SSA of Seattle planned to work with DP World

SSA Marine, by far the largest U.S.-based port operator, appears to be in prime position to take a role in running the U.S. assets of Dubai Ports World (DP World), the company at the center of the port-security controversy.

Seattle-based SSA had been planning to accept DP World as its joint-venture partner at ports in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., and Camden, N.J.

SSA was a partner in those ports with London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O). DP World purchased P&O in a $6.8 billion deal that closed this week.

On Thursday, DP World said it would transfer P&O's U.S. assets "to a U.S. entity" either by selling them to another company or setting up a corporate structure without management links to its government-controlled parent in Dubai.

Bob Watters, vice president at SSA, declined to comment on whether the company was interested in acquiring DP World's half of the joint venture, or its assets at other U.S. ports that would have been acquired by DP World. Those include Baltimore; Newark, N.J.; Miami; and New Orleans, all ports where SSA does not have operations.

SSA manages one of the largest terminals at the Port of Seattle.

Through the P&O purchase, DP World would have acquired half of Delaware River Stevedores, the joint venture with SSA. The venture operates port terminals at Philadelphia and Camden; in Wilmington its role is limited to stevedoring, or loading and unloading ships.

SSA has 150 port operations in at least nine countries, Watters said. In 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it won a U.S. government contract to operate the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to handle aid and reconstruction cargo.

The company leases and operates seven container terminals in the United States. The next-largest U.S. competitor is Maher Terminals, which leases and operates the largest amount of terminal space at the ports of New York and New Jersey. Other large companies leasing U.S. terminals are foreign-owned, Watters said. And other big U.S. companies only operate terminals, but don't lease the land.

Watters said SSA saw no security issues in having DP World as its partner at the three East Coast ports.

"All the same people were going to be in place to run the business, so we had no concerns about [security]," Watters said. "We had the existing stevedoring company there, and all U.S. employees."

Through its stake in the partnership with SSA, DP World would have had access to the government security plans for those terminals, Watters said. Such plans are developed with the U.S. Coast Guard and implemented by the port operators, with periodic Coast Guard inspections, he said.

SSA, known for years as Stevedoring Services of America, was founded in 1949 and limited to Pacific Northwest and Alaska ports until a string of acquisitions in the 1980s. The company ranked 214th among the nation's 500 largest private companies last year, according to Forbes magazine, which estimated its 2004 revenues as $1.45 billion.

Alwyn Scott: 206-464-3329 or ascott@seattletimes.com