Pacific Shipper articles from August 2007

Pacific Shipper archives from August 2007

Jeers for cheers.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Usually, when the Port of Tacoma poaches one of the Port of Seattle's customers -- a frequent occurrence over the years -- Seattle officials politely express disappointment and confidence that they'll recover from...

British Airways fined for cargo price-fixing.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard British Airways, Europe's third-largest carrier, is bracing itself for fines of up to $400 million in the U.S. for its part in an international airline cartel that rigged cargo prices. The airline last week...

Congress passes transport security bill.
August 6, 2007... The House passed legislation late last month that makes 100 percent screening mandatory within five years. The Senate had already approved the bill in an 85-8 vote, and the White House said the president is likely to sign it. The House voted...

Grand Alliance extended for 10 years.
August 6, 2007... The four member lines of the Grand Alliance, which was founded in 1998, have extended their consortium agreement another 10 years. The alliance, which is the largest integrated consortium in container liner shipping, consists of...

Hong Kong to test US box scanning.
August 6, 2007... Hong Kong has agreed to participate on a limited basis in the Secure Freight Initiative, according to Customs and Border Protection. Modern Terminals, the port's largest terminal operator, will scan containers for radiation and make X-ray...

NAFTA trade climbs.
August 6, 2007... Trade using surface transportation between the U.S. and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico rose 5.2 percent in May, compared with a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S....

Rebounding economy ignores freight.
August 6, 2007... The U.S. economy bounced back from a lackluster first quarter as gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent, the fastest growth since the first quarter of 2006, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis...

Poaching roils the waters.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto It's been a very eventful 2007 in the Pacific Northwest, and there's still five months left. Consider these recent items: * Zim Integrated Shipping Services is leaving the Port of Portland in September, which...

PNW box ports move nearly 3 million TEUs through June.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto At the midyear point in 2007, the Pacific Northwest's top three container ports -- Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver, British Columbia -- moved 2.9 million TEUs, only 21,000 TEUs fewer than the container volume they...

Seattle's Yoshitani says port to become the greenest.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Four months into his tenure as the Port of Seattle's executive director, Tay Yoshitani is setting a new course for the port that includes a major commitment to "go green," integrated with a major administrative...

Portland officials talk to infrastructure investors.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Even though Zim Integrated Shipping Services will leave the Port of Portland's Terminal 6 next month, financial market investors might fund future development projects at the port. The negotiating process is still...

Murray pushes rail funds.
August 6, 2007... Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., recently included $4.85 million in funding for transportation and community development projects in southwest Washington state in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. Among the...

Court ruling complicates ballast water regulation.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson It has been hard enough just finding a solution to ballast water pollution, but now the problem has become more complicated. A federal district court in Northern California has ordered the Environmental Protection...

World Shipping Council criticizes US scan-all bill.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson The World Shipping Council has called legislation that would require all U.S.-bound containers to be scanned at foreign ports "unworkable." The trade association for the global liner shipping industry said that...

German owner orders 13,000-TEU ships.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard Nordcapital, the world's second-largest container ship charter owner, has ordered eight 13,100-TEU vessels from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries for $1.4 billion. The ships will be delivered to the German...

Resurgent MOL posts 49 percent jump in profit.(Financial report)
August 6, 2007... Japanese shipping group MOL's first-quarter profit increased 49 percent over the same period a year ago on revenue that was 20 percent higher as freight rates continued to recover and volume increased on almost all trade lanes. The...

Trans-Pacific services help Matson, Horizon results.
August 6, 2007... Jones Act carriers Matson Navigation and Horizon Lines felt the soft demand for shipping services in Hawaii last quarter, but both carriers saw an increase in operating profit. Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Matson's parent company, said the...

Carriers plan North China-India service.
August 6, 2007... A consortium of Wan Hai Lines, Cheng Lie Navigation and Sea Consortium plan to launch a direct liner service between North China and India's southern Port of Chennai in September. The new service, North China-South India Express, will...

Nehru reduces free time for containers.
August 6, 2007... India's port regulator, the Tariff Authority for Major Ports, has ordered a reduction in free storage time for inland and transshipment containers handled at the western Port of Jawaharlal Nehru. The decision follows a proposal made by...

Industry groups to help develop India's cold chain.
August 6, 2007... U.S. government agencies and an alliance of industry groups are helping to improve the cold-chain infrastructure and operations in India. Supported by the United States Trade and Development Agency and organized under the framework of the...

New reefer vessel calls San Diego.
August 6, 2007... Bucking industry trends toward containerization, Star Reefers has received a new reefer vessel which called at the Port of San Diego during its maiden voyage. Built in Japan, the Star Stratos reefer carrier has the capacity for 6,000 pallets...

Agency says US missing sales opportunities in Cuba.
August 6, 2007... The U.S. could provide more than half of Cuba's agricultural, fish, and forest product imports if U.S. trade and travel restrictions to Cuba were lifted, reported the U.S. International Trade Commission. The U.S. share of such Cuban imports...

Hillwood expands in Inland Empire.
August 6, 2007... Hillwood, a development company based in Fort Worth, Texas, is building 5.7 million square feet of new warehouse and distribution center space in 12 buildings at four locations in the Inland Empire. Hillwood, a Perot company, is a...

Clerical union, employers reveal details of compromise.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo The tentative contract reached on July 26 by unionized office clerical workers in Los Angeles-Long Beach and 14 waterfront employers was a compromise agreement that sets the stage for the next contract negotiations...

Crowley christens barge.
August 6, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. late last month christened and launched barge 455-2, the second of three Heavy Lift 455 Series flat-deck barges that will be built and delivered to Crowley this year by Gunderson Marine in Portland, Ore. The three...

House vote limits Mexican trucks, cuts Alameda Corridor funds.
August 6, 2007... The House voted late last month to limit funding for the Mexican truck pilot program sponsored by the Department of Transportation.  In a voice vote for a proposal with bipartisan sponsorship, the full House added an amendment to the...

Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, reports container growth.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Courtney Tower Container traffic increased 5 percent at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the first half of the year, as overall cargo tonnage grew 4.5 percent compared to the same period in 2006. Total tonnage...

Weber retires from CEO post at family company.
August 6, 2007... Weber Distribution said its third-generation owner Nick Weber is moving upstairs to become chairman after retiring as chief executive of the Los Angeles-based logistics and supply-chain management provider. The company reacted to Weber's...

MTC welcomes new vessel in San Diego.
August 6, 2007... International stevedore and terminal operating company Marine Terminals Corp. celebrated the maiden voyage arrival of Star Reefers' new Star Stratos into the Port of San Diego on July 12 with a commemorative plaque, presented to vessel Capt....

Ceres and Yusen Terminals promote Hall.
August 6, 2007... Daniel Hall has been promoted to senior vice president, North American operations, for Ceres and Yusen Terminals operations. Hall joined Ceres in 1992 and served as vice president of Ceres Marine Terminals' Charleston facilities. Most...

A show of faith.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall Let's start out with the irrefutable basics: Pollution is a bad thing, and companies that grossly pollute should find ways to operate in a more environmentally friendly way. A less-heard truth is this: Businesses...

Murray attends groundbreaking ceremony in Vancouver, Wash.
August 13, 2007... Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was on hand at the Port of Vancouver, Wash., earlier this month for the West Vancouver Freight Access Project groundbreaking ceremony at Terminal 1. The $56 million project will provide congestion relief on the...

Oakland hires maritime director.
August 13, 2007... The board of commissioners at the Port of Oakland, Calif., appointed James J. Kwon maritime director. He is filling a position left vacant by Wilson Lacy, who left the port earlier this year. The commission made the announcement at its regular...

NOL profit jumps in second quarter.(Financial report)
August 13, 2007... NOL last week reported a 38 percent increase in second-quarter net profit over the same quarter last year on revenue that increased 11 percent. Profit at the Singapore-based parent of APL Ltd. reached $93 million in the quarter, compared...

Bush nominates Anderson FMC chairman.
August 13, 2007... President Bush has nominated A. Paul Anderson to be chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. If confirmed, he would serve his second term on the five-member panel, through 2012. Anderson was appointed to the commission in April 2003. He...

Lukewarm cold chain chills food sales.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Alan M. Field The whole world loves Chinese food, but a recent rash of scandals about adulterated, dangerous Chinese food products has everyone wondering whether food products made in China are safe to eat. One Chinese agency...

FDA ponders food import strategy.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Susan Kohn Ross It is impossible to read a newspaper, view a news Web site or listen to a TV news report without hearing something negative about trade between the U.S. and China. While by no means limited to a discussion about...

Industry unveils clean truck alternative.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall An industry coalition has upped the ante in the debate over how best to clean the air above Southern California ports by putting together a fleet of 100 low-polluting trucks that run on liquefied natural gas. ...

Record peak not expected to jam US ports.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo North American ports are gearing up to handle record container volumes this month and again in October, but they should make it through the peak shipping season without experiencing any congestion problems,...

US manufacturing threatened by shortage of chemicals.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The downturn in the housing industry, the subprime mortgage crisis and surging energy costs may be the biggest challenges facing the U.S. economy, but a little known problem could create a manufacturing crisis...

Marad bargains for US mariners.
August 13, 2007... The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration and Woodside Natural Gas reached agreement on conditions of a deep-water port license for the transporter of natural gas. Officials from Woodside committed to Maritime...

Rail traffic decline continues.
August 13, 2007... Freight traffic on U.S. railroads, both railcars and intermodal, was down again during July, the Association of American Railroads said. In Canada, rail carloads picked up slightly. Canadian intermodal traffic showed the best performance,...

Wilh. Wilhelmsen reports profit growth.(Financial report)
August 13, 2007... Wilh. Wilhelmsen, the operator of the world's biggest car carrier fleet, reported a 15 percent increase in second-quarter profit, but admitted that it's struggling to keep pace with demand from automakers. The Norwegian said net operating...

Container volume, profit up at OOCL parent.(Financial report)
August 13, 2007... Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the Hong Kong-based parent of Orient Overseas Container Line, reported profit of US$2.22 billion for the first half of 2007, compared with $280.5 million in restated profit it earned in the first half of...

President Bush signs transportation security bill.
August 13, 2007... One week after passage in Congress, President Bush signed into law a transportation security bill that implements recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. While the law nominally requires 100 percent scanning of cargo on ships leaving...

House passes dredging bill.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson Despite a presidential veto threat, the House approved the conference report for the $21 billion Water Resources Development Act of 2007, H.R. 1495, in a 381-40 vote. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the...

NYK buys out reefer partner.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall NYK Line has acquired J. Lauritzen's 50 percent share in NYKLauritzenCool, a marketing and operating company that controls a fleet of 60 specialty refrigerated vessels. The two companies did not reveal the cost...

Japan's trade surplus jumps 60 percent.
August 13, 2007... Japan's trade surplus soared nearly 60 percent in the first half of this year from the same period in 2006 to 5.13 trillion yen ($43 billion), buoyed by strong exports, especially those of cars and steel, the Finance Ministry said. During...

Japan-Chile FTA to take effect next month.
August 13, 2007... A free-trade agreement between Japan and Chile will take effect on Sept. 3, the Japanese government announced. The announcement came after the governments of the two countries took the last procedural step of exchanging official diplomatic...

JAL cargo revenue up.
August 13, 2007...  Japan Airlines' operating revenue from international cargo services increased 1.4 percent in the April-June quarter from the same period a year ago to 44.4 billion yen ($370 million) on a consolidated basis. "Cargo demand from Japan...

U-Freight opens warehouse.
August 13, 2007... Asia-based freight services group U-Freight has opened its third full-service logistics facility in Hong Kong. It is operated by wholly owned subsidiary U-Freight Logistics. The primary function of the warehouse is to provide cross-docking...

Panama Canal reports decline in transit times.
August 13, 2007... The Panama Canal Authority said the average time it takes a vessel to pass through the waterway declined during its third fiscal quarter ending on June 30, when there was also a small decrease in the number of transits, tonnage and use of...

Tuticorin gears up cranes to boost container handling.
August 13, 2007... Normal operations at India's Tuticorin Container Terminal have been restored after PSA-Sical, the private terminal operator, agreed to gear up its three quay cranes to maximum productivity. The decision came after terminal management held a...

Trade and logistics grow in Southeast Asia.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee Port expansion projects and technological advancements are making it easier to move goods in and out of Southeast Asia, and the growing economic unity in the region continues to spur optimism on trade growth...

Doldrums hit Alaska shipping.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Alaska, often called the boom-or-bust state, is not exactly booming, nor is it busting, but it is struggling. For the Pacific Northwest and especially the Port of Tacoma, which funnels most of the container and...

Crowley leases Z-tugs for Pacific Northwest service.
August 13, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp.'s marine services subsidiary is adding two new tugboats to its fleet. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company has chartered the Valor, a 100-foot Z-drive harbor tug from BayDelta Maritime Inc., for use in the company's...

Port of Portland orders cranes.
August 13, 2007... The Port of Portland has ordered three reachstacker cranes from Finland's Kalmar with an option to buy eight more units. The new DRF450-65S5 models will give the port one of the largest fleets of Kalmar reachstackers in North America. The...

Port of Vancouver probes improper dredged material disposal.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, has halted disposal operations of dredged material at its Deltaport third container berth project after learning that contractors improperly disposed of clean dredged...

Adesta awarded Long Beach port security contract.
August 13, 2007... Adesta has received a multimillion-dollar contract by the city of Long Beach to enhance security at the Port of Long Beach. The Omaha-based company said Phase 1 of the three-phase pact will cover optimization of the existing system, and...

June numbers revive West Coast ports.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo Near-record container volumes in June brought West Coast ports back to life, ending what had been a mediocre first half of the year on a positive note. If container volumes continue to accelerate during the peak...

Matson adds crane for Maui neighbor island service.
August 13, 2007... Matson Navigation Co. has completed installation of a new $5 million mobile harbor crane for the Port of Kahului in Maui, Hawaii. The new equipment, which Matson said is the first for a Neighbor Island port, will strengthen Matson's...

FKI appoints Roach to VP post.
August 13, 2007... FKI Logistex has appointed Chris Roach to the new position of vice president of customer service, FKI Logistex North America. Reporting to Steve Ackerman, president, FKI Logistex North America, Roach assumes responsibility for all North...

Long Beach promotes Cardamone.
August 13, 2007... The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has promoted Gary J. Cardamone to the newly created position of director of construction management. The position is part of a reorganization of port administration designed to improve operational...

Marin hired in Long Beach.
August 13, 2007... The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has named Lisa Marin director of human resources for the Port of Long Beach. Marin succeeds longtime director Toni Whitesell, who retired late last year. Marin has more than 20 years of...

Greening up.
August 20, 2007... Tay Yoshitani, the Port of Seattle's executive director, says the port is "in a real dogfight in the container business."  He talked about Tacoma's recent seduction of long-time Seattle customer NYK Line, and the general competition for...

Seattle enters labor pacts for terminal projects.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Port of Seattle Commission has agreed to enter Project Labor Agreements for two construction projects in the Seattle harbor to return Terminal 30 to a container facility and to expand Terminal 91 for a cruise...

Refinery fined for oil leak on Tacoma port property.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Washington state Department of Ecology last Wednesday imposed a $10,000 fine against U.S. Oil and Refining Co. for a leaking pipeline that saturated the ground at its refinery near the Blair Waterway at the...

Imports continue slow growth at California ports.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo California's ports recorded only modest gains in containerized imports in July, indicating that this year's peak season in the trans-Pacific will be a short one. Imports at Los Angeles, the largest U.S....

Distribution center tax up for vote in Redlands.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall Voters in Redlands, Calif., a city of 53,000 at the eastern edge of the Inland Empire, will decide in November whether to impose a new tax on distribution centers. The Redlands City Council earlier this month...

What gets made here, doesn't stay here: U.S. remains the world's top manufacturer.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: William Armbruster and Stephanie Nall It's a bit of an exaggeration, but if you're in the container shipping business, it's easy to think the only U.S. exports are wastepaper, scrap metal and resins. After all, they are the top...

Profit picture improves for container lines.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall Second-quarter financial reports show improvements in the revenue and profit picture for many ocean carriers, but lingering effects of its purchase of CP Ships pulled down results at Hapag-Lloyd. A week after NOL...

A tax too far?
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Ari Natter The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis cast a very public spotlight on the debate over transportation funding, and some analysts say it should fuel support for a higher gas tax. But the White House is...

Container ship orders soar.
August 20, 2007... The frenzied ordering of mega-container ships reached new heights earlier this month with announcements of contracts for 13 vessels, each with a capacity of 12,000 TEUs or larger. The orders are worth more than $2 billion. STX, the Korean...

Arbitrator picks CN offer.
August 20, 2007... Canadian National Railway and train conductors in the United Transportation Union finally reached an end to their contract dispute, as an arbitrator imposed CN's final offer on the parties. The dispute had flared into a strike in February that...

UPS freight drivers reject union.
August 20, 2007... In a 3-to-1 margin, UPS Freight workers in Kansas City voted against an effort by an independent labor group to organize them. The vote, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, had 203 workers in Missouri and Kansas vote against...

Freight index plummets.
August 20, 2007... The freight transportation business declined significantly in June, according to figures from the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The freight Transportation Services Index, which measures month-to-month...

Security's high cost.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Ari Natter Shippers will most likely be the first ones to pay the price for a recently passed homeland security bill that requires 100 percent scanning of maritime and air-cargo containers and the possible rerouting of hazardous...

China vows not to sell off dollars.
August 20, 2007... China on Aug. 12 offered assurances that it wouldn't exercise what has been described as its "nuclear option" in its trade disputes with the United States -- dumping the world's largest hoard of U.S. Treasuries. The state news service...

Japan, Indonesia to sign free-trade agreement.
August 20, 2007... Top leaders of Japan and Indonesia plan to sign a free-trade agreement at a meeting in Jakarta on Aug. 20. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet formally endorsed the signing of the pact by Abe and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang...

UPS breaks ground on Shanghai air hub.
August 20, 2007... UPS has begun construction on a new air hub in Shanghai. "The opening of this hub will ensure we are well-positioned to support the explosive growth in Asia's regional trade," said Mike Eskew, UPS chairman and chief executive, at a formal...

New bids invited for India container terminal project.
August 20, 2007... India's southern state of Kerala issued a new tender for its proposed deep-water transshipment container terminal project at Vizhinjam, near the state's capital of Trivandrum. The move follows the state's decision to reopen the bidding...

Maersk to switch terminal use in the Port of Busan.
August 20, 2007... Maersk Line will migrate many of its services that call at the Port of Busan, South Korea, to the Pusan Newport Co. terminal, according to DP World, which operates the terminal. Ten of Maersk Line's services currently call at the Busan...

India's port volume grows.
August 20, 2007... Throughput at major ports in India registered record 15 percent growth in the April-to-July period, according to preliminary data released by the Indian Ports Association. The country's 12 major ports, six each on the west and east coasts,...

India reports bigger trade deficit.
August 20, 2007... India's trade deficit in June widened to $7.3 billion from $3.6 billion a year ago, as the country's export growth continued to slide in the face of a rising rupee. In the April-to-June period, the first quarter of the current fiscal year,...