American Shipper articles from January 1996

American Shipper archives from January 1996

House OKs liner subsidy bill.
January 1, 1996... New scaled-down program expected to clear Senate, despite opposition from farm-belt senators. A scaled-down operating subsidy program that would keep about 50 ships under the U.S. flag sailed through the House and was expected to win Senate...

Shipyard subsidy treaty delayed.
January 1, 1996... Congress expected to approve OECD treaty in early 1996. U.S. officials reassure Europeans of support for pact. A precedent-setting treaty for a worldwide end to shipbuilding subsidies won't take effect as scheduled Jan. 1. A heavy yearend...

2-year contracts unlikely in Pacific.
January 1, 1996... Uncertainties about shipping regulation and the marketplace prompt carriers and shippers to hold off, at least for now. While the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement has agreed to sign two-year service contracts, they're unlikely to become...

Matson, Hawaii fight over disclosure. (Matson Navigation Co.)
January 1, 1996... Hawaii says FMC's financial disclosure plan doesn't go far enough. Matson urges agency to drop whole idea. Matson Navigation Co. is objecting to a Federal Maritime Commission plan to require domestic offshore carriers to disclose sensitive...

Matson, Sea-Land raise Hawaii rates. (Matson Navigation Co.; Sea-Land Service Inc.)
January 1, 1996... Carriers file for 3.8 percent general rate increase to affect shipments in both directions, starting Jan. 28. Matson Navigation Co. plans a 3.8 percent general rate increase, affecting shipments in both directions between the U.S. mainland...

Global pressure for regulatory reform.
January 1, 1996... Shipper advocates around the world coordinate attacks on ocean-carrier regulation. Latest effort by ESC could bring down 4056/86. Just as momentum for regulatory reform is showing signs of slowing in Washington D.C., shipper advocates...

Senate starts anew on shipping bill.
January 1, 1996... Opts to work from 1984 Shipping Act instead of House bill. Filing exemption sought for chemicals, autos, NVOs. A bipartisan effort is under way in the Senate to draft a substitute bill for the House-passed Ocean Shipping Reform Act. The...

DOT quits collecting air cargo tariffs. (Department of Transportation)
January 1, 1996... Pena says marketplace can be relied upon to keep prices, practices in line. Declaring that "routine government supervision of cargo tariffs is no longer necessary to protect the public," the Transportation Department has stopped requiring...

Air shippers are right.
January 1, 1996... Dialogue between ocean carriers and shippers isn't as good as it once was, but between air carriers and shippers it's non-existent. It is astonishing to see that the most modern transportation mode, aviation, is organized along the most...

China figures in Global Alliance routing.
January 1, 1996... Shanghai, Yantian on transpacific and Far East-Europe linehaul routes of alliance, which starts Jan. 1. As five ocean carriers launch a partnership in the transpacific and Far East-Europe routes Jan. 1, their port rotations underscore the...

New life for Dutch flag.
January 1, 1996... Parliament commits to making it cheaper to fly the Dutch flag. In the absence of a practical solution to the Euros Flag debate, the Dutch have taken matters into their own hands. At the end of November the lower house of the Dutch...

Nedlloyd jolted by shipping losses. (Royal Nedlloyd Group)
January 1, 1996... Container shipping loses $5.9 million. Financial irregularities uncovered in trucking unit. Hoping to repair the damage caused by a 9 million guilder ($5.9 million) third quarter operating loss at Nedlloyd Lines, the Royal Nedlloyd Group...

Singapore Airlines expands fleet, routes.
January 1, 1996... Places $12.7-billion order for 77 Boeing B-777, expands route network, adds U.S. freighter flights. Singapore Airlines is expanding its freighter and combination carder fleet to accommodate rising cargo volumes in the Asia-U.S. trade. "The...

New pattern for world trade.
January 1, 1996... U.S. implementation of Uruguay Round will cause textile, apparel importers to change global sourcing patterns. Domestic manufacturers prevail in Washington. The Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations was supposed to produce freer...

Tools for international trade.
January 1, 1996... Foreign-trade zones, bonded warehouses can spark innovative thinking needed to capture a new customer or rejuvenate an aging supply chain. A recent visit to one of the automakers in Detroit drove home the importance of understanding the tools...

GM's experience with outsourcing. (General Motors Corp.)
January 1, 1996... Automaker hired Schneider Logistics to manage transportation for service parts operation. GM says it's worked well. Here's how a $300 million outsourcing contract resulted from networking during a logistics convention. Larry Sur, president...

Non-Stop Logistics is ready to go.
January 1, 1996... Flow-through logistics system to use information, cross-docking centers to tighten supply chains. After five years of work, Non-Stop Logistics Corp. is ready to go live with a system it says could revolutionize distribution of consumer...

Inchcape's open door to China. (Inchcape Pacific Ltd.)
January 1, 1996... Hong Kong-based unit involved in sales, manufacturing as well as transportation. Market 'not for the faint-hearted.' Paul M.F. Cheng, chairman of Inchcape Pacific, once likened China's economy to a person climbing a flight of stairs while...

No manana for Sun Microsystems.
January 1, 1996... Technology company hires DHL Worldwide Express to manage its distribution throughout Latin America. Soon after Sun Microsystems began distributing its UNIX-based client-server networks and parts in Latin America, one thing became clear:...

The logistics of a logistics conference. (Council of Logistics Management)(includes related article)
January 1, 1996... CLM's annual conference draws more than 5,000. Tents will be used for 1996 gathering in Orlando. Beware of success, goes an old proverb. You may get it, and in savoring it, suffer more stress than failure would have caused. For the Council...

Video conferencing is logistics tool.
January 1, 1996... Communicating through video conferencing helps companies tighten supply chains. It's quicker, cheaper than travel. There's no short-form word (such as "fax" for "facsimile") yet for video conferencing. What can be said is that 1995 has been...

Rate analysis via Internet.
January 1, 1996... Mariner Systems introduces software permitting shippers to compare, analyze carrier rates via Internet. Small and midsized shippers already have difficulty collecting ocean carrier rate information, and that problem may become more acute if...

'Wakeup call' for e-mail users.
January 1, 1996... Sterling Software introduces paging system to alert recipients when they have e-mail. The rush to electronic mail has produced a new kind of gridlock. When forwarders, customs brokers and carriers are busy at their computers, a shipper...

Poland's intermodal frontier.
January 1, 1996... Operator of block trains in and out of Poland wouldn't mind if highway crossings with the EU stay clogged. Some 500 miles separate Hamburg, Germany from Warsaw, Poland. But it may as well be 2,500 for the amount of time it takes to haul a...

New era for Canada railroads.
January 1, 1996... CN privatizes, CP reorganizes, shippers wary as Ottawa prepares to loosen reins on railroads. Times are changing for Canada's railroads. Canadian National Railroad, created by the government in 1919, has been put into private hands. Its...

China's intermodal boom-to-be.
January 1, 1996... Government's practical attitude toward foreign investment promises rapid intermodal development by 2000. "China is a land of abundant opportunity when it comes to transportation." This assessment by Jim Poon, managing director for Orient...

BNSF tests new auto-carrying railcar. (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad)
January 1, 1996... Developed by Wabash National, producer of RoadRailer and AutoRailer bimodal vehicles. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad has begun testing a new automobile-carrying railcar designed to reduce damage by keeping autos fully enclosed while...

Is your cargo insured from pirates?
January 1, 1996... Robbery at sea is a serious and growing problem, and insurance coverage isn't always certain. Piracy has become a pain in the wallet for a growing number of shippers, who find in some cases that they are not fully insured for cargo lost to...

Hamburg's port expansion dilemma. (Hamburg, Germany)
January 1, 1996... Land is scarce, dredging expensive, hinterlands contested. And the Greens are out in force. What's a port to do? Full service logistics and point-to-point transportation have revolutionized the way North Europe's ports compete against each...

Possible suit over LA funds shift. (Los Angeles, California)
January 1, 1996... State commission tells city to return $20 million to port. Group may seek changes in port appointments system. Shipping interests have won a round in their fight to prevent California cities from charging ports for municipal services. The...

San Diego floats barge-feeder idea. (Port of San Diego)
January 1, 1996... Port hopes to launch feeder service to Long Beach by March, but would-be operator says thorny issues remain. San Diego port officials think they can get in on the container action by starting a feeder barge service to and from Long Beach/Los...

Importers slow to use Customs summaries.
January 1, 1996... Only 300 importers use Customs' National Importer Liquidation Service, which provides weekly summaries similar to bank statements. A seven-year-old U.S. Customs program that gives importers a weekly activity summary like a bank statement...