Pacific Shipper articles from December 2007

Pacific Shipper archives from December 2007

What are they doing?
December 3, 2007... When you're a reporter, a ringing phone is a good thing. It means people are calling to tell you something, or ask something. It's better when I get information from sources to use in stories, but sometimes the questions are information in...

Steel imports up 13 percent.
December 3, 2007... Total U.S. steel imports increased 13 percent in October on a surge in semi-finished imports and because there were three more working days than in September, the American Institute for Imported Steel said last week. Imports of...

Northwest terminal group increases security fee.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Northwest Marine Terminal Associ-ation, a voluntary group of 13 deep-water ports in Oregon and Washington, will increase a security fee assessed at member port facilities by $45 per vessel per day on Jan. 1. ...

CBM appoints new magazine chief.
December 3, 2007...   Liam Power Commonwealth Business Media, parent company of Pacific Shipper, appointed Liam Power as vice president of the Magazine Group, replacing Peter Tirschwell, who will remain with the company as senior adviser. Power...

Six more TWIC ports added.
December 3, 2007... The Port of Long Beach and five other ports have been added to the list of Transportation Worker Identification Credential enrollment sites to open next month, the Transportation Security Administration announced last week. Enrollment will...

Security expert urges involvement of private stakeholders.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach The private stakeholders in the U.S. maritime transportation system have to become vested in the national port security apparatus or the government's role will become increasingly "intrusive," a national security...

Bidding for ... blueberries?
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall     To the list of items such as designer handbags, flat-screen TVs and vintage cars that can initiate an online bidding frenzy, we can now add pallets of potatoes, truckloads of tomatoes and...

Wanted: New dance partners.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo   Extended gate hours at Southern California terminals have eased congestion. Despite dire warnings of a terminal capacity crunch and unbearable congestion at container ports, marine terminal...

CMA CGM to slow speed of ships on Asia-Europe loop.
December 3, 2007... With bunker fuel costing $500 a ton, CMA CGM says it can save fuel by adding a ninth vessel to its FAL3 service between Asia and Europe and by slowing each of the vessels. Just as in cars, a lower ship speed decreases the amount of fuel burned...

Economists expect global slowdown over next six months.
December 3, 2007... Economists in a new survey predict the global economy will lose momentum in the last quarter of the year in every major region. Their forecasts for the coming six months have been significantly revised downwards, according to the latest ICC/...

DHS says Customs improperly awarded contract.
December 3, 2007... Customs and Border Protection did not comply with federal regulations when it awarded a sole-source maintenance contract worth $475 million to a Native American-owned company, according to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General....

Singapore: Paradise for trade and business.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee    For business and trade, Singapore is perhaps as close to paradise as you can come. Trade is the linchpin of the tiny nation's economy -- Singapore has free-trade agreements with 13 countries including...

Cherin fills post on Long Beach harbor board.
December 3, 2007...   Alex H. Cherin The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has appointed Alex H. Cherin, Long Beach's assistant city auditor, as the new executive officer to the board. Cherin has served as assistant city auditor since May...

Crowley restructures procurement staff.
December 3, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. announced that Matt Jackson has been promoted to vice president of procurement, replacing Mike Lucero, who will retire at the end of this year. In his new position, Jackson will remain in Jacksonville and report to Susan...

Bracing for painful fuel costs.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: John Gallagher The specter of $100-a-barrel oil is hitting the ledger desks of carriers and shippers seeking ways to budget for the high cost of fuel in 2008. Carrier executive believe that unless oil-producing countries agree...

Carriers gain pricing muscle as China Shipping joins TSA.
December 3, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement scored a major coup in mid-November with the announcement that the traditionally independent China Shipping Container Lines will join the carrier discussion group in...

Trans-Pacific carriers plan fuel charge on wastepaper.
December 3, 2007... Container lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement last week announced new plans to fully recover the cost of soaring fuel prices -- even on low-rated commodities. Effective Jan. 1, the Oakland-based group of 10 carriers...

DHL Worldwide to build North Asia hub in Shanghai.
December 3, 2007... Express carrier DHL Worldwide will build its North Asia hub in Shanghai at a cost of $175 million. The facility, to be located at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, will serve China and the North Asia region, providing customers...

CMA CGM to help develop China's Haicang port.
December 3, 2007... CMA CGM has signed a strategic cooperation agreement to invest in the development of the Port of Haicang in Xiamen, China. The pact with the municipality of Xiamen calls for the French carrier and partner New World Services Holding Ltd. of...

NYK Line signs long-term contract to transport ore to China.
December 3, 2007... Japan's largest ocean shipping carrier, NYK Line, has signed a 23-year contract with Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp. to transport iron ore for the major Chinese steelmaker. The line will carry a total of 52 million tons of iron ore produced in...

New container freight station operating at Port of Cochin.
December 3, 2007... India's Falcon Group has opened a new container freight station at the Port of Cochin. The $7.5 million facility, spread over 10 acres, provides stuffing and destuffing, customs clearance and container repairs. Strategically located...

ASEAN, Japan reach trade accord.
December 3, 2007... Japan and 10 Asian nations have agreed to eliminate import tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods traded between them. After 2 1/2 years of negotiations, ministers from Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations finalized the...

Surprise, surprise.
December 10, 2007... A short item out of British Columbia's Vancouver Port Authority late last month was impressive and surprising. No, it's not surprising that transportation workers in Canada are thinking about striking. Again. Longshore, rail and truck workers...

LA's TraPac could see more delays.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo The long-awaited expansion of the Trans Pacific Container Service Corp. terminal at the Port of Los Angeles could be further delayed following a letter from California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown seeking...

Container slump continues.
December 10, 2007... Traffic at major U.S. container ports dropped below last year's levels for the fourth month in a row in November, according to the latest Port Tracker report released last Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and consultant Global...

Report: Maersk to restructure container operations.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard The parent of Maersk Line, A.P. Moller-Maersk, is about to undertake a major restructuring of its container operations and remove several senior executives, the Financial Times reported, citing two letters to senior...

Mineta calls for changes to US maritime agencies.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, last Tuesday, called for consolidation of all U.S. government maritime agencies and functions into a single body with a dedicated funding source and a West Point-style...

CN Rail reaches union deal.
December 10, 2007... Canadian National Railway has reached a tentative five-year agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to replace a four-year contract expiring on Dec. 31. The agreement covers about 700 employees who maintain the...

West Coast ports made of steel and wind.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee     Wind power is more than just hot air to a number of West Coast ports. Windmill towers, blades and other components are coming from Asia and Europe to the U.S. through Olympia, Port Longview and...

Freight's future.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: John Gallagher Trucking's largest industry group says the business will hold onto and even slightly expand its share of domestic freight shipping over the next 12 years despite the challenges of rising costs and a shortage of...

Recording the road trip.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Ari Natter Responding to two high-profile truck accidents in her state, a California senator is joining those calling for tougher standards regarding the use of electronic onboard recording devices in trucks -- an expense that...

China agrees to end subsidies hit by WTO.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Alan M. Field   China will no longer offer tax incentives for some export items manufactured in the nation. Some critics of the World Trade Organization have accused the WTO of being hostile to U.S. interests. But...

WTO gets green trade proposal.
December 10, 2007... The U.S. and European Union have submitted a proposal as part of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations to increase global trade-in and the use of environmental goods and services. The initiative would prioritize those...

Maersk returns to profitability.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard Maersk Line, the world's largest ocean container carrier, swung to a pretax profit of $626 million in the first nine months of the year from a loss of $125 million in the 2006 period. The gain was driven by...

Workers patch up Cosco Busan.
December 10, 2007... The Cosco Busan, which sustained serious damage when it ran into San Francisco's Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, is undergoing repairs according to local reports. Workers are patching a 200-foot long gash from the accident, which also ruptured the...

Kintetsu World Express opens Shanghai warehouse.
December 10, 2007... Kintetsu World Express, Inc., Japan's second-largest international airfreight forwarder, announced that one of its subsidiaries in China, Beijing Kintetsu World Express Co., opened a new, large-scale warehouse in Shanghai's Pudong New District....

Strikes resolved in India.
December 10, 2007... Cargo congestion worsened at two ports in India, following separate strikes. Truckers at India's Chennai Container Terminal called off their four-day strike on Nov. 30 following a settlement with terminal management. Truckers were...

UPS in India alliance.
December 10, 2007... UPS Jetair Express, the Indian arm of Atlanta-based express carrier UPS, announced a strategic alliance with AFL, a domestic air express and logistics services provider, effective Jan. 1. The new alliance takes shape as AFL's existing...

Panama Canal awards second excavation contract.
December 10, 2007... The Panama Canal Authority has awarded the second major expansion excavation contract to Consorcio Cilsa Minera Maria on Nov. 27. The second of five dry excavation projects of the new Pacific locks access channel will connect the new third...

US-Korea FTA won't come easily.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee    United States and South Korean officials signed a free-trade agreement on June 30 but it's by no means a done deal. Political opposition in both countries is strong. Likewise, a proposed FTA between...

Employee driver plan working in Vancouver.
December 10, 2007... BYLINE: Courtney Tower   Officials at the Port of Vancouver instituted the truck licensing plan to stem labor unrest. When the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were thinking of licensing harbor truckers as part of a...

Vancouver workers could strike.
December 10, 2007... British Columbia may have had labor peace on the trucking front this year, but the Port Authority of Vancouver, British Columbia, warned of a possible strike this month by more than 5,000 workers protesting background checks for port ID cards....

Largest ro-ro calls at Tacoma.
December 10, 2007... The world's largest automobile carrier, Wallenius Lines' Fidelio, made its maiden voyage last Tuesday when it called at the Port of Tacoma's Terminal 7. Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics operates the multipurpose vessel. The Fidelio can...

Suspicious suitcase closes LA channel.
December 10, 2007... The main channel at the Port of Los Angeles was closed to vessel traffic for about four hours last Monday after a suspicious bag was discovered at one of its cruise terminals. The Coast Guard shut down traffic in the main channel at...

Oregon shippers coalesce to fight rail closure.
December 10, 2007... Manufacturers and other shippers in Oregon have formed a coalition to fight the September closure of the shortline Coos Bay rail line operated by the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad. New owners abruptly closed the rail line, saying...

MTC acquires Mexican intermodal hub.
December 10, 2007...   MTC is continuing its Mexican investments by acquiring an intermodal terminal in Toluca. Terminal operator MTC Holdings of San Francisco announced it has completed the acquisition of Puerta Mexico, an inland multimodal terminal...

Matson raises Hawaii rates.
December 10, 2007... Matson Navigation Co. will raise its rates for Hawaii service by $75 per westbound container and $40 per eastbound container, effective Jan. 6. The Oakland-based carrier estimated that the increase will add 2.5 percent on average to the...

Crowley repositions executives.
December 10, 2007...   Rocky Smith Crowley Maritime Corp. is moving two of its senior executives into new positions. Rocky Smith is relocating from Jacksonville, Fla., to Seattle to manage Crowley's services in the Pacific-Alaska region, and John...

APL names Hurst to new warehouse position.
December 10, 2007... APL Logistics has appointed John Hurst to the position of vice president of warehouse management services in the Americas, a new executive-level position. Hurst, an 18-year logistics veteran who had been managing director for APL Logistics in...

And now, here's the bill.
December 17, 2007... Last week, the Port of Long Beach unveiled a proposed $35-per-container fee it wants to impose on every load trucked into or out of the harbor complex. The harbor commissioners in Long Beach will vote on the fee on Dec. 17. The...

Long Beach to vote on clean-trucks fee.
December 17, 2007... The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners is set to consider adding a $35 per container fee at its Dec. 17 meeting. The fee would be used to help replace older, polluting trucks with new models. "Dirty diesel trucks are a major source of...

Peak season ends with a whimper.
December 17, 2007... The peak shipping season at West Coast ports ended with a whimper in October as imports were flat compared to the same month in 2006. In what should have been a busy month for holiday season imports from Asia, volumes were actually down a...

Fed cuts rates.
December 17, 2007... The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week by a quarter point in an effort to forestall a recession and provide a backstop for bank funding. The Federal Open Market Committee set the federal funds rate at 4.25 percent. The prime...

Diesel slides 9.1 cents.
December 17, 2007... The average price for a gallon of diesel fuel declined 9.1 cents, during the week that ended on Dec. 10, to $3.325, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The steep decline from a record high of $3.444 two weeks earlier...

Trade deficit up 1.2 percent.
December 17, 2007... Even as the weak dollar boosted exports of non-energy products in October, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $57.8 billion, up 1.2 percent from September, the Commerce Department announced last Wednesday. Total U.S. imports increased 1.0...

In today's supply chains, companies look beyond transport costs.(Company overview)
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: Paul Page    When Dayton Superior sought to straighten out a convoluted distribution system and rein in logistics spending, the construction materials shipper didn't even think about looking at transportation costs...

GOP blocks Senate energy bill, short-sea development plan.
December 17, 2007... Senate Republicans last week blocked the House-passed energy bill, as objections to the measure put provisions for short-sea development and fuel economy standards in doubt and Democrats were forced to begin rewriting. Procedural rules...

Bush hopes to eliminate port security funds.
December 17, 2007... President Bush is asking Congress to eliminate the port security grant program, a central piece of the maritime ports' anti-terror efforts, as part of a plan to dramatically cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The plan,...

A call to arms.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: David Beiderman A critical shortage of skilled and unskilled workers has spurred the breakbulk-project cargo industry to action. Shippers, carriers and third-party logistics providers are banding together to develop and expand...

World economy slowing.
December 17, 2007... Economists, in a new survey, predict the global economy will lose momentum in the last quarter of the year in every major region. Their forecasts for the coming six months have been significantly revised downward, according to the latest ICC/...

China Shipping IPO raises $2.1 billion.
December 17, 2007... China Shipping Container Lines raised 15.5 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) from its initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which was priced at the top of an expected range. The share offer was heavily oversubscribed, attracting...

Hamburg Sud buys Costa Container Lines.
December 17, 2007... Hamburg Sud has purchased Costa Container Lines, which is the smaller partner of GF Group, the company announced. The deal, effective Dec. 1, also includes the operations of Calmedia Agenzia. Costa Container Lines generated more than $640...

Corpus Christi's warehouse keeps budget cool.
December 17, 2007... Despite its continued money drain on the Port of Corpus Christi's budget, a cold-storage warehouse on the South Texas docks will continue operations for the next several years, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. Since it opened in...

British Airways to expand Heathrow perishables.
December 17, 2007... British Airways World Cargo plans to add 2,325 square feet to its perishable handling center at London Heathrow Airport. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of February, at a cost of $1.7 million. The expanded facility will...

Melons arrive at Tampa.
December 17, 2007... The tropical melon season began at the Port of Tampa when the Sierra Lara brought a shipment of cantaloupes and honeydew melons imported by Altobaso USA from Guatemala. They were part of a weekly service operated by Norwegian-based Green...

Refrigerated Holdings acquires New Jersey 3PL.
December 17, 2007... Private equity firm Fenway Partners has acquired a majority interest in East Coast Warehouse & Distribution Corp. through Refrigerated Holdings, its platform for investments in the temperature-controlled logistics sector. No financial...

US, China form safety pact.
December 17, 2007... The U.S. and China signed agreements last Tuesday to improve the safety of products exported to the U.S. Under the agreements, Chinese exporters will register with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and...

Christmas clouds November stats give hope, but rail industry not feeling festive.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: John Boyd It will take more than winter snows to bring railroads a buoyant white Christmas this year. Instead, rail executives, along with their retail and factory customers, are watching to see if consumers will spend freely or if...

MOL cuts more capacity to US East Coast.
December 17, 2007... Japanese carrier MOL last week announced additional winter capacity plans for the trade between Asia and the U.S. East Coast via the Panama Canal. In late November, MOL announced that it would be withdrawing more capacity to the U.S. West...

Boxes up 25 percent at Nehru.
December 17, 2007... The Port of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's largest container hub, handled a record 2.6 million TEUs in the April-November period, up 26 percent from nearly 2.1 million TEUs in the year-ago period. The state-run terminal handled 819,418 TEUs,...

Lines protest Tuticorin box rule.
December 17, 2007... Carriers in the Container Shipping Lines' Association of India are protesting a directive by Customs at India's Port of Tuticorin, which allows lines to move import boxes to off-dock facilities only after 15 days. In a letter to government...

India lines fix Chennai fee.
December 17, 2007... Member lines of the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Ceylon Conferences have implemented a congestion surcharge of $100 per TEU for cargo moving through India's Port of Chennai. The move came after feeder operators serving Chennai levied a...

MOL names giant ore vessel.
December 17, 2007... Japan's MOL last week named one of the world's largest iron ore carriers, the 327,180-ton Brasil Maru, at the Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.'s Chiba Works. The ship will carry Brazilian iron ore to Japan under a long-term contract...

Shipping prices edge up in trade with Taiwan.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee     Shippers sending goods to or from Taiwan -- or anywhere in the Far East, for that matter -- can expect higher freight costs as carriers attempt to recover increases in their own operating...

Expansion logjam broken.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo   The CARB regulations could put California ports at a commercial disadvantage compared to ports in other states. California port interests are heartened by a series of developments in early December...

Storms sock Pacific Northwest freight.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: John D. Boyd It took major railroads several days to get tracks restored to service after a powerful rainstorm socked Washing-ton state and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The affected region included significant port...

Port of Longview, Wash., to buy mobile crane.
December 17, 2007... The Port of Longview, Wash., will boost its ability to handle heavy-lift and project cargoes with the purchase of a new mobile harbor crane. The Columbia River port's board of commissioners approved the $4.3 million purchase earlier this month....

Crowley to pay for TWIC cards.
December 17, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. announced it will reimburse its permanent and regular employees for the initial cost of acquiring Transportation Worker Identification Credential cards. Crowley said this applies to its merchant mariners and shoreside...

State commission accuses Cosco Busan pilot of negligence.
December 17, 2007...   The Cosco Busan spilled 58,000 gallonsof bunker fuel into the bay, creating a health hazard. Lawsuits by fishermen and others are piling up against the owners of the Cosco Busan, following the Nov. 7 accident in which the...

Portland project wish-list tops $540 million.
December 17, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Port of Portland, Ore., has identified a host of transportation improvement projects that it hopes to find funding for over the next 20 years. A draft of the port's 2008 Transpor-tation Improvement Plan was...

Pacific Transportation Association installs new officers.
December 17, 2007... At the Dec. 5th meeting of the Pacific Transportation Association in San Francisco, new members of the board of directors were installed for 2008. The meeting also marked the annual Past Presidents Lunch. The club has held a luncheon honoring...

In peace and war.
December 24, 2007... Many people assume that because the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point was founded in 1942, it was a wartime idea. Not so. The academy was conceived years before World War II.  In the wake of the 1934 Morro Castle...

Pacific Northwest ports poised to adopt clean-air strategy.
December 24, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The ports of Seattle and Tacoma are ready to approve a final draft of the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy in January, which creates a joint, voluntary approach to reduce port-related air emissions, ...

DHS's Chertoff notes progress made in '07.
December 24, 2007... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department has made "tremendous progress" despite its "share of errors" as it continued to launch anti-terror initiatives in 2007. While the agency has been criticized for moving too...