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Posted on Mon, Mar. 13, 2006
Businesses in N.C. mountains have eye on coastal opportunitiesAssociated PressASHEVILLE, N.C. - The North Carolina mountains are a long way from the ocean, but the region is turning into fertile territory for businesses that want to keep an eye on America's ports.
At least three companies in the west - or moving here - are trying to get a piece of the growing business of port security.
Navigational Sciences Inc. of Charleston, S.C., is in the process of basing its information network in Asheville, where it would be safe from hurricanes on the coast or a terrorist attack aimed at a bigger city.
Mariner Container Corp. in Granite Falls hopes to supply a new style of shipping container that would be easier to recycle and outfit with wireless monitors to detect tampering.
And just outside Asheville, Homeland Integrated Security Systems is increasing production of its Cyber Tracker, a geographic information systems device that could monitor the flow of trucks in and out of ports.
Rick Lampe, owner of Marine Container and a veteran of the shipping industry, says homeland security has grown into a $3 billion annual market since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The security of American seaports has come to the fore with the recent controversy over plans for an Arab company to take over management of six major U.S. ports.
For Navigational Sciences chief Eric Dobson, that means a different yardstick by which to measure his company's business.
"I'll define success as people sleeping better knowing that we're doing what we do," Dobson said.
NavSci has its roots in the mountains, with technology developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee at the heart of its systems for monitoring shipping containers.
Dobson's company is already wiring the port of Charleston with hardware to track every container. The data will come 250 miles to Asheville across the huge broadband pipelines laid by U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor's Education and Research Consortium - the reason Dobson chose Asheville.
NavSci announced its arrival in late 2004 and opened a small office last year. More resources are expected as the company nears production on the 2-by-2-inch monitoring devices.
Lampe hopes his fourth business, Mariner Container, will deliver 1,000 new manufacturing jobs around Catawba County, one of many areas that has lost heavily in that sector in the recent past.
The idea for the company has been in his head for 30 years, since he wrote a thesis about the need for a recyclable container for international trade.
"You can't get rid of steel containers because of the cost involved. More and more containers are being left on U.S. docks just emptied out," he said.
A recyclable container made of polymers would be easier to reuse or recycle - and could be more secure, with tracking and security devices implanted inside the skin instead of just the door, and the containers themselves easier to X-ray.
"The whole argument we've been hearing about port security is highlighting problems we've had for the past 30 years. Terrorists have just shown us how vulnerable we are," he said.
If shippers don't agree, Lampe has a backup plan - scale back production to make polymer septic tanks.
Homeland Integrated Security Systems is based just outside Asheville in Arden, launched in August 2004 as a publicly traded company with new technology for global positioning system devices.
After a merger with a Tampa, Fla., software company, HISS had $9 million in sales last year and a projected $25 million or more in 2006, Moody said. It employs about 120 people.
"Our company is about 20 percent tracking and 80 percent data processing. The market took off in a way we didn't expect," CEO Frank Moody II said.
Its Cyber Tracker tracks material and processes data, allowing video and photographs to be sent to a network monitor. The device was specifically designed for port security, but the company has found a market with companies that want to monitor their shipments worldwide.

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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com