Wednesday, March 1, 2006
80% of U.S. Ports Already Foreign-Owned
Most of the terminals at America's major ports are already foreign-owned, according to a senior official with the largest U.S.-owned ports operator, SSA Marine.
In an interview with National Public Radio on Sunday, SSA Vice President Bob Waters explained that there are 15 major ports in the U.S., comprising about 100 terminals.
We operate seven of those terminals," he said, adding that the next biggest American ports operator, Maher Terminals, manages one terminal.
A dozen additional terminals nationwide are managed by city or state governments.
"Other than that," said Waters, "the rest of the terminals, which comprise about 80 percent of those terminals we're talking about, are operated by foreign entities, primarily shipping lines."
Interviewed on the same program, Joe King, former chief of U.S. Customs' Terrorism Unit, noted that the government of Singapore owns most of a company that operates terminals in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Two Chinese companies, both with close ties to the Chinese government, manage terminals in New York, Long Beach, and other places, he said.
And the government of Venezuela owns all or part of marine terminal management at ports in Pennsylvania and Maine.
Asked if it was feasible for the relatively small U.S. ports industry to take over management of terminals that are currently foreign-owned - a position favored by Hillary Clinton and other port security critics - Peter Tirschwell, publisher of the Journal of Commerce, said no.
"It would be an extraordinary upheaval," he told NPR. "So large as to be difficult to even contemplate it."
Most of the terminals at America's major ports are already foreign-owned, according to a senior official with the largest U.S.-owned ports operator, SSA Marine.
In an interview with National Public Radio on Sunday, SSA Vice President Bob Waters explained that there are 15 major ports in the U.S., comprising about 100 terminals.
We operate seven of those terminals," he said, adding that the next biggest American ports operator, Maher Terminals, manages one terminal.
A dozen additional terminals nationwide are managed by city or state governments.
"Other than that," said Waters, "the rest of the terminals, which comprise about 80 percent of those terminals we're talking about, are operated by foreign entities, primarily shipping lines."
Interviewed on the same program, Joe King, former chief of U.S. Customs' Terrorism Unit, noted that the government of Singapore owns most of a company that operates terminals in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Two Chinese companies, both with close ties to the Chinese government, manage terminals in New York, Long Beach, and other places, he said.
And the government of Venezuela owns all or part of marine terminal management at ports in Pennsylvania and Maine.
Asked if it was feasible for the relatively small U.S. ports industry to take over management of terminals that are currently foreign-owned - a position favored by Hillary Clinton and other port security critics - Peter Tirschwell, publisher of the Journal of Commerce, said no.
"It would be an extraordinary upheaval," he told NPR. "So large as to be difficult to even contemplate it."
