Retiring chairman and president of Michelin N.A., Jim Micali, says the new Jasper County port is very important to the future of business throughout SC, giving us “a great competitive advantage”.

Companies throughout the state, and indeed the Southeast and beyond, depend on the future success of our coastal ports. With the raw materials they ship in, and the finished products they ship out, that competitive advantage will insure jobs for LowCountry dock workers and truckers far into the future - indeed as long as ships are able to pull up to our docks.

While international conglomerates BMW & Michelin benefit from our coastline while upstate, it’s a harder struggle for the shrimping industry and their boats here. They are gone long before dawn, combating higher fuel costs that increase their cost of business and take away from the success of their bottom-line. We need to help out local businesses too.

The Georgia Ports Authority board voted today to develop a port terminal on the Savannah River - in Jasper County, SC. Naturally, they voted unanimously to buy 1,518 acres @ $5k an acre, with South Carolina’s State Ports Authority scheduled to consider similar options tomorrow.

Phase one is slated to take 5 yrs and $500 million. [src]

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