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Maersk Line, the world's largest steamship company and the Port of Charleston's biggest client, will close its Charleston customer-service centre by August in a cost-cutting move that will affect 140 local workers.
The closing will reduce Maersk's local payroll to about 75 people. All workers at the company's Long Point Road office in Mount Pleasant, mostly in sales and administrative support positions, will be offered either relocation or severance packages.
Customer service functions now handled at the Charleston and Portsmouth customer service centres will be transferred to a new office in Charlotte and to an existing location in Houston.
Kotlarich said the shipping giant's other operations, which includes Maersk Distribution, Bridge Terminal Transport and APM Terminals, are unaffected.
Other cities are losing jobs as well. Maersk offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas and Costa Mesa will be transferred to Houston. The Atlanta sales administration office will be relocated to Chicago.
The company said the changes are necessary to lower costs. Last month, Maersk said it plans to cut up to 12 percent of its global workforce, or about 3,000 jobs, and split its container operations into three divisions in an effort to improve profitability.
Tom Sproat, Maersk's head of customer service in North America said the company would maintain the current customer-service processes and systems.
Byron Miller, spokesman for the State Ports Authority, said the office closure does not affect Maersk's cargo volume at the Port of Charleston.
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