JoC Week articles from March 2008

JoC Week archives from March 2008

THE WEEK.
March 31, 2008... China To Permit C-TPAT Validations By US: Customs and Border Protection has begun a pilot program with China to validate importers under the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. Under the program, China Customs will validate the...

Carrier For Sale.(Hapag-Lloyd AG acquired by TUI AG)
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY BRUCE BARNARD AND PETER T. LEACH It took Michael Frenzel 10 years to transform a staid state-owned German steelmaker into Europe's biggest tourism group and operator of the world's fifth-largest container shipping company - and...

Gorilla in the green box.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO The world's largest retailer is doing it again - this time leveraging its market power and position to persuade suppliers and customers to make their product packaging more environmentally sustainable. ...

'Smarter' doesn't mean damage prone.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO When people start talking about reducing waste in packaging, supply-chain professionals immediately wonder about the potential for damage in shipment. So far, it doesn't appear to have been a problem. ...

CN acquisition meets resistance.(Canadian National Railway Co.)
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOHN D. BOYD Canadian National Railway is facing opposition to its plan to buy a short line that would circumvent intermodal bottlenecks in Chicago. The company says there's a limit to how far it will go to satisfy...

How Perry Ellis saved $225,000.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD You're importing products from dozens of manufacturers throughout Asia and Latin America, and your list of suppliers is continually changing. How do you make sure your freight invoices are accurate? That was...

Port of the future.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO West Coast port operators can view the container terminal of the future, and they don't have to leave the U.S. to do so. While terminals in Asia and Europe are normally considered to be the world's most...

What, me worry?
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO Tim Farrell, the Port of Tacoma's executive director, has a simple message that takes on a mantra-like aura: "Plenty of room, no fees!" It's a direct shot at Southern California's ports and their growing...

Bay Area boom.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY STEPHANIE NALL Already the fourth-busiest U.S. container port, Oakland sees lots of room to grow - if it can get improved intermodal rail service to the rest of the country. A new recommendation by the California...

'X' marks the spot.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey doesn't handle 8,000-TEU ships yet, but they're coming. That's one reason the port authority is clearing space for container handling on a site next to Global...

NY-NJ box volume up 7.6 percent.(Brief article)(Statistical data)
March 31, 2008... Growth in all-water shipments from Asia helped the Port of New York and New Jersey post a 7.6 percent increase in container volume last year, despite a slowdown caused by a soft U.S. economy. In their annual review of port activity,...

Safe at home.(Industry overview)
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY WILLIAM HOFFMAN European logistics executives, fresh off a reassuring round of annual financial and operational performance reports, are bracing for a potential barrage of bad news from across the Atlantic. With the 2007...

Air cargo Insecurity.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY MICHAEL FABEY At the recent AirCargo 2008 conference in Orlando, Brandon Fried held up his index finger and thumb a couple inches apart. "We're this far from being put out of business," he said. Fried is executive director...

Convergence on supply-chain inflation.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY DAN GARDNER Over the course of the last 10 years, whenever the word "convergence" was mentioned in a business context, it always carried a positive connotation. Viewed mainly as the nexus between telecommunications, computing,...

True and false.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL The possibility of another storied steamship line, Hapag-Lloyd, becoming the next chapter in container shipping's story of consolidation brings to mind two statements that carrier executives make frequently in...

Pluses and miuses.
March 31, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY The big story in shipping right now is Hapag-Lloyd, the German carrier that's the world's fifth-largest container line in vessel capacity. Will it be sold, spun off or merged? At this point, the outcome is...

RADAR SCREEN.(National Industrial Transportation League )
March 31, 2008... NIT League asks Customs for interim final rule on 10+2 The National Industrial Transportation League is making the case that Customs and Border Protection should issue an interim final rule for the importer security filing or 10+2 rule....

THE WEEK.(briefs)(Financial report)
March 24, 2008... Maersk Line Reverses Loss: Good is not quite good enough - at least not yet - at A.P. Moller-Maersk. The Danish company reported significantly improved results from container shipping in 2007 but said earnings remain unsatisfactory and that...

Carriers' new math.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH Shippers to and from Europe are awaiting Oct. 17 with bated breath. That's the day when liner shipping companies calling at ports in the 27 European Union countries will lose their 150-year-old exemption from...

Ebb and flow.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH Maersk Line's shift of capacity from U.S. trades is clearly illustrated in its loss of market share in imports and exports on the JoC's list of the Top 40 Container Lines (See Charts, starting on Page 18). The...

North and south.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Other West Coast ports are following the lead of Los Angeles and Long Beach in formulating plans to reduce harbor-generated air pollution, but trucking in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma has not become the...

Let the bidding begin.(Financial report)
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY BRUCE BARNARD Is it in play or not? That's been the question surrounding Hapag-Lloyd in recent months. The German company has been engulfed by reports that parent company TUI was attempting to fend off pressure - both within...

Rising tide.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON Transportation professionals be warned: Sea levels are going to rise seven to 23 inches, one of the consequences of climate change, according to a committee of the National Research Council, part of the National...

Through a glass brightly.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Think of it as another battle in the long war between spin doctors of trade. On one side, the supporters of stronger trade relations with China cite a recent report that U.S. exports to China grew 301 percent in...

Northern lights.(Interview)
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER Hong Kong is a business-friendly city. Still, it can be intimidating for first-time visitors, especially if it's a new market for your company and you're there to interview potential business partners. So...

Exports to China soar from New England.(Brief article)
March 24, 2008... All six New England states have scored triple-digit increases in goods exports to China thus far this decade, according to a report issued this month by the U.S.-China Business Council. "Overall, China now is the third-largest purchaser...

The looming SWF crisis.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY THOMAS E. CROCKER Two years after the DP World controversy, a new confluence of forces is returning foreign direct investment to Page One. These developments include the sudden growth of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), the...

A little-known benefit of C-TPAT.(Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism)
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL One thing that was clear from this month's Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference was this: Six-and-a-half years into the post-9/11 era of international trade, there are still bugs in the system that seem...

Charleston 5, plus eight.
March 24, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY The tear gas has dissipated, the injuries have healed, and the criminal charges have been dismissed, but more than eight years later, the case of the Charleston 5 still reverberates. It began on the night of Jan....

RADAR SCREEN.(Brief article)
March 24, 2008... ILWU marches inland to Rite Aid DC The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has scored a rare victory in its efforts to organize off-dock inland distribution centers along the West Coast. After a two-year effort, ILWU Local 26 in...

Changing relationships.(UTC Overseas)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY JANET PLUME Michael Ruediger, project chartering director at UTC Overseas, recently called attention to the rising costs of energy and the critical shortages of vessels, equipment and skilled labor that are pinching the supply...

Low gear.(Delaware River Stevedores Inc.)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Nearly everywhere you look at the Beckett Street Terminal in Camden, N.J., you see steel. Steel coils, tubes, plates, bars and more. But appearances can be deceiving. "2006 was a banner year for us," said Robert...

Risk and romance.
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD It's a bitterly cold winter morning, but activity at the Beckett Street Terminal in Camden, N.J., is focused on warm-weather cargoes. Sophisticated crane spreaders are hauling giant pallets laden with sacks of...

Comeback for ILA.(International Longshoremen's Association)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Clyde Fitzgerald still has a copy of a 2000 Journal of Commerce report on a nascent campaign by the Inter-national Longshoremen's Association to regain breakbulk work lost to non-ILA competitors in Gulf and South...

Expansion mode.(Agility)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO The "A" in Agility apparently stands for acquisition. Global logistics provider PWC Logistics rebranded itself as Agility in late 2006, and the Kuwait-based firm has been on an aggressive acquisition and...

Staying put in Old San Juan.(Puerto Rico. Ports Authority)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH An undisclosed consultant's study has created a political flap that seems likely to block the the Puerto Rico Port Authority's plan to shift breakbulk handling from piers in the Port of San Juan across the...

THE WEEK.(briefs)
March 17, 2008... Ports Urge FMC To OK Truck Agreement: Attorneys for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have asked the Federal Maritime Commission to permit a marine terminal agreement for a controversial clean-trucks plan to take effect, despite...

Headed to court?(American Trucking Associations)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Market participants or regulators? That question has become a central issue in a developing legal battle over a proposal to require trucking companies to obtain concessions to operate in Southern California...

Costly problem for ports.
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO What if they held an auction and no one came? The collapse of the municipal bond auction rate market last month has some port authorities scrambling to staunch the flow of suddenly ballooning interest payments...

Is NAFTA broken?(Free Trade Agreement, 1992, United States-Canada-Mexico)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD The North American Free Trade Agreement is the most famous free-trade pact in history - but that fame may ultimately become its undoing. As the U.S. economy teeters on recession, and growth slows in Canada and...

Mexico: Just the facts.(Free Trade Agreement, 1992, United States-Canada-Mexico)
March 17, 2008... Area: Approximately 790,000 square miles, slightly less than three times the size of Texas. Coastline: About 3,700 miles. Natural resources: Petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas and timber. Population: 107...

Target: Unsafe imports.(United States. Consumer Product Safety Commission)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON Business is booming in the meat-detention trade. The Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service reported that the number of imports of ineligible meat, poultry or eggs it has stopped jumped...

'Green' takes off.
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY ROBERT W. MOORMAN of the business Green. What was once an adjective is now a noun. Aircraft manufacturers and their customers realized years ago that the word had the dual meaning of helping the environment and their...

What's next?(APL Ltd.)(Hapag-Lloyd AG)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY GARY FERRULLI The year is barely 2 months old and interesting issues are already emerging as a trend. Talk of a merger of APL and Hapag-Lloyd makes for interesting speculation: strength merging with strength in a market...

Marad's data storehouse.(United States. Maritime Administration)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON The Maritime Administration is preparing to launch an ambitious online resource for all things maritime. The MarView Web portal is intended to provide a single source of information on the maritime domain and its...

To lock or not to lock?
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN F. SPEAR A cargo thief recently interviewed by police said he canvassed truck stops and drop lots looking for trailers with big locks and special security gear on the doors, figuring that any shipper who spent the extra...

A ray of hope.(Port of Long Beach)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL Amid the storm clouds gathering around the Southern California truck issue and threatening the future of the nation's largest container gateway, a ray of sunlight punctured the gloomy picture at this month's...

It doesn't matter.(Knight Transportation Inc.)
March 17, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Jim Tunnell of Knight Transportation got a rise out of the audience at this month's Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach when he shared his opinion of the environmental studies that underpin the...

RADAR SCREEN.(Free Trade Agreement, 1992, United States-Canada-Mexico)
March 17, 2008... Congress joins trade in asking about 10+2 Customs and Border Protection already is catching flak from the trade community over the proposed "importer security filing" or 10+2 rule. Now some people on Capitol Hill are reportedly having...

THE WEEK.
March 10, 2008... West Coast Labor Talks To Start Next Week: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association are scheduled to begin talks on March 17, according to a senior carrier executive. Speaking at the Traffic Club of New...

One, two, three.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH AND BILL MONGELLUZZO Carrier vessel-sharing agreements are old hat, but this one has a surprising twist. Maersk, the world's largest container ship line, is joining the No. 2 and 3 lines, Mediterranean Shipping...

Crime and punishment.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON A handful of Alaskan fishermen spent the night of Feb. 26 on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in some of the coldest temperatures in Washington this winter. They wanted to make sure they had seats for the next...

Slimmer pickings.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH "And Then There Were None." The title of Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery is an apt description of the activity - or lack of it - on the terminal-acquisition front in the United States. A year ago,...

Highway robbery.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY ARI NATTER After declaring the economic stimulus package signed by President Bush "a woefully inadequate plan" designed around grabbing headlines and not economics, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is turning to Transportation...

Emission mission.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON A meeting at the International Maritime Organization in London could decide the future for global standards to curb air pollution by ships. The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee is expected to approve...

Fuel fight.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Now that Los Angeles and Long Beach are committed to replacing some 16,800 drayage trucks with new vehicles that meet the ports' strict air pollution standards, a spirited competition has emerged between the...

Against the grain.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO While "buoyant" is a word often aptly used to describe the dry and liquid bulk segments of the shipping industry, the term might well be a kindler, gentler substitute for "volatile." This is especially true...

Gil Carmichael: intermodal visionary.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY LAWRENCE H KAUFMAN The transportation world shrugged in resignation when President George H.W. Bush named Gilbert E. "Gil" Carmichael as federal railroad administrator in 1989. Unknown in the railroad world, the onetime...

Two-way trade.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD A coffee mug reads "A Wee Bit O' Irish," and is inscribed with the name, "Erin." A T-shirt is inscribed "My Grandchildren Crack Me Up - Billy, Susan." A picture frame is smothered with St. Patrick's Day...

US losing its grip on technology.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY BOB SUH Once early adopters in corporate computing and the Internet, U.S. companies are now falling behind global competitors in driving productivity and earnings growth from technology. This is because U.S. companies deploy...

Why trucks may sink trade.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL Talk all you want about East Coast ports gaining in Asian trade; they are, slightly, but Los Angeles-Long Beach still handled well over half of all U.S. container imports from Asia last year, more than 40...

Follow the leader.
March 10, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Only four months into his new job as chief executive of A.P. Moller-Maersk, Nils S. Andersen already has a clear understanding of container shipping and its problems and possibilities. He didn't start with a...

RADAR SCREEN.
March 10, 2008... Will Taft-Hartley be amended for harbor truckers? Most legal opinion holds that as independent contractors, owner-operator truck drivers are not eligible to unionize. Chuck Carroll, executive director of the National Association of...

THE WEEK.
March 3, 2008... Long Beach: Drop Employee Mandate: Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has urged Los Angeles to adopt a clean-trucks program without a controversial labor provision attached. "This is about clean air. Don't be distracted by peripheral issues," Foster...

Perception and reality.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO The general perception in the transportation community about West Coast ports is that they are congested. That perception is wrong, at least for the short term. The mindset stems from problems that Los...

Tough questions.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH There are only two certainties this year on the trans-Pacific: U.S. import growth will be sluggish at best, and U.S. exports will continue to increase. Almost everything else is a question mark: Will import...

East Coast bias.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO For importers these days, it's all about all-water services. But for trans-Pacific carriers, it's all about economics - and therein lies a conundrum. Importers are demanding more all-water services from...

Giant killers?
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL ARMBRUSTER For importers these days, it's all about all-water services. But for trans-Pacific carriers, it's all about economics - and therein lies a conundrum. Importers are demanding more all-water services from...

Driving to court.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO The American Trucking Associations says a recent Supreme Court decision in Maine will help turn an expected ATA challenge of Los Angeles harbor trucking rules into a "slam-dunk" case. Steve Diamond, a law...

The thrill is gone.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Remember when Democrats and Republicans agreed that free trade was a good thing? When the North American Free Trade Agreement was widely applauded as a boon for both companies and consumers? When it was generally...

Deconstructing deregulation.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY TED PRINCE For many economic analysts, the problems currently plaguing our economy are bringing back memories of the stagflation of the 1970s. "Stagflation" is the term created to define the simultaneous conditions of...

Old idea is new again.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON Customs and Border Protection requires importers to post bonds to ensure that the agency will get the duties and penalties it's owed if the importer fails to pay. Right now, all importers put up 10 percent of...

Controversy at Gulfport.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY PAUL T. ROSYNSKY It took only hours for Hurricane Katrina to wipe out most of the Port of Gulfport, Miss., in August 2005. Recovery has proceeded much more slowly. The process is at two years and counting, and has been...

What's next for Deutsche Post?
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY MICHAEL FABEY With a new CEO at the helm of Deutsche Post World Net, the question for shippers now is what direction the world's largest logistics and cargo transport company will take. Frank Appel succeeded Klaus Zumwinkel,...

BDP's global alliance.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD How can small and midsize logistics providers maintain their independence in a world where the big fish keep swallowing the small fry? Last year, the volume of mergers and acquisitions in the transportation and...

The mother of invention.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY When industry leaders gather this week for the JoC's 8th annual Trans-Pacific Maritime conference in Long Beach, there's certain to be talk of how demand is growing faster than terminal capacity at West Coast...

New era in container shipping?
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY ASAF ASHAR Canada's new Port of Prince Rupert, the first North American port designed almost exclusively for intermodal rail shipments, offers interesting service possibilities that could herald a new era in container...

It's time to get ready.
March 3, 2008... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL I know it will probably come as no comfort for those suffering through the current slowdown, but on many fronts, the temporary suspension of container growth in the trans-Pacific presents opportunities to get...