American Shipper articles from March 1994

American Shipper archives from March 1994

Debating rules for consortia. (proposed EU rules for consortia)
March 1, 1994... Proposed EU rules for consortia spark debate on maximum size of market shares to be allowed. Shippers: "European shippers generally find that consortia can be a useful form of cooperation for shipping lines to reduce costs and to improve...

U.S.-Vietnam race is on for carriers.
March 1, 1994... Non-U.S. lines already have beachheads in Vietnam for intra-Asia and Asia-Europe services. Within hours after President Clinton lifted the United States' generation-old embargo on trade with Vietnam, virtually all the major carriers in the...

The Clinton subsidy. (Bill Clinton's subsidy plan for American-flag carriers)
March 1, 1994... Turns out to be an empty box. Money would have come from foreign-flag lines. The Clinton administration came up with a plan to stick foreign-flag shipowners with most of the cost in its new subsidy plan for American-flag carriers. The plan...

D.X.I. wins TAA contract from Transax. (DXI Inc.; TransAtlantic Agreement; Transax/Data)
March 1, 1994... D.X.I. Inc. scored a victory in the tariff-automation wars when it wrested the TransAtlantic Agreement's tariff-publishing account from Transax Data, which had held the contract for more than two years. The change followed disagreements by...

NVOs fight to retain co-loading. (non-vessel-operating common carriers)
March 1, 1994... Claim FMC's proposed restrictions will drive firms out of business. Initial comments coming into the Federal Maritime Commission show overwhelming NVOCC opposition to proposed new restrictions on co-loading non-vessel-operating common...

Independents join Central America conference. (US/Central American Liner Association; Tropical Shipping and Construction Company Ltd. and King Ocean Central America S.A.)
March 1, 1994... Two independent lines have joined the U.S./Central America rate agreement, which has been reorganized in an effort to lure other non-conference carriers into the fold. By joining the conference, Tropical Shipping and Construction Co. and...

Zim eyes Latin expansion. (Zim Israel Navigation Company Ltd.)
March 1, 1994... Kingston second-largest hub along east-west route. A year after entering the U.S./South America trade, Zim Israel Shipping Co. is talking about adding capacity. The carrier says it may add capacity on both its main north/south route and...

Crystal ball for APC is cloudy. (American President Companies Ltd.)
March 1, 1994... Company's profits rose sharply in 1993 but transpacific westbound rates dropped sharply. American President Cos. reported profit increases of 100 percent for the fourth quarter and 41 percent for the entire year in 1993, but company and...

TSA lines seek $190/FEU increase. (Transpacific Stabilization Agreement; 40-foot container)
March 1, 1994... Would affect both tariff and contract shipments. A base-rate increase of $190 per 40-foot container (FEU) on U.S. imports from Japan is the declared goal of a coalition of 13 ocean carriers, but an oversupply of vessel capacity could work...

Sea-Land orders 4,000-TEU ships. (Sea-Land Service Inc.)
March 1, 1994... To operate in Pacific. Three ex-USL ships to be modified. Sea-Land Service plans to spend approximately $250 million to build four new 4,000-TEU containerships and boost the speed of three former United States Lines Econships. The new...

Translink seeks transatlantic niche. (Translink Navigation)
March 1, 1994... Eastbound North Atlantic service will be part of two-ocean route connecting U.S., Europe, Tahiti and New Zealand. A French-owned carrier, Translink Navigation, will target forest products and other containerized, breakbulk and ro-ro cargo as...

NYK Line, NOSAC join forces. (Nippon Yusen KK; Norwegian Specialized Autocarriers Inc.)
March 1, 1994... NYK-NOS car and truck carrier service to South America, the Mideast and Mediterranean. Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line and Norwegian Specialized Autocarriers Inc. (NOSAC) have joined together to offer a dedicated pure car truck carrier (PCTC)...

Arab cooperation. (strategic alliance between National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Shipping Company SAG)
March 1, 1994... Two containership companies begin a system of global cooperation with a first step in the U.S. market. National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Shipping Co. have begun sharing container slots on each others' vessels and...

When it's time to say goodbye. (carrier agreement between the EC and the East African Conference)
March 1, 1994... European Commission closes four-year case; adds to slowly growing body of legal precedent. Members of liner conferences should not be required to give more than six months' notice of withdrawal, according to an agreement reached last fall...

Keeping it simple. (Mediterranean Shipping Co.)
March 1, 1994... Simplicity and flexibility seem to work for Mediterranean Shipping. Replacement ships will operate in Atlantic. Mediterranean Shipping Co. prefers not to be bogged down... not by multiple management layers and committees, not by esoteric and...

Consumer costs. (shipping rates)(includes related article)
March 1, 1994... What does rate restoration mean to the fellow who wants to buy a new pair of jogging shoes? So, you've vowed to make 1994 the year you get into shape. To keep your promise you need a new pair of jogging shoes. In terms of U.S. dollars...

Match-makers. (Swiss Shippers' Council traffic management program)
March 1, 1994... Some of the biggest names in international trade are cooperating to solve the dilemma of environmentally friendly transportation before government finds a solution for them. Swiss multinationals the likes of Nestle, Asea Brown Boveri,...

FAK vs VAB: a new twist to an old debate. (freights all kinds rates; value base rates) (Cover Story)
March 1, 1994... The debate over conference rate structures, in particular the question of FAK rates versus VAB (value based) rates, is cyclical, and almost synchronic with the alternating periods of power and weakness of conferences. In this period of weak...

Time for a reality check. (shipper/carrier relationships)
March 1, 1994... In today's commercial reality, we produce what customers want and deliver it where and when they want it. If we can't, someone else can, and will. Ten years ago we came up with a better way to define shipper/carrier relationships. It replaced...

'Capacity to serve.' (Southwire Co.)
March 1, 1994... Ten mills were working at capacity with $1.3 billion annual sales, but Frank Jones realized the company 'had not been using up our capacity to serve our customers better by getting control of the product.' Southwire Co. knew it had to make a...

Many companies still don't get it. (logistics management)
March 1, 1994... Peat Marwick says most companies lack a formal logistics strategy; many have limited view of logistics. With so much talk about supply chain management and integrated logistics, you'd think most companies would have a clear logistics...

Del Monte builds its reefer fleet. (Del Monte Fresh Produce Co.)
March 1, 1994... When Mexican investors bought the big fruit company, they brought in Mexican Line (TMM) as a joint venture partner to build Global Reefer Carriers, which will be the main carrier for Del Monte and provide service to others as a third party....

Kodak picks a single air forwarder. (Eastman Kodak Co.)
March 1, 1994... David Woodward explains the process which led to the choice of MSAS. Shipping departments wishing to switch from multiple vendors to a forwarder offering one-stop logistics would do well to study the case of Eastman Kodak. The photo...

Taking paperlessness to Asia. (BDP International Inc's joint venture with HAVI Corp.)
March 1, 1994... BDP joint venture with HAVI Group LP of Hong Kong, an Asian distributor for McDonald's. The Philadelphia-based forwarder BDP International is counting on its sophisticated paperless transaction technology to distinguish its new Hong Kong...

Can cargo get equal treatment? (air freight service)
March 1, 1994... Airlines brace for a long cycle in which cargo levels continue to rise while passenger traffic remains static. But by making more space available for freight, the passenger lines have depressed the market for others. New statistics from the...

Finnair cashes in on Russian boom. (Finnair Oy)
March 1, 1994... Sixty percent of Finnair's U.S. cargo flown to Helsinki is transshipped to Scandinavian nations or Russia or CIS. Finnair is a rarity among European government-owned airlines these days. Cargo decks on its U.S.-origin MD-11s are always filled...

Expedidores sin licencia. (unlicensed freight forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers)
March 1, 1994... FMC reducing number of unlicensed forwarders and NVOs practicing in South Florida. For years South Florida has been notorious for the proliferation of unlicensed freight forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers. Mostly...

Plunging deeper into EDI. (electronic data interchange)
March 1, 1994... When enough carriers can agree on standards, shippers will be more willing to cooperate. Information Systems Agreement members think their new PC software may be the key. Everyone says electronic data interchange is the way of the future,...

'K' Line reorganizes stacktrains. ("K" Line America Inc.)
March 1, 1994... Absorbs international movements into liner operation. Rail Bridge will concentrate on domestic shipments. "K" Line America has absorbed the international business of its Rail Bridge stacktrain unit into the carrier's North American liner...

Where smaller is better. (Interstate Commerce Commission's report)
March 1, 1994... ICC statistics indicate regional LTL motor carriers are more profitable than big national operators. But size is becoming an advantage in the FTL market. Is smaller better? Apparently it is for less-than-truckload motor carriers. Revenue...

Memphis: a shallow draft seaport. (Memphis, Tennessee)
March 1, 1994... New liner service to Guatemala and Mexico will send small ship 600 miles up Mississippi River. A Kirby Corp. subsidiary has launched a liner service using a shallow-draft ship to connect Guatemala and Mexico with the Mississippi River port...

AEI systems catch on at terminals. (automatic equipment identification)
March 1, 1994... After a slow start, radio-frequency technology appears to be expanding its foothold at marine cargo terminals. Automatic equipment identification (AEI) systems, which rely on radio signals between tags and transponders, are widely used in...

NY/NJ whittling down its rail subsidies. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)
March 1, 1994... A five-year program to subsidize rail transport of ocean containers over local docks is being slowly whittled back by the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. Port officials say the program is a success but that other developments since...

The trouble with old containers. (Container Operations Conference)
March 1, 1994... New boxes look better; shippers demand them. Is a new container better than an old one? Not necessarily, according to three of four panelists who spoke on the issue at a recent gathering of container-related industry executives in San...

Lessons from the Puerto Rico spill.
March 1, 1994... More emphasis on prevention is likely. No doubt, the training that an oil spill response team has been undergoing since passage of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act paid off after the barge Morris J. Berman struck a coral reef off the beaches of San...

The Gibbons blacklist. (Rep. Sam Gibbons' proposed legislation against foreign countries that provide heavy shipbuilding subsidies)
March 1, 1994... CSG looks for loopholes to escape any sanctions which U.S. Congress may impose. Convinced the United States will adopt punitive laws aimed at foreign shipbuilding subsidies, leading nations of the Western world are already seeking loopholes to...

Shaking off the tremors. (effect of the Los Angeles earthquake on the trucking industry)
March 1, 1994... Getting back to normal after earthquake. Truckers absorbed much of added costs. Freight routings between California's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles/Long Beach and Port Hueneme harbors are returning to normal....

Faster customs inspections at NY/NJ. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)
March 1, 1994... Five inspection stations now; appointments no longer required. Shippers and customs brokers predict faster cargo release will result from U.S. Customs' decision to centralize its marine cargo examination sites in New Jersey. The decision...