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A demand for ready cash and a desire to subtract the public from needed but controversial harbour expansion projects will likely trigger a wave of privatisation of port facilities in the United States, predicts Jeff Keever, deputy executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.
Speaking to a New York conference organised by Australia's Macquarie Bank, Mr Keever said publicly-owned US harbour commissions would find the option of selling terminals increasingly attractive, reported The Financial Times of London.
Many US container ports need investment in the next few years both in terminals to handle higher volumes of cargo and to accommodate larger ships, involving expensive dredging and other work.
Port authorities, he said, were not only recognising that privatisation could help them find money for improvements, but that it might also reduce public opposition to port expansion.
"If it's a private company doing the improvement, its takes the burden off the state, whose precious resources can be used for a more important project. People can understand highways; they cannot understand ports," he said.
Mr Keever said a Port of Virginia privatisation could set a precedent for other large public terminal operators on the US east and Gulf coasts such as those governing the ports of Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, North Carolina and Houston, Texas.
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