Posted on 03/05/2011 2:48:20 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
GALVESTON — The Port of Galveston is in final negotiations to lease its facilities to a major investment group, which could make it the first U.S. port to turn over its entire operation to the private sector.
Several U.S. ports lease terminal operations to private operators, but "in this case it is the entire port structure, which is really a unique opportunity," said economist John Martin, who heads Martin Associates, based in Lancaster, Pa.
Martin Associates had done work for every U.S. port and did the economic study for the proposed lease, a 50/50 joint venture of global investment firm Carlyle Group and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, the world's largest stevedore-terminal operator with operations in more than 50 ports in 25 countries.
Both companies declined comment.
If consummated, the 75-year lease would give Hutchison its first U.S. toehold.
"This would be the first foray of the largest terminal operating company in the world to the United States," said port consultant Erik Stromberg, former chief executive officer of the American Association of Port Authorities.
..."It will be, as far as I know, the first one, but it won't be the last," Brinson said. "You are going to see ports that look like Galveston looking more and more to the private sector."
[snip]
The 75-year lease is unprecedented, Stromberg said. Most port leases are for 30 years and occasionally 50 years, he said...
.....Over the next 50 years even large ports like Houston's could follow Galveston's lead, he said......
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
The Hong Kong and Shenzhen ports had a throughput in 2009 of 39.2 million 20-foot equivalent units, the standard measure of container capacity, Hutchison said in the prospectus filed in Singapore. Hutchison’s unit controls more than half the market share at the two ports.
DBS Bank, the large Southeast Asian lender based in Singapore; Deutsche Bank; and Goldman Sachs are the joint bookrunners for the issue. [end excerpt]
Reason behind push for rail Video shows China and Buffett connection along with the winners and the losing taxpayers.
Gov Scott is fighting High Speed Rail push in Florida: Politicians Watching Tapped-out Voters Rise Up In Anger are Getting Nervous (You can help)
Jan 5, 2011Plans for Houston-Galveston passenger rail line fall off track [excerpt] ….."The reasons for that are the economic downturn the last two years has impacted local political subdivisions very dramatically," Goodman said.
The dearth of local and federal money has turned the project from something over the horizon into a more distant goal, he said.
But Goodman says he's not giving up and will continue to lobby for the money. Neither is Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski, whose city has led the fight for the commuter rail line.
"I'm certainly not letting it go," said Jaworski, who vowed to seek support for the project at the regional, state and federal levels.
The city of Galveston launched the project in earnest in 2007 by financing a $350,000 study by Goodman Corp. that showed the 45-mile commuter rail line was economical, would reduce air pollution, ease traffic congestion and provide an important evacuation route for the hurricane-prone city.
The study envisioned a train traveling at speeds up to 79 mph along the existing right of way, carrying 11,480 passengers daily when completed at an estimated cost of $350 million, a price that has nearly doubled since then. Goodman predicted at the time that construction of the first phase could be completed by 2012….[end excerpt]
Right. Until the next cat 5 hurricane comes through and destroys everything.
Oh, and there is this:
Washington Post: From China's mouth to Texans' ears: Outreach includes small station in Galveston
[excerpt] GALVESTON, TEX. -- Cruise southeast out of Houston, past the NASA exits and toward the Gulf of Mexico, and you pick up something a little incongruous on the radio, amid country crooners, Rush Limbaugh, hip-hop and all the freewheeling clamor of the American airwaves.
"China Radio International," a voice intones. "This is Beyond Beijing." Way, way beyond Beijing.
Sandwiched between a Spanish Christian network and a local sports station, broadcasting at 1540 on your AM dial, is KGBC of Galveston, wholly American-owned and -operated, but with content provided exclusively by a mammoth, state-owned broadcaster from the People's Republic of China.
Call it KPRC. Or as the locals quip: Keep Galveston Broadcasting Chinese.
The little Texas station may be modest, but it is part of a multibillion-dollar effort by the Chinese government to expand its influence around the world. As China rises as a global force, its leaders think that their country is routinely mischaracterized and misunderstood and that China needs to spread its point of view on everything from economics to art to counter the influence of the West.
Beijing's new response is typically massive and ambitious: a $6.6 billion global strategy to create media giants that will challenge agenda-setting Western behemoths such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the BBC and CNN.
At a time when the Western media are contracting, China is pushing its government-run news services to expand from America to Zimbabwe. The Chinese are creating TV networks, pouring millions into English-language newspapers, leasing radio stations on all continents and broadcasting TV news to a worldwide audience in six languages.
The stations don't broadcast outright propaganda, but rather programming with a Chinese focus and flavor, tailored for local audiences. In Galveston, the format mixes China-centric international news, talk shows about the status of China's women and a healthy dose of gangsta rap -- all in English.
In New York, China's official Xinhua News Agency is moving its North American headquarters from....... [end excerpt]
UPDATE 1 - China internal security spending jumps past army budget
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2684004/posts
The Chinese government is sitting on the equivalent of a live grenade that could explode at any time.
Having grown up in Beaumont, and having lived on the island for several years, this is like China is taking over the part of Texas where I spent my youth.
All of this info about this Chinese deal taking over the ports is making me very sad. I know nothing stays the same forever, but to me, this seems worse than any hurricane to hit the island.
ironic, in a way, when American Rice was working out of Galtex, when we saw a ship full of rice in Galveston Harbor, "well, there goes another load of Chinese Ice Cream"
However, I certainly don't welcome Red China running a private port in the United States.
The Kenyan Clown is running this country down to the level of Kenya. Elect a "Barack Hussein Obama", a man who openly admitted to his Kenyan citizenship, and I guess that these are the results that you can expect.
I wonder how this will work ot if we ever go to war with China? I assume we will go to war with them, unless this country wakes up quickly.
ORLANDO[The park is now closed. A general auction that began on Thursday, December 9th, 2004, saw the selling off of all park assets.] Florida Splendid China, a $100 Million theme park which opened in 1993 on 76 acres just West of the main entrance to Walt Disney World, brought to visitors the beauty and landmarks of China in miniature form. Accurate scale models of some of that China's most interesting architectural and cultural sites, peopled with a motionless ceramic population, were scattered along the park's curving and well landscaped (if not particularly shady) paths.
The miniatures included replicas of The Great Wall of China (this version was half of a mile long and built brick by brick), The Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi'an, The Leshan Grand Buddha Statue (in 1/8th scale), The Forbidden City (including a miniature Emperor's wedding procession), Potala Palace (the spiritual center of Tibet and traditional seat of the Dalai Lama) and more than 50 others representing the diversity of cultures within the region……”
HOUSTON: Forbidden Gardens – Closed --- For a time, America had two miniature China attractions, neither of them near a Chinatown: the notorious Chinese government-run Splendid China in Florida (now closed), and the relatively unknown Forbidden Gardens in Texas. The latter invites tourists to "Discover the mysteries of Imperial China," but the world's oldest civilization has proved no match for the blistering sun and hothouse humidity of south Texas. Still, we recommend visiting F.G., a unique sight for Texas (or anywhere)....
Forbidden Gardens was built in 1997 at the pleasure of Ira P. H. Poon, AKA "Mr. Poon," a Hong Kong real estate mogul who wanted people of Asian descent (including his teenage children) to know something of Asian culture besides firecrackers and kung-fu. Mr. Poon lives in Seattle, but preferred constructing the sprawling exhibit somewhere outdoors, open year-round, on flat, cheap land, where there was a large Asian population. Houston, 25 miles east of Forbidden Gardens, has the third highest in the nation…..”
Before a flame war breaks out, we should remember that Hutchison Whampoa is the world’s most experienced operator of ports, and that company helped develop many of the modern techniques used to load and unload container ships during the 1970’s and 1980’s in Hong Kong.
We should also remember that it’s a lot shorter from China through the Panama Canal to Galveston for Chinese vessels carrying troops, armament and invaders...
The Port of Galveston was created in 1825 by Mexico. It was an important port of entry for immigrants which also influenced its culture and architecture. Houston PBS, channel 8, has done some stories on Galveston in the last couple of years which trace it’s history. I ran across the immigration program rerun just a couple of nights ago. Galveston was one of the major trading ports once they made deepwater access for the ships.
I have always loved reading the history of Galveston——it’s very interesting......
Rush annoyed the crap out of me when he supported turning over the port to the arabs.
So the union thugs now running these ports will be gone?
Asian thugs as replacements?
Just keep them off Bolivar...
Additionally, the 2010 election results threw the ‘rats out of power in not only Galveston, but in Galveston County as a whole. They had been running the city and County since Reconstruction. It was the Democrat Party that killed the Port of Galveston.
Now that Republicans are running things, and most of those are of the Tea Party-ish persuasion, things are changing.
Give them a chance...
I love Port Bolivar—used to have friends there.
It was hit pretty bad in the last storm—I haven’t driven back out there in a while to see if it’s making a comeback.
It’s just sad for me to go back—”my” island is no longer the same—even the hospitals where I trained and worked are no longer the same—the dorms we lived in are gone, etc etc.
What would Ron Paul do?
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