JoC Week articles from September 2006

JoC Week archives from September 2006

THE WEEK.
September 25, 2006... Ports Remain Congestion-Free: U.S. ports handled peak-season container volumes in August with little problem and should remain congestion-free through the end of the year, according to the latest PortTracker report. The intermodal rail...

The challenges ahead.(world trade)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JANET PLUME Transportation of breakbulk and project cargoes are on the upswing as the trade enters its first flush cycle since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But this time, it's not merely another boom-and-bust cycle; there...

China challenge.(shipping)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY DAVID BIEDERMAN Mark Siegert wasn't surprised when the 60-ton pressure boiler slid into the Yangtze River as a crane attempted to lift it from a barge. He knew that the forwarder had booked the move from abroad, that the...

Breakbulk breakage.(shipping)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH can't prevent cargo damage Shippers of breakbulk cargo, whether it's steel coil, long pipe or heavy equipment and machinery, face a problem that shippers of containerized cargo don't: Their cargoes get...

Latin leap.(ports)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY LETICIA LOZANO South America's strong growth in exports during recent years has been fueled by global demand for its rich supply of forest products and minerals. The surge in exports also is forcing many ports to upgrade and...

Relay race.(Rickmers Jakarta )
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOHANNA KNAPSCHAEFER On July 27, the Rickmers Jakarta sailed into the Port of Houston from Japan's Port of Oita with a 417-ton diesel engine destined for a power plant in the Bahamas. The Rickmers crew tied up the ship at City...

How the west was won.(breakbulk industry )
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY BILL DIBENEDETTO AND STEPHANIE NALL Globally, the breakbulk industry handles between 400 million and 450 million tons of cargo a year, and it's expected to grow another 10 percent in the coming years. The transport of...

THE WEEK.(supply-chain security, World Shipping Council)
September 25, 2006... Koch Backs Security Goals: Christopher Koch, president of the World Shipping Council, said the private sector should support the government's efforts to improve supply-chain security, but only if goals are clearly defined, prioritized and...

Beasts of the East.(East Coast ports)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH There is no secret as to what's driven the growth of the largest East Coast container ports over the last five years. It's the huge increases in imports from Asia coming through the Panama Canal. If proof were...

E pluribus unum.(Virginia Port Authority)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH When J. Robert Bray looks back at his 28-year tenure as executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, he has no trouble identifying the key event in the port's growth into the fourth-largest on the East...

Nine lives?(Aker Yards SSA, FastShip Inc. )
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH FastShip, the jet-turbine-powered container ship project that has been contemplated, designed and redesigned, but which has never gotten in the water after more than a decade, is showing a glimmer of life. It...

Do you believe in miracles?(ports)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY GARY FERRULLI Demand for container capacity at North American ports will double during the next decade, according to U.K.-based Ocean Shipping Consultants. No one involved in importing goods to the U.S. over the past decade...

'Virtual CSI'.(Container Security Initiative)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON It's one of those nasty equations of modern life: Think exporting from Colombia and you think drug trafficking. That means any container of legitimate goods arriving from Colombia is more likely to be held for...

Inttra raises its game.(e-commerce platform)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD Web-based e-commerce portals have taken a major step forward with a new desktop application from Inttra. The application allows any shipper or forwarder registered with the company to transmit shipping...

Preparing for the worst.(Hurricane Hugo 1989)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JANET NODAR When Hurricane Hugo hit St. Croix and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1989, Rick Murrell said his company's emergency-preparedness plan was not worth the paper it was written on. The president of Tropical Shipping said...

Ready for takeoff?(William Flynn of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc.)(Interview)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOHN D. BOYD At least two freighter-operating U.S. airlines are undertaking reviews to boost value for investors, saying all sorts of options, including sales or mergers, are on the table. At the extreme, that could mean the...

Timber!(U.S.-Canadian trade)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD The curtain is finally coming down on the longest-running drama in the history of U.S.-Canadian trade disputes. This month's agreement on softwood lumber trade resolves claims by U.S. lumber companies that Canada...

Customs misses the boat.(Customs and Border Protection, Port of New Orleans )
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOHN T. HYATT Long before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the local trade community invested itself in certain hot-button issues. While Louis Armstrong International Airport fought to secure more international...

With Rick D. Blasgen, Council of Supply Chain Professionals.(Interview)
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Rick D. Blasgen is president and chief executive of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. His 23 years of experience in logistics include executive positions at Nabisco, Kraft Foods and ConAgra...

An update on security.
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL If there was one thing apparent from last week's 5th Annual Maritime Security Expo at the Javits Center in New York, it is that maritime security overall has evolved into a slow-moving, somewhat opaque...

Changing with the times.(Gil Carmichael )
September 25, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY When I first met Gil Carmichael in 1972, he was waging an energetic but unsuccessful campaign to become U.S. senator from Mississippi, and I was covering some of the campaign as a rookie reporter for the...

RADAR SCREEN.
September 25, 2006... Defining moments for Customs How do you define "importer?" "Vessel?" The answers are not as self-evident as they might be at first glance, as Customs and trade members have found out. Customs and members of the Trade Support Network, an...

Clarification.(Correction notice)
September 25, 2006... In a story Sept. 18 about protecting North Atlantic right whales ("Whale watching," Page 16), the Port of Savannah should have been included among mid-Atlantic ports that will have a zone extending 30 nautical miles from the port entrance...

Inside the Port Security Act.(Port Security Improvement Act of 2006 )
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON No surprises. It seems that the trade community got what it wanted when the Port Security Improvement Act of 2006 was introduced on the Senate floor 10 days ago. The bill had been locked in a jurisdictional...

Whale watching.(National Marine Fisheries Service)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY R.G. EDMONSON This is a whale of a problem. Modern ocean shipping and a critically endangered species are on a collision course off the U.S. East Coast. The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing rules that would...

Of mice and men.(A.P. Moller-Maersk Line)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH The carefully laid plans of A.P. Moller-Maersk to expand its share of the world's container shipping market by acquiring P&O Nedlloyd are not working out the way the Danish company planned, at least not in the...

Cutting red tape.
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD It takes less time to complete export-related documentation in Gambia than it does in Chile. It costs less money to export the average container from El Salvador than it is does from Denmark. The country with the...

Is it death for GSP?(Generalized System of Preferences, Pier 1 Imports Inc.)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER David Walker, executive vice president for logistics and allocations of Pier 1 Imports, says he might have to change his sourcing strategy if Congress fails to renew a program that provides preferential...

Bleak peak?(airlines)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY IAN PUTZGER It could be a tenuous peak season in the trans-Pacific air-cargo market as airlines and forwarders struggle to solidify their planning for capacity. "Asia is a question mark right now. We're getting a lot of mixed...

Grounded.(airlines)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY IAN PUTZGER It is the land of smile, after all. Air-cargo executives in search of a little tranquility are advised to contemplate the industry in Thailand, preferably from the Web site of the national carrier - Thai Cargo...

Cargo crackdown.
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOHN D. BOYD The 30-month prison term given a former executive of forwarder EG for billing fraud related to military air-cargo shipments into Iraq will probably not be the last time this year the government hits those caught...

Building on G-Log.(Global Logistics Technologies Inc., Transportation Management 5.5)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY ALAN M. FIELD When companies put together a shipment, they sometimes encounter an unpleasant surprise - the cartons don't fit a truck or container. That's one area where Oracle Corp. hopes to score big with the...

So far, so good.(West Coast Trucking )
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO Dan Gatchet began 2006 prepared for the worst. Like many harbor drayage operators, the president of West Coast Trucking in Seattle expected another year of chronic driver shortages, delays at marine terminals...

Tell your story or others will.(transportation infrastructure)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: LAWRENCE H KAUFMAN That there is a critical need for more transportation infrastructure is not news. That government at national, state and local levels doesn't understand the need also is not news. Most legislators see...

P&I costs going up.(protection and indemnity)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY DAVID BIEDERMAN Ocean carriers and other shipowners can expect their protection and indemnity insurance premiums to increase by around 10 percent in 2007, according to Aon Corp., a leading insurance broker and underwriter and...

Forgotten industry.(exporters)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY JOSEPH BONNEY Everyone's for port security, reduced air pollution and good transportation infrastructure. And if you ask the man on the street, he'll probably say a $30-per-TEU tax on containers at Southern California ports is...

A moving target.(reconfiguration)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY STEVE SCHELLENBERG Reconfiguration of the global supply chain is changing industrial real estate. Port diversion strategies, port capacity, water depth, canal capacity, security and rail services all contribute to changes in...

With Jean Philippe Thenoz, CMA CGM.(Interview)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER T. LEACH As vice president of North America lines for CMA CGM in Marseilles, Jean Philippe Thenoz is responsible for the expansion of the east-west trades to and from the U.S., including the trans-Pacific and the...

A timely delivery.(freight congestion)
September 18, 2006... BYLINE: BY PETER TIRSCHWELL Most everyone involved in freight movement is familiar with the problem of congestion. You know from practical experience that roads, rails and ports are not growing nearly as fast as the volumes being thrown...

RADAR SCREEN.(Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection)
September 18, 2006... Protecting the animal kingdom The House recently passed legislation that would ban the slaughter of horses for food. Part of the bill's rationale was the historical affinity between man and horse. But that affinity has a close rival, the...

Back to basics.(Hurricane Katrina 2005)
September 4, 2006... TV networks and newspapers tried hard with last week's hurricane anniversary coverage, but their efforts fell short. Cameras and keyboards can't capture the scope and scale of the destruction in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. You have...

Quick canal transit: what's it worth?(Panama Canal)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... It's Economics 101: Limited supply plus strong demand equals high price. That's what's happening at the Panama Canal, where maintenance work on the Gatun Locks has delayed ships for up to five days. The work last month forced the Panama Canal...

Tripartite Shippers Group seeks global name.(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... The Tripartite Shippers Group is considering a name change. The name has remained unchanged for a dozen years, even though the three Tripartite charter members have been joined by several other regional shipper organizations. The group was...

CSCMP, WERC join in Web seminar.(Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, Warehousing Education and Research Council )(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Warehousing Education and Research Council have long-standing commitments to advancing the supply-chain profession through educational programs, resources and research. Now they're...

Security Expo to hold session for ports.(Maritime Security Expo)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... This year's Maritime Security Expo, to be held on Sept. 20 at the Javits Convention Center in New York, marks the fifth year for the event. Among the events at the conference, sponsored by E.J. Krause, is a luncheon for port personnel on...

Corrections and clarifications.(RADAR SCREEN)(Correction notice)
September 4, 2006... An Aug. 28 article on congressional proposals for reform of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States contained an error caused by an editing mistake. The article should have said that a Senate bill was drafted last spring...

Results of the JoC pulse.
September 4, 2006... Results of the JoC Pulse Which area is showing the most growth for your business? Asia 68% South America 15% North America 7% Africa 7% Europe 3%

Maersk sinks into the red.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Maersk Sinks Into The Red: A.P. Moller-Maersk. parent of Maersk Line, announced that it lost $607 million on container shipping and related activities in the first half of 2006. That compares with a profit of $871 million in the same period...

US companies gain in China.(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... US Companies Gain In China: U.S. companies operating in China are optimistic even as they face old and new hurdles, according to the U.S.-China Business Council's annual member survey, John Frisbie, the council's president, said U.S....

RFID for containers put to the test.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... RFID For Containers Put To The Test: Schenker has inaugurated a test of radio-frequency identification technology for ocean containers. Ten containers were put into service on Aug. 18 at the Port of Hamburg in what the German-based logistics...

FedEx and pilots reach accord.(Air Line Pilots Association )(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... FedEx And Pilots Reach Accord: FedEx Express and the Air Line Pilots Association have agreed to a tentative deal on a new labor contract. If approved by FedEx's 4,700 pilots, the contract would extend for four years. The company and its...

Former LA official pleads not guilty.(Leland Wong)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Former LA Official Pleads Not Guilty: Leland Wong told a California Superior Court judge that he is not guilty of taking bribes from Evergreen Marine Corp. to get the carrier more space at the port. The indictment said Wong began receiving...

DHL breaks ground on Chicago center.(DHL Express)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... DHL Breaks Ground On Chicago Center: DHL broke ground on a new service center operation in Chicago. The company will spend $7 million on the express hub just south of O'Hare International Airport. The 78,960-square-foot facility will serve...

ILA ratifies Evergreen pact.(THE WEEK)
September 4, 2006... ILA Ratifies Evergreen Pact: Clerical workers at Evergreen America Corp.'s Jersey City offices have ratified a throe-year labor contract negotiated by International Longshoremen's Association Local 1964. Negotiators agreed on the contract in...

Window on rates: Clarkson, SynchroNet plan open market for container ship space.
September 4, 2006... It happens every day: A container ship line has slots to fill on an upcoming voyage. Or a shipper needs more capacity than its contract provides. In cases like these, putting buyer and seller together can be complicated. Forget about one-stop...

Growth ... and more growth: volume matches capacity expansion at European container ports.(SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPEAN PORTS)
September 4, 2006... These are flush times for European ports. They're basking in double-digit cargo growth, attracting healthy investment from private and public spending on new facilities, and generating solid profits for most port-based businesses. And there's...

Financial diplomacy: U.S. business groups see Chinese financial reform as a way to defuse protectionism.(INTERNATIONAL TRADE)
September 4, 2006... U.S. Treasury officials and many companies that do business in China are pushing for diplomatic efforts that connect the dots between financial reform in China and expanded opportunities for trade between the two countries. They say it could...

Logistics in the heart of Texas: UP's new facility drives logistics development in Dallas, but plans depend on help from rival Houston.(SPECIAL REPORT: INLAND DISTRIBUTION)
September 4, 2006... Dallas and Houston clash over everything from business and sports to which city has the better restaurants. Add to the mix which has the better distribution and logistics network as the cities grapple for a greater share of containerized...

Worth the wait: former St. Lawrence Seaway chief optimistic that containers will come to waterway.(Albert Jacquez)
September 4, 2006... It may take a while, but Albert Jacquez has no doubt that container shipping will come to the St. Lawrence Seaway-Great Lakes system. "If only 50 percent of the projected growth in trade is correct, the level of congestion in our...

KCS takes a different, route: Kansas City Southern seeks to develop Mexican landbridge as alternative to West Coast ports.(INTERMODAL)
September 4, 2006... While Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway fight over dwindling intermodal space in Los Angeles, much smaller Kansas City Southern is slowly but steadily developing what it sees as the key to its intermodal future--an international...

Is anybody there?(transportation industry)
September 4, 2006... The musical "1776" depicts the challenges of the Continental Congress as it debated the issue of independence. The last song of the show, "Is Anybody There?" reads from a dispatch sent by General Washington to Congress, inquiring why it had...

Plugging away on TWIC: TSA continues to move closer to transportation ID card.(Transportation Workers Identification Credential, Transportation Security Administration )
September 4, 2006... The Transportation Security Administration is approaching two critical milestones in the development of the Transportation Workers Identification Credential. The TSA is going to request contract proposals from a select group of companies to...

Dell in reverse: successful battery recall could be new example of computer maker's supply-chain clout.(SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT)
September 4, 2006... Dell can't be happy about having to recall more than 4 million defective notebook computer batteries, but experts in reverse logistics say the company's business model makes it better prepared than most to manage the returns of the bad...

Air cargo.(traffic and capacity)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Traffic and capacity International scheduled services Percent change from same month previous year [GRAPHIC OMITTED] International freight Freight ton-kilometers Percent change by carrier, grouped by carriers' base of...

Spotlight: U.S. trade partners.(Statistical table)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... The $1.4 trillion U.S. total goods trade in the first half of 2006 was split one-third exports and two-thirds imports in dollar value. U.S. goods imports and exports, in billions of dollars First-half Percent...

JoC-ECRI Industrial Price Index.(Journal of Commerce--Economic Cycle Research Institute)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... The Journal of Commerce--Economic Cycle Research Institute Industrial Price Index (JoC-ECRI IPI) is a leading indicator of inflation rates. The index is based on prices of a broad assortment of raw materials used in industrial production. The...

Containerized ocean trade.(shipping industry)(Statistical table)
September 4, 2006... CONTAINERIZED OCEAN TRADE In TEUs Loaded containers only January-Current month Current Imports month 2006 2005 %...

U.S. foreign trade.(Statistical table)
September 4, 2006... U.S. FOREIGN TRADE In millions of dollars, via all modes of transportation to/from the U.S. January-June Imports 2006 2005 % change Total ...

Rail cargo.(Statistical table)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... RAIL CARGO Weeks 1-33 ending August 19, 2006 Loadings, in Units 2006 2005 % change Intermodal-total 7,708,423 7,247,819 6.4% Trailers ...

More may seek Byrd payments.(Byrd Amendment)
September 4, 2006... Thanks to a recent Court of International Trade ruling, U.S. producers who previously did not qualify for distributions under the controversial Byrd Amendment--formally known as the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act may now have...

With Ken Bloom: Inttra.(QUESTIONS & ANSWERS)(Interview)
September 4, 2006... Ken Bloom is chief executive of Inttra, a multicarrier electronic commerce platform for the ocean freight industry. Before joining Inttra in 2001, Bloom was chief operating officer at Optimum Logistics where he was responsible for the...

A step forward on box pricing.(container freight rates)
September 4, 2006... One of the inadvertent consequences of container shipping deregulation and the demise of the conference system in the late 1990s was the creation of a seriously inefficient market for the setting of container freight rates. The relationship...