American Shipper articles from April 1996

American Shipper archives from April 1996

Cosco to join Intra-Asia discussion agreement. (China Ocean Shipping Co.)
April 1, 1996... After years of discussions, independent-minded China Ocean Shipping Co. will join the Intra-Asia Discussion Agreement, the world's largest carrier agreement. For Cosco, doesn't belong to any transpacific and Asia/Europe conferences,...

Contract breakthroughs in Pacific.
April 1, 1996... Two major transpacific conferences have broken ground with service contracts. The Asia North America Eastbound Rate Agreement has gone back to quoting all-in rates to its contract customers, something ANERA has long resisted. And...

Emmett seeks to reassure ports. (National Industrial Transportation League President Ed Emmett)
April 1, 1996... U.S. ports have been unable to agree on Shipping Act reform, but they're united in support of the federal dredging program. So port directors paid attention when Don Welch, director of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, accused the...

Administration reconsiders reform bill.
April 1, 1996... The Clinton administration has indicated it may withdraw or modify its support of legislation to overhaul the 1984 Shipping Act. The legislation, which easily passed the House last year, has been stalled in the Senate Commerce, Science...

Experience will tell how EC consortia rules really work. (European Community)
April 1, 1996... When European Union regulation 870/ 95 on liner consortia was issued in April 1995, the new European law on antitrust immunity of consortia defined all the applicable rules and clearance procedures. One year later, though, all the...

NIT League, ESC criticize OECD draft. (National Industrial Transportation League; European Shippers' Councils)
April 1, 1996... U.S. and European shipper groups criticized a draft report on international competition regulations that was commissioned by a committee of the Organization for Economic and Commercial Development. The report by the OECD's Maritime...

EC moves closer to fines against TACA. (European Commission; Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement)
April 1, 1996... The European Commission's Competition Directorate has taken a new step toward making members of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement subject to multi-million-dollar fines for inland price-fixing. In a statement of objections, the...

EC 'wise men' oppose inland exemption. (European Commission)
April 1, 1996... A European Commission panel of independent shipping advisers says in an interim report it sees no reason conferences should have automatic antitrust immunity to fix inland prices in Europe. The so-called "wise men" committee was set up by...

WTO shipping talks hit a snag. (World Trade Organization)
April 1, 1996... Discussions under the World Trade Organization in Geneva to liberalize maritime transport services have reached a deadlock. During meetings in early February of the Negotiating Group on Maritime Transport Services, the U.S. stated that it...

U.S., Germany sign open-skies pact.
April 1, 1996... After months of discussions, U.S. and German negotiators have signed an open-skies agreement to liberalize the world's third-largest air transport trade. The agreement allows German and U.S. air carriers to operate to any points in either...

Japan threatens to revoke FedEx routes. (Federal Express Corp.)
April 1, 1996... Negotiations to liberalize U.S.-Japan air transport were jolted by Japan's threat to rescind routes it granted to Federal Express after tense bargaining last summer. In a round of talks in late February and early March, Japan threatened...

New ESC chairman defines priorities. (European Shippers' Councils President Garry Mansell)
April 1, 1996... Garry Mansell, elected 1996-97 chairman of the European Shippers' Councils on Dec. 5, takes over at a busy time. The European group is engaged in several precedent-setting legal cases and it recently launched a campaign to challenge...

Kill the chameleon. (intermodal transport contracts)
April 1, 1996... The origin of liability disputes can be confusing. In principle, the legal positions of parties to an intermodal transport contract are determined by the relevant law applicable to each of the transport legs that, together, constitute the...

China direct: carriers add Chinese ports to their trunk routes.
April 1, 1996... Three years ago, no shipping line except the Chinese-flag state carriers dared send their mainline ships to Chinese ports. Chinese ports, foreign carriers said, are slow and ill-equipped to handle big containerships--they are best avoided...

A dragon with many heads. (Chinese air carriers)
April 1, 1996... Since the U. S. and China broadened their bilateral aviation agreement in December, Chinese airlines have been getting in position to expand their share of the U.S. air cargo market. Three Chinese airlines -- Air China, China Southern and...

COSCO aims to be no. 1. (China Ocean Shipping Co.)
April 1, 1996... "Now, the Cosco group is not only the biggest shipping enterprise in China, it is also one of the biggest shipping companies in the world," said Zhou Qifang, executive vice president of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., at the recent...

United Biscuits China.
April 1, 1996... "Customer service and supply chain management are new concepts in China," said Chris Strachan, former managing director of United Biscuits China at the recent China Distribution Management conference in Beijing. "Until 15 years ago,...

Western Digital learned from mistakes.
April 1, 1996... Disk-drive producer once sold mainly to manufacturers. When its primary market suddenly changed to retail, it had to overahaul its supply chain. In 1988, the company turned its traffic department over to a forwarder--only to change back after...

Herb Johnson. (Council of Logistics Management 1996 convention chairman)
April 1, 1996... Meeting Herb G. Johnson is an encounter with a natural force. Seeing him network last year at the Council of Logistics Management's convention in San Diego reinforced something easily forgotten in today's technocratic age: the personal touch...

Choosing a third party. (third-party logistics services)
April 1, 1996... When a shipper considers third-party logistics services for freight management, the introduction often comes to the chief financial officer or comptroller. The logistics provider first does a preliminary audit of the company's previous...

Key to operations. (information systems)
April 1, 1996... For non-asset-based third parties, information systems are the key to developing efficient freight logistics programs. These companies invest from $80,000 to $250,000 in hardware and programs. PC networks are the most popular systems. ...

3rd parties come in many shapes and sizes. (third-party logistics providers)
April 1, 1996... When companies start looking for ways to trim costs, one of the first departments to be downsized is transportation. In some situations, transportation managers have offered to buy their departments from the company and turn them into...

International logistics.
April 1, 1996... Although most non-asset-based third-parties concentrate on the domestic market, some are international. Grove Associates tried to start up in domestic markets in New England area during the early 1980s, but struggled. "When we were...

How third parties price their service.
April 1, 1996... The ways in which non-asset-based third-party providers earn their profits vary widely. However, most providers rely on four basic forms of compensation: * Flat-rate pricing. * Transaction-based fee. * Cost-plus. *...

Insurance and liability.
April 1, 1996... "It's like preparing to sign a mortgage for a home. You have the option of plowing through it in minutes or taking the time to read the fine print. I say read the fine print. If you don't read everything carefully, you may be ignoring something...

Professional standards. (logistics providers)
April 1, 1996... Shippers can also find out more about non-asset-based third parties by contacting logistics associations, such as the American Logistics Management Association (ALMA), the Transportation Intermediaries Association, the Council of Logistics...

Corporate anorexia.
April 1, 1996... How many importers and exporters of chemicals are aware of the diplomatic convention starting April 15 to complete the work on "A Draft Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damages in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and...

Settling claims closer to home. (United Kingdom Mutual Steam Ship Assurance Association Ltd.)
April 1, 1996... On Feb. 20, the U.K. P&I Club gave its New York correspondent authority to settle claims on a global basis. Even so, the Club remains skittish about the uncertainties of the American legal system. Protection and indemnity clubs have one...

Free railroad interlining for boxes.
April 1, 1996... You can now move a container by rail to virtually anywhere in the country without paying an interline surcharge, courtesy of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Conrail and Norfolk Southern railroads. Shippers have pushed for years for...

What intermodal shippers want.
April 1, 1996... "If I had the choice of a bad (intermodal) system and good information, or bad information and a good system, I'd prefer the latter." With those words, Clifford Sayre, retired vice president of transportation for Du Pont, echoed the...

Hanjin pursues diversification plan. (Hanjin Shipping Company Ltd.)
April 1, 1996... By 2000, South Korea's Hanjin Shipping aims to operate about 150 ships and generate $5.5 billion a year in revenue. "Our goal is to advance, not only in size, but also as one of the top leading global logistics carriers," Sooho Cho,...

Speculating with ships. (MC Shipping)
April 1, 1996... MC Shipping (the MC stands for Monte Carlo, where the company is based) was organized in 1989 with the idea of speculating in the market for small containerships. The idea was to get in, turn a profit as the market value of small ships...

USTranscom's winter of discontent. (US Transport Command)
April 1, 1996... Question: How many separate units of the U.S. Transport Command are needed to negotiate a single shipping rate? Answer: Five. And the resulting rate will be no bargain for taxpayers, according to a report issued Feb. 22 by the...

Study predicts doubling of box traffic.
April 1, 1996... Container traffic through the world's ports will more than double to 306 million to 335 million twenty-foot-equivalent units by 2005, according to a report by U.K.-based Ocean Shipping Consultants. The report, The World Container Port...

Why containers go overboard.
April 1, 1996... During a single week in January, 250 on-deck containers were lost from vessels crossing the North Atlantic. On one vessel alone, winds and waves swept off 94 containers. "That total is alarmingly high for such a short period of time,"...

American changes pricing system. (American Airlines)
April 1, 1996... American Airlines has simplified its cargo pricing system by reducing its number of service offerings from 14 to five. The new offerings are Mail, On-Board Courier, Priority Parcel Service and two airport-to-airport products: expressAAir...

Do shippers need so much information?
April 1, 1996... Air cargo shippers are too exacting in their service demands, and carriers and forwarders are largely to blame, one industry executive says. "Shippers expect more data than they need, and carriers and forwarders can chiefly blame...

Nippon Cargo spreads its wings. (Nippon Cargo Airlines Company Ltd.)
April 1, 1996... Nippon Cargo Airlines, Japan's second-largest cargo carrier, is expanding capacity and adding new services. The airline plans to begin service soon between Tokyo's Narita airport and Manila, and recently launched a new service linking...

Arrow boosts Puerto Rico capacity. (Arrow Air)
April 1, 1996... Arrow Air, the Miami-based all-cargo carrier that was shut down for three months last year for faulty maintenance records, is upgrading its fleet. The carrier has increased capacity on its Puerto Rico trade lane by taking delivery of the...

'Shared responsibility' for importers. (US Customs Modernization and Informed Compliance Act)
April 1, 1996... U.S. Customs, importers and customs brokers are still sorting out the new responsibilities established by the U.S. Customs Modernization and Informed Compliance Act. One of the biggest problems is handling the law's concept of "informed...

Weise: brokers' role won't vanish. (US Customs Commissioner George Weise)
April 1, 1996... U.S. Customs is testing a program that gives high-volume importers with good records their own "account service" manager to help them comply with import laws and regulations. That makes many customs brokers fear that Customs will, by...

Concerns over Customs' automation. (US Customs Service)
April 1, 1996... As U.S. Customs continues on the path of automation, customs brokers appreciate that the agency is moving cautiously and consulting them. But some of Customs' directions have caused brokers to wonder how well the program's pieces will...

Danzas restructures, cuts jobs.
April 1, 1996... Six months after the surprise resignation of its former president and chief executive, Bernd Mensinger, the giant Swiss freight forwarder Danzas has announced a major restructuring that will cut 1,500 to 2,000 jobs. The moves are...

Louis Katsoff was right.(Editorial)
April 1, 1996... I'll always remember Louis Katsoff for two things. (l) Although he was a serious-minded philosophy professor teaching Logic and Hegel at Chapel Hill, he was married to what you might call a very gorgeous, stately and not-so serious-minded...