston, SC – The South Carolina State Ports Authority (SPA)
today joined community leaders near the site of the new Navy Base
Terminal to announce the second installment in a ground-breaking $4-
million community mitigation project.

In a ceremony at Gethsemani Community Center in the Union Heights
neighborhood, SPA President & CEO Bernard S. Groseclose Jr. presented a
$300,000 check to North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. Last year, the SPA
presented $750,000 in first-year funding and is contributing $300,000
annually to the community through 2013.

The SPA is providing the funds in partnership with the City of North
Charleston and the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC), a
group of seven neighborhoods near the terminal site.

LAMC worked with the SPA over several months to ensure that the new
container terminal will have the greatest positive impact on the
surrounding area. The resulting Community Mitigation Agreement calls for
the SPA to fund $4.08 million in community, neighborhood and economic
development projects such as scholarships, affordable housing and
revitalization plans.

“This is an exceptional opportunity for LAMC to improve the quality of
life in their neighborhoods,” said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president
and CEO of the SPA. “We are honored by our partnership with LAMC, and as
these programs develop they will have a positive impact. The new Navy
Base Terminal can be a force for positive change.”

“LAMC’s partnership with the Ports Authority means great things for our
community,” said North Charleston City Councilman Michael Brown, who
serves as president of LAMC. “For example, we were able to provide
educational opportunities for our residents, with thousands of dollars in
scholarships awarded just last month. We will soon begin work on a
comprehensive community plan that will serve as a roadmap for
revitalizing and strengthening our neighborhoods.”

While virtually all major port development projects include
traditional “green” mitigation for wetlands and other impacts, this is
one of the first port expansion projects that included both community and
environmental programming as part of the formal mitigation plan.

Specific priorities in the Community Mitigation Plan include:

# Housing trust for affordable housing
# Environmental monitoring
# Scholarships other financial support for education
# Business assistance
# Health care and fitness amenities
# Community center improvements
# Maritime career center or training institute
# Community redevelopment master plan


The community mitigation is part of a larger $12-million mitigation
program to offset direct and indirect impacts of the SPA’s new container
terminal at the former Navy Base. To learn more about the SPA’s
environmental initiative, please visit www.pledgeforgrowth.com.

==================================================
Charleston's port flounders while container business sinks

By Ron Brinson Sunday, December 7, 2008

Charleston is not the only port experiencing a downturn in container
business. A New York Times article last week profiled Savannah's flat-
lined container business. A front page Los Angeles Times article last
weekend documented sudden and deep business drops at West Coast ports.

Charleston's port misery received special national attention. A Nov.
25 Wall Street Journal article sketched our port as wallowing in a state
of dread and suffering:

"The impact in Charleston ... has been greater than almost anywhere else.
As recently as 2005, Charleston handled 12.6 million metric tons of
containerized freight, more than any other port except Los Angeles, Long
Beach and the combined New York/New Jersey port complex.
Charleston has been losing market share to more innovative and
aggressive East Coast ports, particularly Savannah. From 2005 to 2006,
Charleston's container traffic dropped 9 percent, followed by a 7 percent
drop in 2007." "That has been devastating for local businesses that
depend on port traffic ... the port has slipped to eighth place in
container tonnage, falling behind Savannah and Norfolk."

So the shipping business is bad nearly everywhere, but the trend
simply compounds anxiety in Charleston. It's a confirmation that
Charleston's maritime business community has hit a wall. The impacts
sweep through the local maritime transportation industry, breeding
frustration and eroding confidence, and while the port community seems
united in its frustration, it also seems divided against itself with a
collective mind-set of recrimination, mostly aimed at the State Ports
Authority.

The most regrettable line in the Journal article is "Charleston has
been losing market share to more innovative and aggressive East Coast
ports, particularly Savannah. ..." That's a big-fisted punch at the
Charleston maritime community and South Carolina — and I don't agree.
Charleston has been losing market share for many reasons, but voids of
innovation and solid performance are not among them.

Charleston's waterfront labor is as productive as any labor force in
the U.S. port industry. The Ports Authority management team has performed
minor miracles sustaining financial stability and squeezing out
incremental capacities at existing terminals. At times, it seems they've
worn themselves out trying to get an expansion project underway. And lest
we forget, the authority announced its terminal expansion imperatives
well over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Georgia and the Savannah region's business alliance helped
their port invest in new "innovative" marketing tools — warehouses and
distribution centers. Savannah now benefits from the presence of
dedicated distribution facilities for national retailers like Target,
Home Depot, Wal-Mart, IKEA, Lowe's and Pier One. But all is not hunky-
dory in Savannah. The Times piece described the port as a fighter falling
with its dirty boots on.

"That unanticipated slowdown caught Savannah off guard. The city has
four million square feet of newly built, never-occupied warehouse space,
intended primarily as temporary quarters for the growing flow of imports.
Big as hangars, these buildings sit shuttered and alone in industrial
parks sprouting weeds."

We are reminded that innovation and aggressive marketing can be risky.

Charleston's port operations have been taken down by an inconvenient
confluence — a struggling global economy and a state-level failure to
keep pace with long-term capacity demand. There's a corresponding message
to the market that suggests South Carolina doesn't seem to have the same
priority for its ports as Georgia, Virginia or Florida with its 18
seaports. Bottom line: The container business is sinking all over, and
these days Charleston's competitors have had more to work with.

But those nationally-published articles reveal other troubling
attitudinal issues. Spokesmen at other ports seemed resolute and
confident better times were ahead. In The Wall Street Journal article,
Charleston's spokesmen were more negative and despairing. One businessman
said things were so bad in Charleston, he's started using cheaper toilet
paper in his company's restrooms. A line service company owner
declared, "Now we're just worried about our survival." Dealing with
negative business curves is tough, but sounding hopeless and helpless
implies a misplaced futility.

Locally, union representatives seem upset over declining work and
willing to join the Ports Authority's private sector detractors in taking
their complaints to elected leaders. It's a political flanking that seems
to rest on the notion that the Ports Authority is solely responsible for
the Port of Charleston's demise. That's not entirely fair to the Ports
Authority and contradicts the fact that a port is a collective industry
of mutually dependent entities. The Ports Authority is merely one member
of that industry.

But port authorities have distinct leadership roles, and it's high
time the Ports Authority exercised some leadership and worked to exorcise
this assault of negativity on the Port of Charleston's image in the
marketplace. Every detractor and every party of interest should be
involved in a summit to address all complaints, issues, concerns or
better ideas. In a work place so dependent upon synergy and mutual
assistance, everyone should be heard and no one should have an excuse to
complain. Frustration breeds inertia and inertia becomes the enemy within.

In the Wall Street Journal article, a Virginia Port Authority
spokesman said the downturn " ... is forcing us to rethink almost every
aspect of business." Is anyone doing that for the Port of Charleston?

Yes, our port's plight was predictable, but frustration will compound
the problems. The urgency is to reverse the impression that the
Charleston port community is short on innovation and competitive
aggression. The public will watch our proud and capable port community.
Will it sink deeper in its inertia? Or will it act with conviction and
leadership to lift the Port of Charleston beyond any suggestion that it
lacks what it takes to compete?

Ron Brinson retired in 2003 after 16 years as president/CEO of the Port
of New Orleans. From 1979-1986, he served as president/CEO of the
American Association of Port Authorities.

Copyright © 1997 - 2007 the Evening Post Publishing Co.


==================================================

CURRENT ISSUES:
12/10 - CHARLESTON PROPELLOR CLUB HOLIDAY PARTY
12/16 - SCSPA Board Meeting
12/16 - 1700 - Charlseston City Council Meeting
12/17 - 0815 - Maritime Association Board Meeting

FUTURE/ONGOING ISSUES:
01/08 - 1700 - SAVANNAH PROPELLOR CLUB DINNER
01/13 - 1145 - CWIT LUNCHEON MEETING ON ECEONOMIC CHALLENGES, HOLIDAY INN
01/22 - 0815 - NAV OPS Meeting
01/25-27 - GA FOREIGN TRADE CONVENTION
2013 - ETA FOR NEW CHARLESTON PORT TERMINAL TO BE COMPLETED

-----------------------------------------------

HURRICANE ALERT - 5 - OUT OF SEASON
SEAPORT SECURITY ALERT CURRENTLY AT YELLOW/ELEVEATED - MARSEC 1

============================================

Tides for Charleston (Customhouse Wharf) starting with October 6, 2008.
Day High Tide Height Sunrise Moon Time % Moon
/Low Time Feet Sunset Visible

M 8 High 3:13 AM 5.6 7:10 AM Set 2:30 AM 70
8 Low 9:44 AM 0.7 5:14 PM Rise 1:51 PM
8 High 3:39 PM 5.0
8 Low 9:55 PM -0.1

Tu 9 High 4:12 AM 6.0 7:11 AM Set 3:38 AM 80
9 Low 10:46 AM 0.4 5:14 PM Rise 2:28 PM
9 High 4:37 PM 5.1
9 Low 10:51 PM -0.4

W 10 High 5:10 AM 6.4 7:12 AM Set 4:49 AM 88
10 Low 11:45 AM 0.1 5:14 PM Rise 3:13 PM
10 High 5:35 PM 5.2
10 Low 11:46 PM -0.6

Th 11 High 6:07 AM 6.6 7:12 AM Set 6:03 AM 95
11 Low 12:41 PM -0.2 5:14 PM Rise 4:07 PM
11 High 6:31 PM 5.3

F 12 Low 12:40 AM -0.9 7:13 AM Set 7:16 AM 99
12 High 7:03 AM 6.8 5:14 PM Rise 5:11 PM
12 Low 1:34 PM -0.3
12 High 7:26 PM 5.3

Sa 13 Low 1:34 AM -1.0 7:14 AM Set 8:21 AM 99
13 High 7:59 AM 6.9 5:15 PM Rise 6:23 PM
13 Low 2:27 PM -0.4
13 High 8:22 PM 5.4

Su 14 Low 2:28 AM -1.0 7:14 AM Set 9:17 AM 97
14 High 8:54 AM 6.8 5:15 PM Rise 7:38 PM
14 Low 3:19 PM -0.4
14 High 9:18 PM 5.4

M 15 Low 3:23 AM -0.8 7:15 AM Set 10:04 AM 92
15 High 9:48 AM 6.6 5:15 PM Rise 8:51 PM
15 Low 4:12 PM -0.3
15 High 10:15 PM 5.3

Tu 16 Low 4:18 AM -0.6 7:16 AM Set 10:42 AM 85
16 High 10:43 AM 6.2 5:16 PM Rise 10:00 PM
16 Low 5:04 PM -0.1
16 High 11:14 PM 5.3

W 17 Low 5:16 AM -0.2 7:16 AM Set 11:16 AM 76
17 High 11:37 AM 5.9 5:16 PM Rise 11:05 PM
17 Low 5:57 PM 0.0

Th 18 High 12:14 AM 5.2 7:17 AM Set 11:45 AM 66
18 Low 6:15 AM 0.1 5:16 PM
18 High 12:31 PM 5.5
18 Low 6:51 PM 0.1

F 19 High 1:14 AM 5.2 7:17 AM Rise 12:07 AM 55
19 Low 7:17 AM 0.4 5:17 PM Set 12:13 PM
19 High 1:25 PM 5.1
19 Low 7:45 PM 0.2

Sa 20 High 2:13 AM 5.2 7:18 AM Rise 1:07 AM 45
20 Low 8:20 AM 0.6 5:17 PM Set 12:41 PM
20 High 2:19 PM 4.8
20 Low 8:38 PM 0.3

Su 21 High 3:10 AM 5.3 7:18 AM Rise 2:06 AM 35
21 Low 9:21 AM 0.7 5:18 PM Set 1:10 PM
21 High 3:13 PM 4.6
21 Low 9:30 PM 0.3

===========================================

MARINE WEATHER FORECAST:

TODAY
E WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 2 FT...BUILDING TO 3 FT IN THE
AFTERNOON.

TONIGHT
E WINDS 15 KT. SEAS 3 TO 5 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

TUE
SE WINDS 15 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

TUE NIGHT
S WINDS 15 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 20 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6
FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. AREAS OF FOG.

WED
S WINDS 15 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS
IN THE MORNING...THEN A CHANCE OF SHOWERS WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
TSTMS IN THE AFTERNOON. AREAS OF FOG.

WED NIGHT
S WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KT AFTER
MIDNIGHT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT...BUILDING TO 6 TO 9 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SHOWERS LIKELY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF TSTMS.

THU
SW WINDS 20 TO 25 KT...BECOMING W. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT...
SUBSIDING TO 5 TO 7 FT. SHOWERS LIKELY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
TSTMS.

FRI
N WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT.

MARINERS ARE REMINDED THAT WINDS AND SEAS CAN BE HIGHER IN AND
NEAR TSTMS.

$$
Notice posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Disclaimer
For quality assurance purposes please note well that while the above information is regularly vetted for accuracy it is not intended to replace the local knowledge or expertise pertaining to port conditions of our marine operations personnel. Port précis should always be verified by contacting the corresponding marine department of a particular location for the most up-to-date information.