JoC Week articles from June 2007

JoC Week archives from June 2007

THE WEEK.
June 25, 2007... Box Volumes Stagnate At Calif. Ports: If three months is a trend, the economy - and the trans-Pacific container shipping industry - could be in for a shock during this year's summer-fall peak season for import cargo. For the third consecutive...

End of the line.(shipping law)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH The clock is ticking down on the antitrust immunity that the liner shipping industry has enjoyed for 150 years on trade lanes to and from Europe. Momentum also is building for additional changes that could...

Still the one.(international trade)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY ROSALINE MCLYMONT Ask most Americans which country is the biggest U.S. trade partner and they would probably say China. That's understandable, given all the publicity about Chinese imports and the visibility of the "Made in...

Leveling the playing field.(trading)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY ROSALIND MCLYMONT U.S. exporters may access Canadian markets more efficiently under a "nonresident importer" program developed by the Canada Border Services Agency. As a nonresident importer, an exporter can be the importer of...

Canada: Just the facts.(Country overview)
June 25, 2007... Area: Approximately 4 million square miles, somewhat larger than the U.S. Coastline: About 126,000 miles. Natural resources: Iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife,...

Royster leaving Baltimore port.(Maryland Port Administration's F. Brooks Royster III resigns)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY New state administration, new executive director. It's a routine that the Maryland Port Administration has been through before, but the latest change in command at the Port of Baltimore caught much of the...

Looking ahead to 2009.(Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005: A Legacy for Users)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON When Congress was putting together the final version of the SAFETEA-LU legislation, freight transportation advocates had high hopes that the issues of deteriorating infrastructure and growing congestion would get...

'No one size fits all'.(supply chains)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Shippers can't do much about record diesel fuel prices, escalating rail rates or port capacity constraints, so they are turning their attention to a segment of the supply chain that they can control - the...

Raising the bar.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Are bar-code scanners pass'? RFID systems have attracted most of the publicity in recent years and are widely advertised as superior alternatives to traditional bar-code systems. Yet bar-code scanners are alive...

Third route to compliance.(QuestaWeb)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD When it comes time to choosing software for managing compliance with import and export regulations, many companies think there are only two alternatives: Either install compliance software behind your own...

The color of money_.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO It's time for supply chains to slim down and clean up. The drives to go "lean and green" are dual imperatives for companies and their third-party logistics providers these days as they tackle the development...

Signed, sealed, delivered.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY Bill DIBENEDTTO It's all about finding or creating a good fit. The pace of consolidation and acquisition activity in the third-party logistics industry continues unabated - helped along by heavy interest and an abundance of...

Paying (for) the freight.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY LAWRENCE H KAUFMAN Shippers of different commodities tend to think only of their immediate concerns in dealings with railroads and rarely concern themselves with the issues of shippers in other industries. Perhaps they should...

With Dave Kulik, CEVA Logistics.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO Dave Kulik is chief executive of CEVA Logistics, which last month emerged as successful bidder for EGL. A transportation graduate of Youngstown State University, he worked in trucking before joining CTI...

Add water to infrastructure mix.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY KEN WYKLE As we look to the future, we read and hear about projections for the doubling or tripling of freight volumes and our aging transportation infrastructure. The chairman of UPS has spoken about the need to improve...

Why expand in Nova Scotia?
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL In most cases, proposed container shipping terminals make sense. Many locations around the world need new terminal capacity to support explosive containerized trade and economic growth. As projects have...

Change at Baltimore.(Brooks F. Royster to resign form Maryland Port Administration)
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Amid the politics surrounding his departure as executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, Brooks F. Royster III kept his sense of humor. "I knew coming in that I served at the pleasure of the...

RADAR SCREEN.
June 25, 2007... DHS seeks to end dispute over Census export data For more than three years Customs and Border Protection and the Census Bureau have been at an impasse over the use of U.S. export data by other nations for supply-chain security. Customs...

A peaked peak?(transportation industry trends)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO This is the time of year when companies usually are grabbing every domestic trailer or container they can put their hands on and filling the intermodal equipment with Asian imports destined for retailers...

Boxed and battered.(rail intermodal transportation trends, price competition, revenues)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOHN D. BOYD Rail intermodal is catching it from all sides. The sector faces tough price competition from trucking, a cooling container import market, and a contraction in housing and automobile manufacturing that has cut into...

(Re)building for the future.(port construction, redevelopment of polluted industrial sites, in Brownfields)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY DAVID BIEDERMAN At the nation's ports and in the heartland, developers and local governments are seeking greener pastures - in brownfields. They're encouraging development of logistics and distribution facilities on polluted...

Under one roof.(difference of opinion, real estate executives, logistics executive)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Not long ago, a big retailer's senior management asked the vice president of logistics to decide where to build a huge new distribution center. Weeks later, when the logistics VP presented his carefully...

Finding your way.(Tim Feemster of global logistics at real estate developer Grubb & Ellis Co., on choosing location for warehouse)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Choosing the right location for a distribution center or warehouse is a complex process that should be driven by a rigorous qualitative and quantitative analysis, not by raw emotion, says Tim Feemster, senior...

A matter of control.(survey findings, warehousing, logistic services)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Customers and operators often benefit when a contract warehouse operator uses its owned or leased facility to provide value-added logistics services, according to a survey released by Armstrong & Associates....

Revved up.(plan of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce pollution from trucks)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO An ambitious but controversial plan of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce pollution from trucks by 80 percent over the next five years is becoming more of a labor issue than a battle over...

Atlantic dreams.(terminal construction project of the Melford International Terminal Inc.)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH Will there be enough container traffic bound for the North American East Coast in the next decade to justify a new terminal at the northeastern tip of Nova Scotia? How can a consortium of private investors...

Tacoma plans expansion.(Port of Tacoma to build large container terminal)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO of a container terminal The Port of Tacoma is gearing up to build another large container terminal - or possibly a mix of container terminal and related backup facilities - after beginning eminent domain...

State of logistics: pretty good.(annual State of Logistics Report)(Report)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY First, the bad news: Logistics costs are growing faster than the overall economy. As a percentage of gross domestic product, they jumped from 9.4 percent in 2005 to 9.9 percent last year, the highest figure since...

Rocky Mountain High.(John Allen of APL Ltd. on University of Denver's Intermodal Transportation Institute)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO of industry leaders When John Allen entered the executive master's degree program at the University of Denver's Intermodal Transportation Institute, he viewed the industry from the perspective of an ocean...

With Clifford F. Lynch, logistics consultant.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Clifford F. Lynch, president of C.F. Lynch & Associates in Memphis, has worked in transportation logistics for more than 47 years. Before starting his own consulting firm, Lynch was an executive with Trammell...

To catch a thief.(Ocean's 11, portraying importance of layers of protection to security systems)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY RICHARD BOOTH In the hit 2001 movie "Ocean's Eleven," Danny Ocean and his gang of 11 thieves stage heists of three major Las Vegas casinos during a boxing event. The gang simultaneously executes a series of cons to defeat a...

China's new mantra: rail.(JoC China Trade & Logistics conference in Savannah)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL China has a well-deserved reputation for recognizing challenges in the logistics field and then overcoming them. It needed a world-class system of ports to grease the wheels of its export machine, and went out...

Driving Change.(management strategies of United Parcel Service of America Inc., book by Mike Brewster and Frederick Danzell)
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY This is a milestone year for UPS. It's been 100 years since Jim Casey founded American Messenger Co., the Seattle delivery service that grew into United Parcel Service, a global transportation and logistics giant...

RADAR SCREEN.
June 11, 2007... States urged to take it slow on highway privatization Patrick E. Quinn, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, says more debate is needed on efforts to transfer highways to private companies that would operate them as toll roads....

Corrections, clarifications.(Correction notice)
June 11, 2007... The story "Running in place" in the June 4 JoC incorrectly indicated that Cosco Container Lines will leave Seattle when it begins service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Cosco said the Prince Rupert service will be in addition to its...

THE WEEK.
June 11, 2007... Chinese Investment Moves Inland: While ports have attracted the lion's share of the billions of dollars China is pouring into development of its transportation network, Beijing is now aiming investment at its weak inland infrastructure,...

THE WEEK.
June 4, 2007... WTSA Proposes Rate Hikes: Ocean carriers in the westbound trans-Pacific market announced voluntary rate increases for agricultural products such as hay, grains and animal feed. The Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a discussion...

Growing, Growing.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH The container terminals in China's ports, which are among the most productive in the world, are managing to keep up with the ever-growing volume that's being funneled through them - but just barely. The flow of...

Rise of the Yangtze.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY DAVID BIEDERMAN One of the world's oldest waterborne trade routes is poised to become one of the most modern. Development of the Yangtze River waterway is a cornerstone of China's long-term plans to spur economic development...

Champing at the bit.(Meridian IQ)(Company overview)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY DAVID BIEDERMAN For Meridian IQ, the emotional roller coaster began four years ago. That's when the global logistics management subsidiary of Yellow Roadway Corp. began serious inquiries into the Chinese market. Company...

No silver bullet.(international trade)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD China's trade surplus with the U.S. continues to rise, and virtually everyone on this side of the Pacific is unsatisfied with China's efforts to open its economy further and float its currency more rapidly. Over...

Climbing the ladder.(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Over the past few years, China has become a much more appealing market for U.S. exporters. Despite the widening U.S. trade deficit with China, U.S. exports to China have increased 240 percent since 2000, a faster...

China: Just the facts.(Country overview)
June 4, 2007... Area: Approximately 3.8 million square miles, slightly smaller than the U.S. Coastline: About 9,050 miles. Natural resources: Coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum,...

The empire strikes back.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY IAN PUTZGER In recent years, U.S. airlines have acquired traffic rights to China, while their Chinese counterparts focused on their domestic business. Now the Chinese airlines are adding flights to and from the U.S. ...

Global supply chain? What global supply chain?
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY WILLIAM HOFFMAN Perhaps it's not a small world after all. Although companies of all types claim global supply chains, the global supply-chain organization may be more hype than reality. That's the conclusion researchers at...

Winning while losing.(Jim Crane's compensation after acquisition of EGL by CEVA)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO There's usually an obvious winner at the end of a bidding war for a company. In the case of CEVA Logistics' $2 billion acquisition of Eagle Global, it's not so clear cut, but the loser stands to win a huge...

Small particles, large obstacle.(BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad face opposition in California over expansion plans)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad grew from companies that bridged mountains, deserts and rivers. Now the western railroads' intermodal expansion in Southern California is threatened by particles smaller...

Running in place.(ports)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO It's a puzzle, and although the pieces are large and highly visible, they don't seem to be fitting together very well at the moment. Transportation managers in the Pacific Northwest are uncertain about...

For whom the freight tolls.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO It's the idea that never goes away. A per-container tax to fund port transportation infrastructure is especially attractive to state legislators searching for project money in an era of pinched state budgets...

Paper cuts.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON Just over half of the import entries processed by Customs and Border Protection flash through a computer system untouched by human hands. An importer or customs broker receives an electronic file of cargo data...

Crossing over.(transportation and logistics of food companies)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY WILLIAM HOFFMAN Like many other shippers, food companies are caught between rising costs, constrained capacity and increased consumer demands for more products at lower prices. And they're seeking technology answers to their...

There's the beef.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY STEPHANIE NALL During one recent week, the amount of U.S. beef sold to foreign customers approached the levels shipped during the heady days before most countries closed their borders to the American product. The U.S....

With Graham Napier, Chief executive, TradeBeam.(Interview)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Graham Napier is chief executive of TradeBeam, a provider of global trade management software, delivered on demand over the Internet. Before joining TradeBeam, Napier was president and chief operating officer of...

Buyer beware.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Nitty-gritty details of trade issues go over the average person's head. But everyone eats, and that's why there's been such a strong reaction to recent news about food safety problems involving Chinese exports....

A failed marriage of business, technology.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc. insists on using Radio frequency identification equipment)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY CAPT. EMAD SAMWEL This week marks four years since Wal-Mart directed its suppliers to use radio-frequency identification. The retailer's top 100 suppliers were given a January 2005 deadline to use RFID on Wal-Mart's shipments,...

Rising to the challenge.(economic development)
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL When it comes to ocean container logistics in China, it must be observed overall that despite challenges on many levels, the system works. China is on the cusp of becoming the world's largest merchandise...

RADAR SCREEN.
June 4, 2007... DHS seeks input on container security devices The Department of Homeland Security is expected to put out for comment "requirements for container security devices" sometime this summer. Note the lowercase letters. This is not the...