American Shipper articles from February 1994

American Shipper archives from February 1994

Bilspedition finds buyer for Cool Carriers: consortium of Leif Hoegh & Co. and International Shipping Investment Co. to take over. (Bilspedition AB; Cool Carriers AB)
February 1, 1994... Bilspedition AB has agreed to sell a majority stake in Cool Carriers, its refrigerated-shipping line, to a consortium led by Norway's Leif Hoegh & Co. The Swedish transportation group will sell 50.1 percent of the shares in Cool Carriers for...

North American transportation summit in March: U.S., Canadian and Mexican transportation ministers to meet in Washington.
February 1, 1994... A "first-ever" North American transportation summit which will deal with issues relating to the newly implemented North American Free Trade Agreement will be held in Washington, D.C. in early March. Hosted by Transportation Secretary Federico...

TAA holds fast against shippers. (Trans-Atlantic Agreement)
February 1, 1994... Higher Rates: Shipping lines and their customers on the North Atlantic went eyeball to eyeball over a new round of freight rate increases for 1994. The carriers never blinked and shippers are reluctantly paying up. The 15 shipping lines...

Independents catch 'TAA fever': shippers complain that non-conference lines are taking a harder line on rates. (independent shipping lines; Tran-Atlantic Agreement)
February 1, 1994... Shippers perceive the conference as an ugly cartel and independents as brave entrepreneurs safeguarding free enterprise. It's an unfair rap, according to administrators of the ocean carrier conferences. According to these administrators, the...

ATFI: spell out the details. (automated tariff filing system of the Federal Maritime Commission)
February 1, 1994... FAK and mixed commodity rates must be specific, otherwise they are rejected. Concerned that many freight-all-kinds rates were being rejected by the Federal Maritime Commission under its new automated tariff filing system, some users feared...

FMC orders service-contract reports. (Federal Maritime Commission)
February 1, 1994... FMC to watch TAA, ANERA, and seven independent carriers over the next 18 months. Carriers and conferences will have to file reports every six months. Breaking new policing ground, the Federal Maritime Commission has ordered two major liner...

Truckers, ship lines 'get along fine.'
February 1, 1994... Partners, not enemies: As shippers struggle to forge better relations with shipping lines, they might take a lesson from some of the big trucking companies. Big truckers are working hard to expand their international operations because they...

COSCO expands U.S./Asia services. (China Ocean Shipping Co.)
February 1, 1994... Splits transpacific routes, begins service to Korea, switches U.S. East Coast routing to Suez Canal. China Ocean Shipping Co., already one of the world's largest shipping lines, has announced a major expansion of its services between North...

NYK starts LA/Panama service. (Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line)
February 1, 1994... Fortnightly feeders shuttle cargo to and from the Far East between Los Angeles and Mexico/Central America. Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line has quietly started a two-ship, fortnightly service between Los Angeles and Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, in what...

SCI adds new ships, ports. (Shipping Corp. of India)
February 1, 1994... Shipping Corp of india gets four 1,800-TEU ships, expands service between U.S., India. After years of losing ground to competitors because of inadequate tonnage, Shipping Corp. of India is using new containerships to expand its U.S./India...

Quest for a common EDI in Pacific. (electronic data interchange)
February 1, 1994... TWRA-ANERA project to link carriers and shippers. A common language for electronic communications among transpacific conference carriers and their customers might soon become reality. The Pacific Information Standards Agreement (PISA),...

Inbound: Med rates tightening outbound: 'market has collapsed.' (freight and shipping rates in Europe)
February 1, 1994... Currency fluctuations roil the trade. American shippers bringing in goods from Italy, Spain and southern France may find themselves paying higher freight rates in 1994 as shipping lines ride a growing wave of European exports to the U.S....

If you owe deadfreight, pay it. (freight rates)
February 1, 1994... Carrier will go after it, even if the amount is less than the likely legal expense. A bit of advice to shippers owing even a minuscule amount in deadfreight: If you know the carrier is in the right, pay up. Chances are that even if the the...

Uniglory Marine gets 10 Evergreen containerships. (Uniglory Marine Corp.; Evergreen Marine Corp.)
February 1, 1994... Former Evergreen ships will allow carrier to extend service to South America this year. Evergreen Marine Corp. has transferred 10 containerships to its associate company Uniglory Marine Corp., which will use some of the ships to extend...

Global transport sourcing. (Monsanto Co.'s transportation service contracts)
February 1, 1994... Monsanto: Consolidates its carrier base, forging global relationships with two shipping lines. Monsanto Co. is trimming the number of ocean carriers it uses; to a couple of shipping lines, in fact, the company is a global customer. The...

Getting involved at the start. (Chrysler Corp.'s logistics network)
February 1, 1994... When logistics group is included early in product planning, expensive mistakes can be avoided. Chrysler Corp. has found a new way to build cars. The old way was to design a car, build a plant, contract with suppliers and then ask the...

Supply chain management: treat it like a product. (inventory management at Becton Dickinson and Co.) (Logistics Management)
February 1, 1994... Becton Dickinson: Manufacturer backs its supply chain services with R&D, marketing. Idea is to use supply chain management not just to cut costs but to help build markets. With all due respect, Alfred J. Battaglia thinks Benjamin Franklin...

The half-truth about independent action. (controversy on mandatory rate actions of shipping conferences)
February 1, 1994... Readers of the November 1993 edition of this magazine may remember FMC chairman William Hathaway's vigorous defense of the conference system in the story entitled "USDA Claims 18% Cartel Premium Due to Conferences". During a September...

ESC moves headquarters to Brussels. (European Shippers' Councils)
February 1, 1994... Verhaar's successor as secretary general works in familiar, but troubling, area. "Sometimes I despair a little when I see the same problems we were working on 10 years ago." After three days on the job, Henrik Baasch, the new secretary...

What's the right formula? (Trans-Atlantic Agreement)(includes related articles)
February 1, 1994... EDITOR'S NOTE: Deputy Editor Elizabeth Canna, based in Zurich, has covered the Trans-Atlantic Agreement from its inception. This analysis contains her opinions. In early January, the Trans-Atlantic Agreement's steadfast resolve to take its...

Why the Pacific is more pacific. (Transpacific Stabilization Agreement)
February 1, 1994... Stabilization pacts' commercial, regulatory environment in contrast to the Atlantic Barry Horowitz doesn't care much for stabilization agreements, conceptually. But Horowitz, director of international traffic for Nike, Inc., acknowledges...

Danes claim TAA unfair to associations. (Trans-Atlantic Agreement; shipper associations)
February 1, 1994... Two shipper associations, offered rates of $1,425 based on minimum guarantee of 600 TEUs, compare what they were offered by TAA to rate given proprietary shipper guaranteeing 1,520 TEU from Denmark. Two Danish shippers associations have...

EATA suspends capacity cap. (Europe Asia Trades Agreement)(includes related article)
February 1, 1994... Europe's exports to Asia enjoy sustained boom. EATA crosses its fingers, hopes Brussels takes the news well. In the north of Wales a team of Chinese mechanics has been spending the past few months carefully dismantling a defunct factory once...

CGM faces another year in red ink. (Compagnie Generale Maritime) (Company Profile)
February 1, 1994... Blames low freight rates. Sells reefer holdings to TMM/Del Monte. Restructures in north-south. Cuts deal with ship union. Compagnie Generale Maritime, France's beleaguered state-owned shipping line, won't break even this year as it had hoped....

Forwarders' future in third-party logistics. (Kuehne & Nagel AG's logistics management)
February 1, 1994... Kuehne & Nagel: Swiss-based freight forwarder customizes its worldwide transportation and distribution network into an adaptable logistics system. A shipment of laser printers arrives at a facility in Stuttgart, Germany, a way-station in a...

GATT's pre-shipment inspection rule. (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
February 1, 1994... Language binding in 122 nations. One unheralded accomplishment of the recently concluded negotiation on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is the first-ever inclusion of rules on pre-shipment inspections, according to a senior member...

Russia and CIS: a forwarder's nightmare.
February 1, 1994... Problems And Potential: Fritz and others bet expanding markets will compensate for theft, poor infrastructure and customs problems. An employee of Fritz Cos., the San Francisco-based freight forwarder and customs broker, arrived in Moscow at...

British Air to expand Cargocentre. (British Airways PLC)
February 1, 1994... To invest $233 million in Heathrow cargo terminal. British Airways, the non-U.S. carrier with the most U.S. gateways, will spend $233 million to expand its Cargocentre at London's Heathrow Airport. Despite excess air freight capacity on...

A drawback in NAFTA. (eligibility of duty drawback of some imports)
February 1, 1994... Some types of imports have lost duty-drawback eligibility; others will lose it between 1996 and 2001. Certain imported materials lost their eligibility for duty drawback at the new year, and drawback applicability on some other type of...

NCBFAA meets at La Jolla in March. (National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America; 1994)
February 1, 1994... With fences between Customs and brokers mended, Customs chief Weise is expected, as is FMC chairman Hathaway. With customs brokers and the U.S. Customs Service having ended their feud over legislation to modernize the agency, brokers expect...

McGraw-Hill goals in forwarding: information processing its core business. (McGraw-Hill Inc.)
February 1, 1994... In the mid-1980s when McGraw-Hill, Inc. began acquiring customs brokers and freight forwarders a few observers were confused as to how these purchases fit into the corporation's publishing and information services empire. But the synergy has...

FedEx to build Fort Worth hub. (Federal Express Corp.)
February 1, 1994... Following a Texas attorney general's ruling that integrated carriers are exempt from intrastate regulation, Federal Express has announced plans for a new hub at Fort Worth's Alliance Airport. The hub, scheduled to open in mid-1997, will have...

UPS in pursuit of LTL accounts. (United Parcel Service; less-than-truckload)
February 1, 1994... United Parcel Service this month will raise its weight limit in the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico from 70 to 150 pounds, an apparent bid to win business away from less-than-truckload carriers. The change was expected to take place Feb. 7,...

Transiconex expands Central America service: adds Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras; takes a look at South America. (Transiconex Corp.)
February 1, 1994... A Miami-based non-vessel-operating common carrier, owned in part by consolidator Transconex Inc., is expanding the Central America service it began last summer. Transiconex Corp. began weekly service between the U.S. ports of New York, Miami...

NVOs support TWRA inspections. (non-vessel-operating common carriers; Transpacific Westbound Rate Agreement)
February 1, 1994... Conference conducts random inspections to ensure compliance with tightened hazmat-shipping rules. Non-vessel-operating common carriers apparently support random inspections to ensure that freight-all-kinds shipments comply with new...

Emery forms logistics unit. (Emery Worldwide)
February 1, 1994... Division to focus on offshore manufacturing, distribution. Integrated carrier Emery Worldwide created a logistics division to service manufacturing and retail customers seeking start-to-finish pipeline systems. The new unit is tailored to...

JAL's long-term effort pays off. (Japan Air Lines)
February 1, 1994... Perishables and computer markets developed 20 years ago help line ride out recession. Japan Air Lines in recent years has taken aggressive steps to remain a key presence in a U.S.-Japan air cargo market now dominated by American exports....

Merging eastern Canada rails: CN and CP hope to cut duplicated services; each retain profitable western business. (CN North America; CP Rail System)
February 1, 1994... CN North America and CP Rail System hope to agree during the first quarter on a plan to merge their money-losing eastern Canada operations. Top executives of government-controlled CN and privately owned CP have been meeting to try to strike a...

Stacktrains: where the action is. (intermodal loadings)
February 1, 1994... AAR: Fastest-growing segment of domestic intermodal market; trend is well-established. For the 12th consecutive year, intermodal loadings have set a record on U.S. railroads. The Association of American Railroads said year-end figures show...

Del Monte to use single third party. (Del Monte Foods)
February 1, 1994... Alliance Shippers to handle average of 8,000 domestic moves per year initially. Del Monte Foods has contracted with Alliance Shippers Inc. to coordinate all of the food company's domestic intermodal shipments within the United States. By...

Pieces of Lykes puzzle fall in place. (Lykes Lines)
February 1, 1994... New ships for transatlantic, probably U.S. flag. Lykes also will take back four 2,800-TEU ships from APL in 1996. With its agreement to charter four new 2,480-TEU containerships, Lykes Lines has taken a big step toward solving a problem that...

Revamping MarAd. (Maritime Administration)
February 1, 1994... Herberger: Wants to combine cargo preference and ship operating subsidies under one roof. New emphasis on intermodalism. Policy advisory committee proposed. Convinced that major structural changes are required to take the U.S. merchant fleet...

Tanker subsidy contracts extended.
February 1, 1994... MarAd does the same favor for owners of U.S.-flag tankers that it did for some liner operators. In a late December decision from the agency's Maritime Subsidy Board, the Maritime Administration extended the ability of some owners of old...

Job market for single-hull tankers.
February 1, 1994... Welcome mat still out for old ships; new vessels are restricted to LOOP. Oil companies and shipping interests are asking the U.S. Coast Guard to designate special zones in the Gulf of Mexico where crude petroleum can be transferred from new...

Going up against the gateways. (airports solicit air cargo services)
February 1, 1994... U.S. regional airports make grab for cargo business, but many forwarders still prefer major gateways. Deborah Weiman thinks there's no reason airborne imports of fish and flowers from Latin America have to go through Miami or New York....

P-I-E weighs options. (P-I-E Nationwide Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Trustee for bankrupt motor carrier appeals District Court decision. Considers court challenge of undercharge bill. The bankruptcy trustee for P-I-E Nationwide Inc, is mounting a counterattack against a court ruling and federal legislation...

NVOs run Miami hub operations. (non-vessel-operating common carriers)
February 1, 1994... Consolidation: Large shippers turn to NVOs for frequent, low-volume shipments to regions such as Caribbean. Wrigley chewing gum is a popular product in the Caribbean, but it wouldn't make sense to ship an entire containerload of the stuff to...

Long Beach port closer to expansion. (Port of Long Beach)
February 1, 1994... Judge rules purchase of 725-acre parcel from Union Pacific does not require environmental impact statement. The city of Los Angeles lost a round in its fight to block the Port of Long Beach from purchasing a 725-acre parcel from Union Pacific...

LA rail corridor sale delayed. (rail corridor connecting the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach)
February 1, 1994... Both sides say project is not in jeopardy. Closing of the public purchase of a 20-mile-long strip of land connecting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with rail yards east of downtown Los Angeles was taking longer than expected, though...

Push for a 'toll-free' Seaway. (St. Lawrence Seaway)
February 1, 1994... U.S. will press toll removal issue with Canadians. St. Lawrence Seaway Administrator Stanford E. Parris will soon try to convince the Canadian Government that both the United States and Canada will benefit from a toll-free St. Lawrence Seaway...

What is the right formula? (approval of the Trans-Atlantic Agreement by the European Commission)
February 1, 1994... It seems apparent a modified form of the Trans-Atlantic Agreement will eventually be approved by the European Commission, be coordinated with policy of the United States, and become the standard for the regulation of shipping conferences around...