American Shipper articles from May 1994

American Shipper archives from May 1994

Nestle puts staff in customer warehouses. (Nestle Distribution Co.)
May 1, 1994... Manufacturer manages customers' inventories. Turnover of Nestle products tripled, inventories and order lead time were halved. Nestle Distribution Co. has begun putting its own personnel in customer warehouses to manage inventories. ...

New world, new logistics.
May 1, 1994... How three companies rely on outsourcing, technology, partnerships to manage their supply chains. Pioneer Electronics has had to adjust its supply chain management to a new customer base and a new world, a company official told a recent...

'Information highway' and logistics.
May 1, 1994... New technologies offer great possibilities, but industry acceptance has been slow. Information technology is developing faster than the logistics industry's acceptance of it, according to speakers at a seminar sponsored by the San...

Wal-mart raises ANERA commitment. (Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Asia-North America Eastbound Rate Agreement)
May 1, 1994... Retailer agrees to 18,000-FEU minimum. Conference says its total contract volume expected to match last year's. Wal-Mart Stores has negotiated a contract that will commit the big retailer to shipping a minimum of 18,000...

Orient Overseas invests in China. (Orient Overseas International Ltd.)
May 1, 1994... OOCL container business improves. Parent group resumes common-stock dividend. After an extended period of restructuring and reorganization, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. is back to financial health. The Hong-kong-based parent...

TAA: not yet off the hook. (Trans-Atlantic Agreement)
May 1, 1994... FMC keeps possible court move open. Agency orders TAA and OOCL to provide additional information by May 12. Although it has avoided an immediate showdown in court, the Trans-Atlantic Agreement still has some explaining to do before it is...

New rate standard.
May 1, 1994... FMC would pass judgment on "fair and reasonable rates" to Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico based upon cost of capital. Responding to carrier concerns, the Federal Maritime Commission has proposed new methods to determine acceptable shipping...

Automakers denied tariff exemption.
May 1, 1994... Chrysler, Ford and General Motors told to take their case to Congress. An 18-month attempt by the nation's largest automobile shippers to keep essential terms of their service contracts from the public domain has suffered a major setback...

Bringing your customs broker in-house.
May 1, 1994... Some shippers are trying it, but others warn it is not a panacea. Do you suspect that your goods are often late because your customs broker isn't up to speed? If so, you might want to try what a growing number of companies are doing...

It works for Hoechst Celanese.
May 1, 1994... Rogers & Brown proved the system; Tower Group takes it national. As part of what is expected to be a long-term agreement with Hoechst Celanese Corp., Tower Group International Inc. has placed a licensed customs broker in the Charlotte...

Spells trouble for others. (Federal Maritime Commission investigates shipper-forwarder relationships)
May 1, 1994... The FMC is investigating complaints involving in-house business practices which are said to be taking place between a New York-based forwarder and a large Atlanta-based exporter of frozen food products. Is it legal for a shipper to have...

Impossible dream. (harmonization of US and European shipping regulations)
May 1, 1994... U.S.-E.U. regulatory harmony might be a nice idea, but don't look for it to happen anytime soon. The United States and the European Union are as far apart as ever when it comes to regulating liner shipping. But as far as Brussels is...

Germany Railway fined $12.5 million.
May 1, 1994... European Commission sends clear message to anyone moving cargo via ports in the European Union. The European Union's railways have to stop operating like state monopolies, even if most of them still are. That was the message sent by...

Shipowners have a very weak case.
May 1, 1994... If their case were strong, they would have found more valid arguments than this one, which belongs to charity rather than to business. The article "Consumer Costs" in the March issue of this magazine (page 34) and a statement (page 30)...

Hitch your wagon to a star.
May 1, 1994... In the transportation industry, a few specialized ocean carriers and some freight forwarders and warehousing operations have become ISO-certified The incentive for broader adoption will, no doubt, come from ISO-certified shippers and...

Conferences vs. logistics.
May 1, 1994... Are conferences standing in the way of development of sophisticated logistics systems? Some shippers think so. The rules of the transportation game are changing all the time. But liner conferences often make it tough for a shipper to keep...

Asea Brown Boveri. (Harnessing the Giants) (Cover Story)
May 1, 1994... How Asea Brown Boveri and the U.S. Transportation Command are getting control of their supply chains A gas tanker is stranded off the coast of Taiwan. Because of a broken turbocharger nozzle ring, the ship can't maneuver into Taipei...

U.S. military transportation network. (Harnessing the Giants) (Cover Story)
May 1, 1994... U.S. Transportation Command's automated logistics database may break new ground for commercial shippers. Ignore the government-issue acronyms and the drab green uniforms, and the officers at the U.S. Transportation Command sound...

Carter Hawley Hale.
May 1, 1994... Retail logistics changes are part of coordination going on in traffic departments throughout the corporate empire of Samuel Zell. While Carter Hawley Hale pays close attention to style, quality and price when choosing merchandise for its...

Kellogg goes live with LogiCNet.
May 1, 1994... Kellogg Co. has become the first manufacturer to go live with LogiCNet, a logistics information system designed to link retailers' ordering and shipping with manufacturers' production. Andre Martin, chairman and chief executive of...

Non-Stop Logistics.
May 1, 1994... If Non-Stop Logistics Corp. can equal the sum of its parts, Homer Dunn has a good thing going. Dunn is president and chief executive officer of Non-Stop, a San Francisco-based company that some claim could revolutionize the way consumer...

Europe/Latin America sea-air link. (U-Freight America Inc.)
May 1, 1994... U-Freight America Inc. hopes a new intermodal sea-air service between Europe and Latin America, via Miami, will help the company establish itself in the Miami air freight market. The service is a joint venture between U-Freight America...

Customs outlines restructuring.
May 1, 1994... If cleared by the Treasury Department, the U.S. Customs Service will soon send Congress a sweeping reorganization plan. The plan, which may be made public as early as May 1, would replace Customs' 45 district offices and seven regional...

Mod Act: 'Let's get on with it!' (Customs Modernization Act)
May 1, 1994... Before he arrived in La Jolla, Calif., to address the customs brokerage industry's annual national conference, U.S. Customs Commissioner George Weise was "a little apprehensive... after some of the things that occurred the past year." ...

NCBFAA seeks higher commissions. (National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America)
May 1, 1994... Sensing an opportunity born both of politics and of technology, an organization representing almost 600 of the nation's roughly 3,000 freight forwarders has launched an effort to increase forwarders' leverage in the setting of commissions...

Amtech, EDS join forces in AEI system. (Amtech Corp.; EDS Corp.; automatic equipment identification)
May 1, 1994... Amtech Corp. and EDS Corp. have signed a "teaming agreement" to combine Amtech automatic equipment identification technology with EDS information systems. The companies said their partnership opens the way to use automatic equipment...

Mobile seeks CSX bridge to Mexico. (Port of Mobile, Alabama; CSX Transportation Inc.)
May 1, 1994... The Alabama State Docks has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to construct a railcar and truck trailer ferry loading facility at the Port of Mobile, as part of its bid to handle CSX Transportation's planned service to...

Skaarup shipbuilding venture inches forward. (Ole Skaarup)
May 1, 1994... Shipowner Ole Skaarup has announced he will build a new tanker with his own money as a way of jumpstarting his stalled U.S. Shipbuilding Consortium. Skaarup, who has been promoting the Consortium as a first step in reviving the moribund...

U.S. dry bulkers unimpressed by Clinton proposals.
May 1, 1994... The combined effect of President Clinton's maritime subsidy proposal and his 1995 budget cuts add up to less than zero for the U.S. fleet of dry bulk ships, according to a number of individuals closely involved in the business. On the...

Bulk owners unite against Leo Berger.
May 1, 1994... American ship owners who carry a lot of government food aid cargo for Uncle Sam are working furiously to head off some unusual new competition. Leo Berger, who built a fleet of merchant ships in the 1970s with strong U.S. government...

Better times returning for big gypsum shipper. (National Gypsum Co.)
May 1, 1994... Things are picking up at Charlotte, N.C.-based National Gypsum Co., both on the transportation side and in the overall corporate business. In April, National Gypsum was to begin employment of a newly modified bulk ship to handle most of...

DOT launches $1.85 billion shipbuilding program. (Department of Transportation)
May 1, 1994... The U.S. shipbuilding industry won a big bonus from the U.S. government when the Department of Transportation launched an expanded vessel construction financing program covering the U.S. construction and reconditioning of ships owned by...

It all comes down to the Jones Act.
May 1, 1994... Even a hint of U.S. compromise on the act could mean an OECD shipbuilding agreement. Showdown likely in May. Nobody expects the United States' Jones Act cabotage law to disappear. That's simply a fact of life. But the attitude taken...

Loree attacks tonnage tax. (Philip J. Loree)
May 1, 1994... Explains impact on shipments of coal or grain between Norfolk and Rotterdam. Competition regulation may be the highest-profile battlefield for shippers these days, but it may not be the one with the highest stakes. Those sitting in...

Shipping policy nearly kept Mexico out of OECD. (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)
May 1, 1994... On April 14 Mexico was expecting to get something it has long sought: a formal invitation to join the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But the invitation nearly didn't happen because of a dispute over Mexico's...

NY/NJ looks to Asia, Midwest. (Port of New York and New Jersey)
May 1, 1994... Port Authority says NY/NJ is more competitive on Midwest cargo, but expects to continue subsidy for intermodal moves. The Port of New York and New Jersey expects its growth to be paced by increases in all-water shipments to and from Asia...

Dredging strategy still a distant dream.
May 1, 1994... Proposals from federal panel due in July, but around San Francisco Bay, people want actions, not words. The good news is that the Clinton Administration is working on a dredging strategy. The bad news is that so have the past several...

Fight over ILWU presidency. (International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union)
May 1, 1994... Union president David Arian faces challenge. David Arian's tenure as president of the West Coast International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union is in jeopardy. As the ILWU was preparing for its 29th convention at Los Angeles in...

Possible snag to Oakland dredging.
May 1, 1994... Concerns raised over proposal to use toxic material for landfill at a local golf course. Long-term dredging of Oakland's harbors and vessel approach channels could hit yet another snag. Assurances from the U.S. Army Corps of...

SF seeks cash to support cargo. (Port of San Francisco)
May 1, 1994... Bouey: Port is committed to cargo handling. Despite its "horrible financial shape," the Port of San Francisco can recover by cutting expenses, developing new revenue streams and tightening up on collection of rents from tenants, port...

From East-West to North-South. (international shipping and trade)
May 1, 1994... Far East still fastest growing region, but pace expected to slow. Emphasis shifts to booming North-South trades. The pace of change that intra-American transportation and logistics are undergoing is likely to accelerate, not only because...