Growing Up Charleston

Independence Day came early this past year at Charleston’s Rigging in South Carolina – at least that was the joke circulating around family get-togethers in the Sawin family last summer.  July 1^st, 2011, marked the date that new owners and siblings Jessica Sage and Skip Sawin took ownership of Charleston’s Rigging and Carolina’s Rigging from parents Rick and Valerie Sawin after 23 years in business.  Jessica and Skip grew up in and around the business, actively engaged at various times and undoubtedly involved by necessity at other times as all family businesses operate.  Most recently, Jessica has served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Skip as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and both will continue to serve

Industry Thought: Leaders on Innovation

At the end of 2012, we conducted a roundtable discussion on innovation in the rigging industry to get perspectives and insights about what is driving innovation and growth.

Wire Rope Exchange:  How do you define innovation in our industry?

Tom Miller, President
Marcal Rope and Rigging, Inc.

Tom Miller:  To me innovation in the rigging industry is two-fold.  We’re focused on providing our customers with safer products that also promote ease of use. The loads are getting bigger and bigger, so the rigging also gets bigger and bigger – which means more weight and more opportunity for accidents. Providing a safer way to lift these larger loads is where we are looking.  Also, I think our own manufacturing practices have to be safer.

Carving New History, the Panama Canal Expansion.

The shortest path between two points is a straight line.  It just so happens that this line is 50 miles long, accounts for nearly 300 tons of shipments worldwide annually; and the two points are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  Since the colonization and exploration of the Americas, a shortcut has been envisioned to connect the West with the East across the Isthmus of Panama. This simple solution has been the root of an ongoing engineering idea that has transformed this section of land into a gateway for international trade routes.  The current expansion plans underway will further cement the Panama Canal as a nucleus for shipping and impact most economies across the globe.