Pacific Shipper articles from February 2007

Pacific Shipper archives from February 2007

Growing Green.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall The corniest, most overused catch phrase in the world of development used to be, "Build it, and they will come." I think we''ve found our 2007 replacement: "Clean it, and you can grow." For anyone who doubted whether...

Cn Workers Get Contract.
February 1, 2007... Canadian National Railway said 4,000 employees represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union have ratified new four-year labor agreements. A CN statement said the pacts, retroactive to Jan. 1, provide for annual 3 percent wage increases...

Long Beach to Develop New Container Terminal.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall In mid-January, Richard Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, told an industry gathering that with an environmental action plan in place, the port was ready to once again develop and expand. ...

Canadian Truckers Protest New Us Border Fees.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Courtney Tower The Ottawa-based Canadian Trucking Alliance last week criticized higher U.S. border fees and a new charge on truckers serving U.S. ports. The CTA is the national federation of provincial trucking associations...

Lawmakers Restore Highway Funding.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Earle Eldridge In late-night negotiations on Jan. 29, House and Senate appropriators agreed to fully fund 2007 highway and transit money called for in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU law (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient...

House Bill Would Reform Us Trade Laws, English Says.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Alan Field U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., last week unveiled the Trade Law Reform Act of 2007, comprehensive legislation to reform and strengthen key U.S. trade remedy laws. English has introduced similar legislation during...

China''s Inland Transport Network Struggles to Keep Up with Manufacturing Volumes. Coastal Ports Growing Quickly.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee As manufacturing activity in China migrates inland from the eastern seaboard, the time it takes to move cargo to and from factories is increasing, the supply chain is becoming increasingly complex, and...

Ports Try to Pry Open Hmt Treasure Chest.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By R.G. Edmonson No one disputes that harbors and channels need dredging to keep U.S. commerce flowing, but port officials have been frustrated by a lack of money to keep up with the need. The Army Corps of Engineers budget for...

Shippers Fight Full Screening.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Paul Page Shippers are joining the battle over full screening of air-cargo shipments. In a series of letters to Congress, several groups representing industrial shippers from flower importers to technology manufacturers said a...

Apl Container Revenue Down.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach Neptune Orient Lines saw its average revenue per container drop 10 percent from year-earlier levels in the most recent four-week reporting period, even as its container volume climbed 12 percent. The...

Box Ship Charter Rates Up.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Bruce Barnard Charter rates for container ships are inching upward amid growing confidence among ocean carriers that cargo volumes will remain buoyant on key long-haul routes and likely will rise sharply on second-tier trades in...

Suez Box Traffic Up.
February 1, 2007... Total containerized cargo moving through the Suez Canal in December increased by more than 15 percent from the same month a year earlier, and by 12 percent for all of 2006, according to statistics compiled by the Suez Canal Authority. ...

''Magic Pipe'' Ends with $1 Million Pollution Fine.
February 1, 2007... Vessel operator Pacific-Gulf Marine was ordered to pay $1.5 million in fines for deliberate acts of pollution involving four car carriers. U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson sentenced the company to pay a $1 million criminal fine and...

Dubai Plans Business Hubs.
February 1, 2007... Dubai World, the state-owned holding company, announced plans to invest nearly $790 million in setting up industrial parks in various parts of the world, including India. Last month, the company launched a separate division, Economic Zones...

Maersk, H"egh Autoliners to Merge Ro-Ro Operations.
February 1, 2007... H"egh Autoliners and A.P. Moller-Maersk, through its subsidiary Maersk Shipping Singapore, announced a cooperation agreement for operations of their car carrier fleets. On Feb. 1, the carriers began commercially operating the combined fleet of...

Logistics Schools Face Student Enrollment Shortage.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By William B. Cassidy Bill DeWitt''s problem isn''t getting students to pay attention in class -- it''s getting them into his classroom. It''s a logistics problem of sorts, which is fitting, as DeWitt runs the logistics,...

Nol Urges Vietnam to Speed Transportation Upgrades.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach Vietnam must accelerate the development of its transportation infrastructure and logistics systems if it is to realize its potential as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, according to a report by...

Dhl Launches Domestic Service in 17 Chinese Cities.
February 1, 2007... DHL has launched a domestic airfreight network in China. The company, a unit of Germany''s Deutsche Post World Net, said its DHL Global Forwarding unit was granted a China Air Transport Association domestic airfreight license allowing it to...

Europe-Asia Ocean Carriers Set Eastbound Rate Hikes.
February 1, 2007... The member lines of the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Ceylon Conferences have announced a rate increase in the eastbound trade as part of their business plan for 2007. Effective April 1 through June 30, trade from the United Kingdom, North...

''K'' Line Plans Agency in Vietnam.
February 1, 2007... Japan''s "K" Line has unveiled plans to establish its own shipping agency in Vietnam as a joint venture with a local domestic partner. The carrier said it has received approval from the Vietnam government to establish the agency in which...

Nehru Port Sets Rail Plan to Ease Container Congestion.
February 1, 2007... India''s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru plans to consolidate outgoing container trains to enhance productivity and ease congestion at the country''s main box gateway. The initiative, to begin on Feb. 15, will have state-run Container Corp. of...

Kandla Box Facility to Open This Week.
February 1, 2007... The private container terminal at India''s western port of Kandla, being developed by Mumbai-based ABG Heavy Industries Ltd. jointly with Voltri Terminals of Genoa, will commence full-fledged operations this week. Port officials said while...

Up Drops Request for Mexican Train Inspections.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By John D. Boyd In the face of fast-growing opposition, Union Pacific Railroad has dropped its request to have U.S. regulators allow an intermodal train from Mexico to bypass normal U.S. safety inspections after it enters U.S....

Union Pacific Profit Rises Despite Flat Intermodal.
February 1, 2007... Intermodal revenue climbed just 4 percent in the fourth quarter for Union Pacific Corp., operator of the largest U.S. railroad, but profits increased 64 percent, led by gains in shipments of coal and agricultural products. The Omaha-based...

Stb Rules Against Railroads in Fuel Surcharge Case.
February 1, 2007... In a significant victory for rail shippers, the federal Surface Transportation Board ruled that railroads must change the way they assess fuel surcharges. The STB plans to impose new reporting requirements on the largest carriers about their...

Truck Tonnage Rebounds.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Thomas L. Gallagher A late surge in truck tonnage in December recovered much of the ground lost in November to last year''s flat peak season, said the American Trucking Associations in a monthly report. But comparisons with 2005...

Houston''s New Container Terminal Is Ready to Open.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Janet Nodar After months of delay, the first phase of Houston''s new Bayport Container Terminal is scheduled to open on Feb. 8. The new terminal''s 360,000-TEU capacity and 60 acres will immediately ease congestion at crowded...

Tideworks Installs New Gate Operating System at Portland.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto Seattle''s Tideworks Technology, a provider of terminal management and planning products, has deployed its electronic gate operating system, GateVision, at the Port of Portland''s Terminal 6 container facility....

Shippers, Port Officials Hit Washington Box Fee Proposal.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto Shippers and port officials trekked to Washington''s state capital in Olympia late last month to oppose a proposed container tax designed to fund state freight mobility projects. Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen,...

Crowley Beefs Up Its Bay Area Tugboat Business.
February 1, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. has doubled the size of its tug fleet in the San Francisco Bay Area with its recent purchase of SeaRiver Maritime in Northern California. "The acquisition of SeaRiver''s ship assist and escort business in the Bay...

ProLogis Adds 1 Million Square Feet of Distribution Space Near Denver.
February 1, 2007... Commercial real estate developer ProLogis is developing nearly 1 million square feet of distribution space in the Denver suburb of Aurora for customers serving the Rocky Mountain states. The new development includes 625,000 square feet to...

Everett Elects Officers.
February 1, 2007... During its first meeting in Jan-uary, the Everett Port Commission selected the following officers for 2007: Don Hopkins, president; Connie Niva, vice president; and Phil Bannan, secretary. Hopkins was first elected to the Everett Port...

Intermarine''s Kavanagh Dies.
February 1, 2007... Roger Kavanagh, founder, president and chief executive of Intermarine, died at his home in New Orleans after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 54. Mr. Kavanagh was diagnosed last year with cancer while moving the project cargo line''s...

Horizon Lines Testing Rfid, Real-Time Temperature Monitoring.
February 1, 2007... none

Hyundai Buys New Reefers.
February 1, 2007... none

P&O Ports Florida Signs Deal with Green Reefers.
February 1, 2007... none

Usda Adds Perishables Hotline.
February 1, 2007... none

Real One China''s Inland Transport Network Struggles to Keep Up with Manufacturing Volumes. Coastal Ports Growing Quickly.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee As manufacturing activity in China migrates inland from the eastern seaboard, the time it takes to move cargo to and from factories is increasing, the supply chain is becoming increasingly complex, and...

Real Real 2.
February 1, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee China''s Inland Transport Network Struggles to Keep Up with Manufacturing Volumes. Coastal Ports Growing Quickly. As manufacturing activity in China migrates inland from the eastern seaboard, the time it takes...

Taxed Again.
February 8, 2007... The intent is laudable. Freight mobility, and how to enhance it, has been a major discussion point in the region for years. Nearly $3 billion is needed statewide for freight road and rail transportation projects, but only a fraction of that is...

Stakeholders React to White House Budget.
February 8, 2007... The White House plan for transportation spending in fiscal 2008 gained mixed reaction from various lobbying groups -- winning praise from some and criticism from others. Port industry executives said Bush''s budget proposal falls short of...

Bush Offers $67 Billion for Transport Programs.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By William Cassidy President Bush, in his sweeping plan for the federal budget sent to Congress last week, offered a $67 billion spending plan for fiscal 2008 for the Department of Transportation, slightly larger than what the...

Tacoma Sees Big Growth after 2007.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto Officials at the Port of Tacoma are forecasting a moderate rise in container volume this year, on the order of about 5 percent to 2.2 million TEUs. But things will take off after that with a total TEU...

PierPass Survey Finds Truckers Earning More.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Harbor truck drivers in Southern California reported that they are making more round trips per day and their earnings are higher since the PierPass extended-gate-hours program was initiated in the ports of Los...

Connecting the Parts.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Paul T. Rosynsky On paper, it''s a dream come true for a shipping industry that relies on California''s infrastructure to deliver its goods: a comprehensive plan that calls for a unified approach to improving every...

Alameda Corridor East on Rail Planning Board.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo When the Alameda Corridor opened in 2002, the 22-mile expressway for trains solved the most pressing rail problem in Southern California -- speeding the movement of intermodal rail traffic from the busy ports of...

Maersk Line Cuts Inland Service.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo For decades, importers and exporters have booked container shipments without worrying much about what it costs to get the box to and from their plants or distribution centers. The round-trip cost was the ocean...

Budget Office Says Scan-All Will Cost $160 Million.
February 8, 2007... Implementing the "scan-all" provisions of a House container security bill will require an additional $160 million over the next four years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO issued a report estimating the costs of...

Kalmar Acquires Us Crane Repair Company.
February 8, 2007... Kalmar Industries has agreed to buy Port Equipment Service Inc. a Portsmouth, Va.-based company that maintains and repairs the kind of cranes and container-handling equipment that the Finnish group manufactures. Kalmar said it is acquiring...

Matson Reports 26 Percent Hike in Fourth-Quarter Profit.(Financial report)
February 8, 2007... Matson Navigation Co. posted operating profit that increased 26 percent in the fourth quarter on revenue up 7 percent. For the full year 2006, however, operating profit from ocean transportation fell 18 percent. Fourth-quarter operating...

Hanjin Profits Fall.
February 8, 2007... Hanjin Shipping said its net profit declined 4.6 percent in 2006, even as revenue rose 8.7 percent in dollar terms. The South Korean carrier said it earned 460.4 billion won ($491.7 million), compared with $515.6 million in 2005. Revenue...

Nol Sells Warehouse Business.
February 8, 2007... Neptune Orient Lines said it has entered into an agreement to sell its stake in another warehousing company, Trident Districentre Pte., to CWT Ltd. for S$10.5 million ($6.8 million). The company has a 75 percent stake in Trident, whose...

Carriers Need ''adequate Rates,'' Hapag-Lloyd''s Mack Says The President Of.
February 8, 2007... Hapag-Lloyd Americas said earlier this month that profits for ship lines depend on more self-discipline by carriers and more cooperation among transportation partners to reduce costs. Rudy Mack, the German carrier''s top executive for the...

Piers Economist Sees Economic Rebound.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Michael Andrews The U.S. economy rebounded at the end of 2006 on the back of unseasonably warm weather and lower oil prices. The advance report on fourth-quarter GDP showed surprisingly strong economic activity and reassuring...

Food Shippers Get Direct Route to European Markets.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Maersk Line''s decision to re-establish service from the U.S. West Coast to North Europe is good news for most shippers -- especially those shipping perishables -- in a trade lane that exporters and importers...

Cold Storage Stocks Increase.
February 8, 2007... Frozen food stocks in refrigerated warehouses on Dec. 31 were greater than year-earlier levels for butter, beef, cheese and pork, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The level of apples in cold storage on Dec....

Us Infrastructure in Critical Shape.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Earle Eldridge With a transportation crisis looming in the U.S., it''s time to get serious about dedicated user fees, according to Peter Ruane, president and chief executive of the American Road & Transportation Builders...

FedEx Launches Long-Haul Ltl.
February 8, 2007... FedEx Freight on Feb. 5 officially launched its long-haul less-than-truckload services in the United States and Canada. The two new services, FedEx National LTL and FedEx Freight Canada, emerged from the acquisition of the business assets...

Davidson Retires from Post at Union Pacific.
February 8, 2007... Dick Davidson stepped down as chairman of Union Pacific at the end of January, ending a career that took him from a teenage brakeman in Kansas to the Omaha, Neb., boardroom to head the nation''s largest rail company by revenue. James Young, who...

Us Air Cargo Declined in December.
February 8, 2007... Combined domestic and international air-cargo tonnage on U.S. airlines declined in December. Airlines handled 2.2 billion revenue ton-miles of cargo in December, down 2.3 percent from the same month in 2005, according to figures from the...

Kcs Profit Grows.(Financial report)
February 8, 2007... Record revenue in the fourth quarter closed out a good year for Kansas City Southern Railway. Profit was up on solid pricing and a 3.5 percent increase in volume. KCS added volume and revenue with its purchase of a controlling interest in...

Railyard Workers to Report Close Calls.
February 8, 2007... Under a rail safety pilot project, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Boardman said rail workers at Union Pacific''s North Platte, Neb., railyard -- the nation''s largest -- can now anonymously report near-misses "without fear of sanction or...

Railroads, Union at Impasse.
February 8, 2007... Negotiators for the nation''s largest railroads said their two-year contract negotiations with the United Transportation Union, which represents conductors and some other rail workers, "have reached an impasse," but stopped short of pushing for...

Panama Canal to Hike Container Tolls 12 Percent.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach The Panama Canal Authority will raise tolls on container ships by $9 per TEU in 2008 and another $9 per TEU in 2009 under a set of proposals for restructuring pricing and fees that was approved by its board of...

Kolkata Volume Up.
February 8, 2007... Traffic at the Kolkata Dock System, at India''s eastern Port of Kolkata, increased 15 percent to 9.6 million tons in the April-January 2006 period, from 8.1 million tons in the same period in 2005. Officials said that based on current...

Psa Lands Vietnam Port Contract.
February 8, 2007... Singapore''s PSA International said it has been awarded a contract to build a container port project in Vietnam''s southern Vung Tau province. The terminal operator gave no figures for the size of the investment, but the Sunday Times of...

India Trade Deficit Soars.
February 8, 2007... India''s trade deficit soared to $5.7 billion in December, up from $2.7 billion in the same month of 2005, as the pace of export growth slackened. The deficit stood at $6.2 billion in November, $6.2 billion in October and $5.3 billion in...

FedEx Completes India Purchase.
February 8, 2007... FedEx Corp. has completed the previously announced acquisition of its Indian express provider, Prakash Air Freight Pvt. Ltd., for $30 million in cash. Mumbai--based Prakash is one of the largest domestic express companies, with more than...

India Agrees to Establish Committee for Port Wage Talks.
February 8, 2007... The government of India has agreed to form a bipartite wage negotiations committee for port and dock workers, a long-standing demand of labor unions. The move comes after the All India Port & Dock Workers'' Federation, which...

Banding Together.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo and Peter Leach Shipping lines that belong to the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement are hoping that its new management structure, coupled with CMA CGM''s decision to rejoin, will reinvigorate an organization...

Port of Vancouver, WASH., to Buy Former Smelter Site.
February 8, 2007... The Port of Vancouver, Wash., has signed letters of intent with Alcoa Inc. and Evergreen Aluminum LLC to purchase a former aluminum smelter and aluminum fabrication facility property at the port for $48.2 million. The move "will bring...

Seattle Container Volume Falls.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto Container volume through the Port of Seattle dipped below the 2 million-TEU threshold in 2006 but still posted its second-highest total in nearly a decade. After handling record-shattering traffic in 2005 that...

West Coast Container Traffic Grew 8 Percent in 2006.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo West Coast ports handled 15.4 million TEUs in 2006, an increase of 8 percent, on surging U.S.-Asia trade that shows no signs of slowing. The Pacific Maritime Association earlier this month published its...

Cleanup to Pave Way for Development in Yakima.
February 8, 2007... Cleanup at the site of a former fertilizer plant along railroad tracks in South Yakima will allow for redevelopment of lands contaminated by heavy metals, Washington state''s Department of Ecology said this month. Excavation of tainted...

In the Netherlands, Trade Pushes Port to Capacity.
February 8, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee With business-friendly policies and one of the world''s busiest ports, the Netherlands remains a trade powerhouse. But like vibrant economies elsewhere, it faces port capacity problems and security challenges. ...

Northwest Terminals Group Elects Officers.
February 8, 2007... The Northwest Marine Terminals Association elected John Hachey president of the organization for 2007 at its annual meeting in Vancouver, Wash., late last month. Hachey is from the Port of Anacortes. Other officers elected are: * Jim...

Plisky Named President of Hueneme Board.
February 8, 2007... The Board of Commissioners of the Oxnard Harbor District, the governing authority of the Port of Hueneme, met on Jan. 8 and elected officers. Michael A. Plisky was named president; Jess Herrera, vice president; and Nao Takasugi, secretary. ...

Everett Hires Heller As Chief Administrative Officer.
February 8, 2007... The Port of Everett, Wash., has selected Jerry Heller for the new position of chief administrative officer. Heller is currently the executive director of the Port of Skagit County. Heller will make the transition to the port in April. Patsy...

Twic Tock.
February 16, 2007... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall Ten ports around the country face a strict March 26 deadline to redraw their most restricted areas; put in place new fences, new camera monitoring systems and new checkpoints; and install new signs. Only workers...

Twic Tock -- Clock Ticking for Ports.
February 16, 2007... BYLINE: By Rick Eyerdam Potentially costly deadlines loom for ports and terminals that plan to redraw restricted areas to reduce the number of employees and visitors who would require the new Transportation Worker Identification...

Vancouver Box Pileup Continues.
February 16, 2007... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall Officials at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, say only a small dent has been made in a backlog of containers that began stacking up at port terminals in November, with 5,200 containers remaining on the...

Mtc Buys Stake in Chilean Logistics Firm.
February 16, 2007... Oakland-based Marine Terminals Corp. has acquired a stake in Transtainer S.A., a Chilean logistics services provider based in San Antonio port, and its subsidiary, Seaport S.A. Transtainer operates a fleet of trucks specialized in container...

Trade Gap Hits Record.
February 16, 2007... The U.S. deficit in December reached a record $61.2 billion, up 5.3 percent from the $57.1 billion deficit in November, the Commerce Department reported last week. Petroleum, China trade and automotive products accounted for about 85...

Alliances to Resume South Atlantic All-Water Service.
February 16, 2007... The Grand Alliance and the New World Alliance plan to resume operation of their joint EC3 all-water service from Asia to South Atlantic ports in April. The joint service was suspended without announcement in January because of vessel...