Mover and shaker.

Most who know Charleston, South Carolina, think of salt marshes, southern cuisine and lovely antebellum homes. Talk to port officials there, and they're thinking even further south, to Central and South America, where business is growing. Over the last 15 years, the Port of Charleston's business with Latin America has grown eightfold. The port is investing to handle new traffic. It has budgeted US$640 million to build facilities and another $159 million in upgrades. Officials also want to develop land on the border of South Carolina and Georgia to build entirely new shipping infrastructure.

"Certainly, given the growth in the Latin American trade we have seen, that creates the demand, along with the other trade growth," says Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority. The port claims 10% of container trade between the United States and South America, trailing only ports in New York/New Jersey and in Houston. It added this year three new South American services as well as a new Central American service. Global shipping giant Maersk Sealand added a South American and Central American route out of Charleston to handle a heavy flow of textiles coming into the United States.

While ports such as Houston or Miami are geographically closer to Central and South America, shipping companies find trucking products from the deep south to be costly. In a statement, Maersk spokesman John F. Heenehan called truck and rail transport from South Florida "inconsistent" and complained of restrictive U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.