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 Daily Port Update

Subject:CHARLESTON SC DAILY PORT UPDATE
Date:Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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 - 40'00
Delfin - Max Draft - 42'00
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 45'00 MLW - Max BM No restriction
North Charleston Terminal - Max draft 45'00 MLW - Max BM No restriction
CST - Max draft 45'00 MLW - Max BM No restrictions
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:
---------------------------------------------

BP - TUG INTEGRITY & 650-4 - IN - ETD 1300/19TH
HESS - TORM HELLERUP - ETA 1130/18TH ETD 1800/19TH
HESS - HIGH PERFORMANCE - ETA 1800/19TH ETD 1700/20TH

=============================================
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.

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

CURRENT ARTICLES:

Top Story
Slumping freight rates could cost shipping lines $68 billion in 2009

Due to freight rates that tumbled in 2008, particularly from November to
January, ocean shipping lines could see close to $70 billion in lost
revenues this year, according to a new report produced by Drewry Shipping
Consultants.

Drewry’s Container Freight Rate Insight reports that rate decreases are
significant on all shipping lanes out of Asia, especially between Asia
and Europe.

Containerized freight rates between Asia and the U.S. fell 12.1 percent
between November and January to $1,681, and 14.3 percent between January
2008 and January 2009, the report said.
Rates between Asia and Europe dropped much 42.2 percent between November
and January to $1,232, and 68.7 percent between January 2008 and January
2009, the report said.

For the year, rates between Hong Kong and the U.S. West Coast fell 15
percent for an FEU to $2,090, and dropped 17 percent to the U.S. East
Coast to $3,340.

"Eastbound transpacific freight rates to the US have also come under
market pressure…Reductions of $300 per FEU have been common in recent
months and the trend is continuing downwards. Rates from Hong Kong to Los
Angeles (reached) a record low of $1,350 per FEU in mid-February," the
report said.

Globally, rates fell on average at 20 percent between November and
January, and 36 percent for the year.

"Based on global container traffic of 152 million TEU for 2008, that
suggests there is as much as $68 billion in revenues that the container
operators are now not going to get - and that shippers are going to save -
if today's levels hold for the next 12 months," the report said.

The report went on to say: “The shipping lines' container services are
being run with negative cash flows, for both spot and contract cargoes.
This situation raises serious questions about the carriers' ability to
continue to trade and the resulting risk of disruption of shippers'
supply chains from Asia. Shippers will need to pay close attention to the
risk and consequences of bankruptcies of carriers."
A sharp drop in bunker surcharge levels at the end of the 2008 is
responsible for half the decline in carriers' “all-in rates” between
November and January, the report said.

"There has emerged a new trend of pricing in lump sum freight rates from
the Far East, under which the base rate and the bunker surcharge are no
longer separated…The dangers of this are obvious if oil prices start
creeping up again - as many observers think they might. Operators could
find they have given away their only chance to improve revenues this
year," the report said.

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

SPA: Container volume down; breakbulk volume up
By Allyson Bird (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, March 17, 2009


The State Ports Authority reported a 30 percent decline in container
volume year over year for February, but a new agreement inked with a
foreign shipping company focuses on one area where business is growing:
non-containerized cargo, or breakbulk.

Officials announced after a Tuesday board meeting that the National
Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia would make 18 calls to the Port of
Charleston's Columbus Street terminal, beginning with the ship Saudi
Taduk on March 31.

The service rotates four ships and calls every 21 days. SPA interim CEO
John Hassell said the service will focus initially on breakbulk,
specifically exporting generating equipment such as turbines to the
Middle East, before incorporating roll-on/roll-off cargo and container
shipments.

Breakbulk has increased 26.5 percent so far this fiscal year, compared
with 2008.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.

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

Teamwork used to lure Saudi shipping company
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
By Molly Parker
SCBIZ Daily Staff

CHARLESTON -- S.C. State Ports Authority officials said a strong public-
private partnership helped lure a new break bulk shipping service to the
Port of Charleston.

The announcement was a boon for the port, which has watched its container
traffic drop dramatically during the past year.

“This is a great day,” SPA chief executive John Hassell said.

The National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia is adding Charleston to its
East Coast ports rotation starting the week of March 30. The company’s
decision was driven largely by the port’s proximity to companies that
produce energy-related products, such as General Electric’s gas turbine
manufacturing plant in Greenville, Hassell said.

The liner service will handle a combination of traditional break bulk,
roll-on and roll-off and containerized cargo, but the main focus will be
break bulk, particularly early on, Hassell said.

The export-driven service will connect Charleston to the ports of Jeddah,
Jubail and Dammam in Saudi Arabia; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates;
Mumbai, India; Port Qasim, Pakistan; and Livorno, Italy.

Hassell was joined at the announcement Tuesday by SPA board Chairman
David Posek and Larry Young, vice president of the stevedoring company
SSA Cooper.

“All of this results from a cooperative team effort,” Hassell said. The
SPA worked with private companies such as SSA Cooper, which manages
International Longshoremen’s Association labor, in a cooperative effort
that was dubbed the Power Team, he said.

Hassell said the group worked for several months to persuade the Saudi
company to choose Charleston instead of other competing offers. Hassell
said the Power Team is “a model we will be including into our marketing
strategy.”

Container traffic through the port of Charleston was down 30% in February
compared with the same month a year ago. Since the beginning of the
fiscal year in July, traffic is down about 11%. Between June and
February, the port handled 994,958 20-foot long containers, compared with
1,119,746 in the year-ago period.

Break bulk shipments, however, have been on the upswing. And this Saudi
deal will drive the numbers higher still. Break bulk shipments include
crushed rock or odd pieces of equipment. Generally, it is cargo that
doesn’t fit neatly in containers and must be unloaded with a fork lift or
rolled off the ship, rather than being unloaded in a container by the
large cranes.

“It’s going to give us a lift,” Young said.

The service will make about 18 calls to the Port of Charleston during the
course of the year, stopping here about once every 21 days.

The Port of Charleston’s main business is the movement of containerized
cargo, but Hassell said he thinks potential for growth exists in the
break bulk segment.

In February, the port handled 76,132 tons of break bulk cargo, compared
with 47,704 tons in February 2008, a 60% increase.

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

Nucor Corp. projects first-quarter losses


Staff Report
Published March 17, 2009

Nucor Corp. announced that it expects to lose between 55 cents to 65
cents per share in its first quarter, which ends April 4. The company
earned 34 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2008 and $1.41 per
share in the first quarter of 2008.

The company expected marginally better earnings in the first quarter than
it gained in the fourth quarter of 2008. Nucor said that, in addition to
expecting an increase in orders compared with November and December, it
had hoped a reduction in customer inventory would help balance the supply
of steel with customer demand. Nucor also did not forecast further price
erosion.

Customer demand has continued to weaken, with resulting downward pressure
on orders, production rates and steel pricing in all Nucor product lines,
the company said.

Nucor’s overall steel mill utilization rate is expected to decline to
approximately 43% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter 2008 level
of 48%. The lower production has further slowed the rate at which the
company’s sheet mills are consuming higher-cost iron units, particularly
pig iron inventories, which were purchased before the collapse in both
the economy and scrap and pig iron pricing in last year’s fourth quarter.

The company said that any improvement in orders and operating rates will
speed up the reduction in Nucor’s raw material inventory.

“The unprecedented speed and magnitude of the global economy’s decline to
depressed levels not seen in our lifetime have presented severe
challenges in 2009. The economy has fallen off a cliff — and there is no
visibility as to the timing of the recovery,” said Dan DiMicco, Nucor’s
chairman, CEO and president.

Noting the disappointing first-quarter numbers, DiMicco said the company
is responding to the challenges with the “can-do attitude and
determination” that characterizes the Nucor culture.

“With Nucor’s unrivaled position of strength in the steel industry, our
team is working to continue Nucor’s long tradition of taking advantage of
economic downturns to grow even stronger and reward our shareholders with
attractive long-term returns,” DiMicco said.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 17, 2009



Port of Charleston Gains New Combo Breakbulk/Container Service

National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia Adds Charleston to its North
America Liner Service



A new liner service operating between Charleston and several ports in the
Middle East and India commences this month, representing new business and
a new carrier for the Port of Charleston.



National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) will make the inaugural
call of its North America service at Charleston’s Columbus Street
Terminal the week of March 30. The deployment will be a liner service
handling a combination of traditional breakbulk, roll-on/roll-off and
containerized cargo. The frequency is every 21 days.



The North America service connects Charleston to the ports of Jeddah,
Jubail and Dammam in Saudi Arabia; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates;
Mumbai, India; Port Qasim, Pakistan and Livorno, Italy. Carolina Shipping
will serve as the local agent for NSCSA.



Ray Jozwiak, NSCSA market analyst, said the carrier is looking forward to
adding Charleston.



“There are some large breakbulk cargo shippers in the Port of
Charleston’s marketplace that make it the logical port of call,” Jozwiak
said. “On the inbound side, Charleston is a strong gateway for India
goods, particularly textile imports. So this will initially be driven by
breakbulk outbound and containers inbound and we will work quickly to add
more freight.”



Jozwiak added that NSCSA is committed to “novel and vigorous solutions”
for customers to help them find creative and efficient means of
conducting business in these challenging times.



“We are broadening our reach in an effort to provide those solutions,” he
said. “Charleston is a strong addition to the rotation.”



“This is great news for South Carolina Ports and the maritime community,”
said David J. Posek, chairman of the South Carolina State Ports Authority
(SCSPA). “This is a new service which brings vessel calls and freight to
the Port of Charleston and will have a positive impact on the businesses
that rely on the port’s operations.”



John F. Hassell III, interim president and CEO of the SCSPA, praised the
collaborative effort of both the public and private sector in winning the
business. Involved in bringing the carrier to Charleston were Carolina
Shipping, Dockside Logistics, Charleston Heavy Lift, SSA Cooper, South
Carolina Public Railways, both class 1 railroads, several local truckers
and others.



“This was truly a team effort from many on the local waterfront,” Hassell
said. “We look forward to welcoming another carrier to our port and
growing this business.”

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

CURRENT ISSUES:

03/26/09 - 0815 - Charleston Nav/Ops Maritime Association
03/26/09 - 1730 - Charleston Prop Club Dinner

FUTURE/ONGOING ISSUES:
04/01/09 - 1715 - Savannah Prop Club After Hours
04/09/09 - 1200 - Savannah Prop luncheon
04/14/09 - 1830 CWIT Soiree
04/16/09 - 1100 - Georgia Logistics Summit
04/23/09 - VA Prop Dinner - Oyster Roast
05/05/09 - Charleston National Transportation Banquet
05/12/09 - 1145-0130 CWIT Luncheon
05/13/09 - VA Prop Spring Cruise
05/14/09 - VA Trade Symposium
05/22/09 - National Maritime Day
06/09/09 - NC Port Advisory Quarterly meeting
2014 - 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 March 13, 2009.
Day High Tide Height Sunrise Moon Time % Moon
/Low Time Feet Sunset Visible

W 18 High 1:55 AM 4.9 7:26 AM Rise 2:19 AM 58
18 Low 8:19 AM 1.0 7:30 PM Set 12:06 PM
18 High 2:04 PM 4.1
18 Low 8:11 PM 1.0

Th 19 High 2:54 AM 4.8 7:24 AM Rise 3:07 AM 48
19 Low 9:16 AM 1.1 7:31 PM Set 1:01 PM
19 High 3:03 PM 4.1
19 Low 9:13 PM 1.1

F 20 High 3:54 AM 4.7 7:23 AM Rise 3:50 AM 39
20 Low 10:13 AM 1.1 7:31 PM Set 1:58 PM
20 High 4:04 PM 4.2
20 Low 10:16 PM 1.0

Sa 21 High 4:52 AM 4.8 7:22 AM Rise 4:27 AM 30
21 Low 11:06 AM 0.9 7:32 PM Set 2:56 PM
21 High 5:02 PM 4.4
21 Low 11:15 PM 0.8

Su 22 High 5:44 AM 5.0 7:20 AM Rise 5:01 AM 21
22 Low 11:54 AM 0.7 7:33 PM Set 3:54 PM
22 High 5:55 PM 4.7

M 23 Low 12:08 AM 0.6 7:19 AM Rise 5:31 AM 14
23 High 6:31 AM 5.1 7:33 PM Set 4:53 PM
23 Low 12:38 PM 0.4
23 High 6:42 PM 5.0

Tu 24 Low 12:56 AM 0.3 7:18 AM Rise 6:00 AM 8
24 High 7:14 AM 5.3 7:34 PM Set 5:52 PM
24 Low 1:18 PM 0.1
24 High 7:25 PM 5.4

W 25 Low 1:40 AM 0.1 7:16 AM Rise 6:27 AM 3
25 High 7:55 AM 5.4 7:35 PM Set 6:52 PM
25 Low 1:57 PM -0.1
25 High 8:06 PM 5.7

Th 26 Low 2:24 AM -0.1 7:15 AM Rise 6:56 AM 0
26 High 8:33 AM 5.4 7:36 PM Set 7:54 PM
26 Low 2:36 PM -0.3
26 High 8:45 PM 5.9

F 27 Low 3:07 AM -0.2 7:14 AM Rise 7:27 AM 0
27 High 9:11 AM 5.3 7:36 PM Set 8:59 PM
27 Low 3:15 PM -0.4
27 High 9:24 PM 6.1

Sa 28 Low 3:51 AM -0.2 7:12 AM Rise 8:01 AM 1
28 High 9:50 AM 5.2 7:37 PM Set 10:06 PM
28 Low 3:56 PM -0.4
28 High 10:05 PM 6.2

Su 29 Low 4:37 AM -0.1 7:11 AM Rise 8:40 AM 6
29 High 10:32 AM 5.1 7:38 PM Set 11:15 PM
29 Low 4:40 PM -0.4
29 High 10:50 PM 6.2

M 30 Low 5:26 AM 0.0 7:10 AM Rise 9:26 AM 12
30 High 11:18 AM 4.9 7:38 PM
30 Low 5:28 PM -0.3
30 High 11:40 PM 6.0

Tu 31 Low 6:19 AM 0.2 7:09 AM Set 12:23 AM 20
31 High 12:10 PM 4.8 7:39 PM Rise 10:20 AM
31 Low 6:22 PM -0.1

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

MARINE WEATHER FORECAST

WATERS FROM SOUTH SANTEE RIVER TO EDISTO BEACH SC OUT 20 NM-
WATERS FROM EDISTO BEACH SC TO SAVANNAH GA OUT 20 NM-
355 AM EDT WED MAR 18 2009


TODAY
NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT IN THE
AFTERNOON. SEAS 4 TO 5 FT...SUBSIDING TO 3 FT LATE.

TONIGHT
NE WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 3 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
SHOWERS.

THU
NE WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING SE IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 3 FT.
A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

THU NIGHT
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING NW 10 TO 15 KT AFTER
MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

FRI
N WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 KT. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT...
BUILDING TO 4 TO 5 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

FRI NIGHT
NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 KT. SEAS 4 TO
5 FT.

SAT
NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 4 TO
5 FT.

SUN
NE WINDS 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING E 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT.
Notice posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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.