Pacific Shipper articles from July 2006

Pacific Shipper archives from July 2006

Securing the Insecure.
July 6, 2006... It seems a paradox to combine energy and security in the same thought, because most of the world's oil reserves are located in some of the world's most insecure regions. Energy security is a popular buzzword as every nation copes with how to...

Smokestack Demolition Makes Way for Tacoma Terminal Development.
July 6, 2006... To make room for future terminal development, the Port of Tacoma last week demolished a 500-foot smokestack located on the former Kaiser Aluminum smelting plant property that the port acquired several years ago. The smokestack, long a...

Canada's Port of Vancouver Extends Operating Hours.
July 6, 2006... The Vancouver Port Authority and its terminal operators last week extended hours of operation at container terminals and off-dock facilities at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia. The port's three container terminals and five independent...

Hamburg Sud, Fesco Finalize Sale and Purchase Deal.
July 6, 2006... Hamburg Sud and Fesco Ocean Management, a subsidiary of Far Eastern Shipping Co. PLC, on July 3 finalized the sale and purchase agreement that both companies had entered in March. As a result, Hamburg Sud has acquired three liner services...

United Business Media Acquires Commonwealth Business Media.
July 6, 2006... United Business Media, the London publishing company, last week announced it has acquired Commonwealth Business Media, publisher of The Journal of Commerce and Pacific Shipper, for $152 million in cash. In a statement, UBM said it is...

Hanjin Shipping to Deploy World's Fastest Container Ship.
July 6, 2006... Hanjin Shipping said it will deploy the Hanjin Bremerhaven, the world's fastest container ship, in the Asia-Europe trade. The 6,655-TEU Hanjin Bremer-haven was christened on July 5 at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan in southeastern Korea....

Fuel the Hungry Dragon.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto China's need for energy is projected to increase 150 percent by 2020. It requires increasing amounts of oil to sustain its huge industrial growth rate. Its oil consumption is growing by 7.5 percent a year,...

S&P Report: Demand for Fossil Fuel Will Continue to Grow.
July 6, 2006... Despite a prolonged period of elevated prices, with no end in sight, there's no reason to expect any slowdown in oil demand, according to a report published late last month by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. "As the world becomes more...

Congressman Eyes Hazardous Materials Licensing Maze.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Angela Greiling Keane A potential major change in trucking's hazardous materials rules all started with a phone call. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., had no idea about the costs or requirements of truck driver hazardous materials...

Coast Guard Authorization Bill Moves to White House.
July 6, 2006... Congress has approved $8.7 billion for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2006, and sent the agency's authorizing legislation to the White House to be signed by President Bush. The House of Representatives late last month passed the Coast Guard...

Juice Train Squeezes Backhaul from Reefer Rail Capacity.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: John Gallagher Tropicana may be synonymous with orange juice, but offering premium freight space is fast becoming another way the company is making money and cutting costs for shippers and its rail partners. The company, part...

Unexpected Volume Has Carriers Aggressively Seeking Surcharges.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo The search is on. Trans-Pacific ocean carriers that slashed their rates this spring by several hundred dollars per container in anticipation of overcapacity are seeking to recoup some of that lost revenue by...

Us Aids Master Plan for Mexican Intermodal.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Gordon Feller The United States is aiding Mexico's plan to develop an intermodal corridor to move shipments from its ports to U.S. markets. Following a request by Mexico for support, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency on May 27...

Pacer Receives Award from J.C. Penney.
July 6, 2006... Freight transportation and logistics provider Pacer International was honored recently by J.C. Penney Co. as "Supply Chain Provider of the Year" -- the retailer's top corporate award for a third-party logistics supplier. In presenting the...

Waterways Council 'pleased' with Corps Funding.
July 6, 2006... Waterways Council Inc. said it was pleased with Senate appropriations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lobby group for inland operators said the $5.14 billion budgeted for the corps includes $394 million for what it termed...

Wto Chief Challenges Ministers to Make Deal.
July 6, 2006... World Trade Organi-zation chief Pascal Lamy said late last month that a breakthrough must come in farm and industrial goods or the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks could fail. Ministers from some 50 countries -- about one-third of the...

Tsakos Energy in Pact with Neste Oil.
July 6, 2006... Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. of Athens has entered a strategic cooperation agreement with Neste Oil of Finland, an independent oil refining and marketing company actively engaged in ice-class trades. The collaboration includes two-year...

Steel Imports Cooled in May.
July 6, 2006... Growth of U.S. steel imports flattened in May, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Commerce. Imports totaled 3.8 million tons, up 1.6 percent from 3.7 million tons in April, and up 43.7 percent from May 2005. ...

Costamare Orders Post-Panamax Ships.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard Costamare, the Greek ship-owner, ordered four 8,250-TEU container ships from Hudong Shipbuilding, the first contract placed in China by a foreign company for the latest generation of post-Panamax vessels. The...

Pacer Listed on Nasdaq 'Global Select'.
July 6, 2006... Concord, Calif., logistics and transportation provider Pacer Inter-national announced that its stock was listed on the new Nasdaq Global Select Market, effective July 3. Nasdaq had previously an-nounced that, beginning July 3, companies...

Ckyh Adds Charleston, Norfolk to New Service.
July 6, 2006... The CKYH alliance is adding calls at Charleston and Norfolk but dropping Houston from the rotation in its new AWE-5 all-water service between Asia and the U.S. East Coast. When the alliance of Cosco, "K" Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping...

New Group to Set Anti-Terror Standards.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson An organization devoted to setting standards for container security devices was announced in Brussels late last month. Some of the biggest names in container security technology -- General Electric, Siemens, JP...

Rfid Plagued by Fraud, Security Problems.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: William Hoffman Shippers wary of implementing radio-frequency identification systems aren't likely to jump into the fray any time soon, following reports illustrating the technology's security problems. Several problems that...

Panama Canal Argues it's Still Competitive.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach With the Panama Canal having just imposed the second of three scheduled toll increases and planning to raise rates further to cover a proposed $5.25 billion expansion, some analysts say the Suez Canal is emerging as...

Asian Shippers Hit Security, Terminal-Handling Charges.
July 6, 2006... Asian shippers councils have protested a variety of additional charges for security and terminal handling. "Container terminal operators should stick to traditional business practices of negotiating handling charges with their clients,...

Hanjin Forms Joint Venture in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
July 6, 2006... Hanjin Shipping is setting up a joint-venture company with Navigation Maritime Colombo (PVT) Ltd., its long-time agency in Sri Lanka, to expand direct sales in the Bay of Bengal region. The Korean carrier plans to invest $250,000 to take a...

Un: China's Boom Hurts Asian Neighbors.
July 6, 2006... Asia's poorest countries are unable to benefit from expanding global trade opportunities because of competition from China, according to a report released recently by the United Nations Development Program. The Asia-Pacific Human...

Undaunted Indonesia.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Richard Knee Devastating as the May 27 earthquake in Indonesia was, it apparently had little or no ill effect on the country's trade. Shipping industry executives based in the U.S. told Pacific Shipper they had seen no volume...

'Yakking' Gives Way to Action Plan for San Pedro Ports.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall It's an ambitious goal: Cut polluting emissions created by Southern California's international trade and transportation system in half in less than five years. A proposal unveiled late last month in Los Angeles...

Slower Ships, Cleaner Trucks, 'greener' Air.
July 6, 2006... The joint "Clean Air Action Plan" includes a long list of requirements for marine terminals, ocean carriers, railroads and trucks. Terminal operations: Beginning in 2007, all new cargo-handling equipment must be the cleanest available...

Report Says Truckers Warming Up to PierPass.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo When marine terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach launched the PierPass a year ago, their greatest concern was that harbor truck drivers would not change their schedules to support the night and weekend gate...

Port of Vancouver, WASH., Acts on Proposed Ethanol Plant.
July 6, 2006... At a June 28 special board meeting, the Port of Vancouver, Wash., commissioners approved an option to lease a 4.8-acre site to Great Western Malting for the potential development of what eventually could turn out to be the largest ethanol...

Coast Guard Considers Lng Ships in Coos Bay.
July 6, 2006... Coast Guard Sector Portland, Ore., will assess safety and security issues associated with liquefied natural gas tankers traveling Coos Bay. The Coast Guard will then advise the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding Jordan Cove's...

Industry Fears Twic Could Mean Driver Shortfall.
July 6, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo Marine terminal operators, harbor trucking companies and labor unions are preparing for the launch of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program with a doomsday vision. They foresee lengthy delays...

China's Global Quest for Oil.
July 6, 2006... China's expectation of growing future dependence on oil imports has driven it to acquire interests in exploration and production in places such as Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Sudan, West Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Canada. However,...

Long Beach Elects Hankla President.
July 6, 2006... The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners elected Commissioner James C. Hankla, a former Long Beach city manager, as the board's president for a one-year term. The commissioners also voted Mario Cordero as the vice president of the...

U.S. Lines Appoints Coom, Pascoe.
July 6, 2006... U.S. Lines Ltd. has added Noel Coom and John Pascoe to its senior management team. Both executives have extensive experience in the Australia-New Zealand trade and will be instrumental in the successful launch of the carrier's new Australia New...

Panalpina Picks New Chief Executive.
July 6, 2006... Panalpina announced that its board has chosen its chief financial officer, Monika Ribar, to be its new chief executive. Ribar succeeds Bruno Sidler, who resigned in January after misconduct by an employee cost the Swiss-based logistics...

NewChina's Global Quest for Oil.
July 6, 2006... China's expectation of growing future dependence on oil imports has driven it to acquire interests in exploration and production in places such as Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Sudan, West Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Canada. However,...

The Green Connection.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall As colors go, none has probably ever had as much political significance as green holds now. Green is the color of money; it's also the color adopted by the environmental movement. The link between money and the...

Fuel Leak Prompts Coast Guard to Order Tanker Out of Los Angeles.
July 13, 2006... The Probo Elk, an ore-bulk-oil carrier, was directed to an anchorage outside of the Port of Los Angeles last week after the Coast Guard, along with the Los Angeles Port Police and Los Angeles City Fire Department, responded to a report of an...

Short-Sea Advocates Getting Weary.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson Short-sea shipping is still an untested idea in the marketplace, and members of the Ship Operations Cooperative Program found that some of the would-be industry's most dedicated advocates are growing impatient. ...

Shanghai Throughput Up 18 Percent in First Half of 2006.
July 13, 2006... With the addition of boxes handled at Shanghai's new deep-water port at Yangshan, the eastern Chinese port city's cumulative container throughput from January to June rose to a record high of 10.1 million TEUs, up 17.8 percent over 2005, Xinhua...

Cosco Adds Nansha to Service Itinerary.
July 13, 2006... Cosco Container Lines is altering its SEA service that calls at ports in China and on the U.S. West Coast by adding a weekly call at the mainland Port of Nansha. A company statement said the move would help "develop the Western Pearl River...

Mineta Joins Public Relations Firm.
July 13, 2006... Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will join the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton as vice chairman on July 24. Mineta resigned as transportation secretary on June 23. Mineta will be based in Washington and report to Paul...

Germany's State Bank to Sell Stake in Deutsche Post.
July 13, 2006... Germany is selling a stake in Deutsche Post World Net, Europe's biggest postal service and parent of DHL, worth about 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion), according to details from banks managing the sale. Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS AG and...

Mineta's Legacy: A Fight Against Congestion, a Focus on Security.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Angela Greiling Keane Norman Mineta, who stepped down as transportation secretary earlier this month, left a legacy of moving his agency from its traditional role to one that is focused acutely on security in the post-9/11 era. ...

Canadian Ports Discuss Merger.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall The Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, has little room left to expand its operations, but has access to ample capital investment funds for improvements. The nearby Fraser River Port has ample room for...

Dhs Allots $168 Million for Port Security; Matching Funds Enter the Equation.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto The Department of Homeland Security will make about $168 million available for port security in fiscal 2006. A total of $399 million in infrastructure protection grants were approved. The funds for port...

Jurisdiction Tug-of-War Slows Security Legislation.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson There is a real political horse race under way in the Senate, and the stakes are high. Two committees, the Senate Commerce Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are backing rival...

Port of New Orleans, Insurer at Odds.
July 13, 2006... The Port of New Orleans has hit a brick wall in its attempts to collect insurance payouts on damaged property, and the stalemate is holding up other rebuilding funds, port officials say. Daniel Hughes, port commissioner, recently said the...

Houston's Bayport Opening Delayed.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach The opening of the Port of Houston Authority's $1.2 billion Bayport container terminal has been postponed again. Originally scheduled to open in July, the date has been moved to November because of some design...

Agriculture Exports Up in 2005.
July 13, 2006... U.S. agricultural exports reached a new record in fiscal 2005 at $62.4 billion, $1 million higher than the record set in fiscal 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last week. California retained its top ranking, with farm...

Perishable Goods Hub Planned for Brisbane Airport.
July 13, 2006... More than 15 companies have come forward with investment proposals for a "Freshport," or perishable goods hub at Brisbane Airport in Australia following the Brisbane Airport Corp.'s invitation for applicants to submit bids earlier this year,...

Dhl Wins Floral, Gift Contract.
July 13, 2006... DHL last week signed a two-year contract with GrowerFlowers.com, an online floral and gift supplier for businesses and consumers. DHL will provide overnight delivery for GrowerFlowers' fresh grown bouquets direct from greenhouses on the East...

Tsa, Coast Guard to Watch over Shipping.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson The Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard will be the primary guardians of national transportation assets, plus postal and shipping infrastructure, under the National Infrastructure Protection Plan...

Apl Suggests Improvements for Container Security.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach An APL executive called for leading nations to work together to enhance supply-chain security, and outlined a series of anti-terror measures designed to secure container shipping. "The supply chain is a complex web...

Hatsu Marine Expands Fleet.
July 13, 2006... Hatsu Marine Ltd. an-nounced last week that it has added two post-Panamax container vessels, Hatsu Crystal and Hatsu Smile, to its fleet. The 8,063-TEU C-type vessel Hatsu Crystal has been phased into parent Evergreen Group's CEM service...

Smooth Peak Season Seen for Us Container Gateways.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo U.S. container ports should avoid serious congestion problems this summer and fall even though cargo volumes are building rapidly toward a record peak season, according to the July Port Tracker published by Global...

Transportation Services Index Showed Growth for May.
July 13, 2006... The Transportation Services Index showed improvement for the third consecutive month in May. Rising 1.1 percent from its April level, the TSI now stands at 112.4, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said...

Dp World Unveils Port Investment Plan.
July 13, 2006... DP World plans to invest up to $3 billion over the next three to four years in infrastructure upgrades at its operations worldwide, Reuters reported. Speaking recently to a group of reporters, the company's chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin...

U-Freight Continues Expansion in China.
July 13, 2006... U-Freight said it is continuing its China expansion program westward with its first full office in the China interior -- in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province and the company's regional hub for the southwestern part of China. Its...

Cosco Sells Two Ships, Charters Them Back.
July 13, 2006... Cosco Container Lines sold two container ships to Cosco Shanghai for $53.2 million, its parent China Cosco Holdings announced recently. The vessels are the Puhe, built in 1990 with a capacity of 2,716 TEUs, and the 2,761-TEU Minhe, built in...

Rail Shipments Gain.
July 13, 2006... Record coal shipments and strong intermodal volume helped U.S. railroads post substantial gains in June. The railroads originated 1.4 million carloads, up 3.5 percent from June 2005. In addition to the carload traffic, 979,501 containers...

Brazil Considers New Port at Santos.
July 13, 2006... Brazil's federal government is studying construction of a sister port next to Santos to double cargo volume through Latin America's largest port. "We are currently in the process of planning the logistics of the new facility and speaking...

Us, Russia Reported Ready to Sign Trade Deal.
July 13, 2006... A compromise between the United States and Russia reportedly has been reached, removing the last remaining hurdles for Russia to join the World Trade Organization. The Itar-Tass news agency quoted President Bush as telling foreign...

Capacity Fears Push Up Container Ship Charter Rates.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard Container ship charter rates have risen to six-month highs, defying earlier forecasts of a meltdown, as surging traffic on key routes fuels concerns among ocean carriers that they will be short of capacity during the...

Rotterdam Gets Six Bids for New Container Terminal.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard The Port of Rotterdam said it received bids from a half-dozen companies to operate a new 3.5 million-TEU container terminal. The port expects to name the winning bidder for the initial $3.4 billion phase of the...

Teamsters Vow to Rebound -- and Take over the World.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Carey A quarter-century after deregulation of the trucking industry, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of union trucking jobs, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters believes it is on the ascent. The union...

Ups, Pilots Reach Tentative Agreement.
July 13, 2006... After nearly four years of negotiations, the Independent Pilots Association and UPS have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract that provides wage and pension improvements. Specific details were not disclosed prior to the...

Dhl, Forward Air Start Partnership.
July 13, 2006... Forward Air announced a three-year partnership with DHL Global Forwarding in which Forward Air will be the primary provider of DHL Forwarding's expedited ground transportation services. Al Pettenato, DHL Global Forwarding vice president of...

Alaska Airlines Expands Fleet.
July 13, 2006... Alaska Airlines recently added a Boeing 737-400 to its cargo fleet as part of a $100 million plan to expand and modernize to meet growing demand. The plane will provide 50 percent more cargo space and more advanced flight guidance...

China Cargo Gets Loan for Freighter.
July 13, 2006... China Cargo Airlines, China's first exclusive air-cargo mail carrier, based in Shanghai, has signed a contract with two French banks to obtain credit for an aircraft purchase, Xinhua reported. Under the contract, France's Socit Generale and...

Korean Exports Set Record in June.
July 13, 2006... South Korea's exports surged 19.2 percent to a record high of $28.2 billion in June, aided by strong foreign demand for autos, semiconductors and ships, according to a government report released this month. The big increase compared to the...

Thanks to Cafta, Caribbean Trade Booms.
July 13, 2006... BYLINE: Richard Knee Shortly before the United States agreed last August to join a free-trade agreement with five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic, a number of freight executives told Pacific Shipper the action could be...

Southern California Propeller Club Elects Officers.
July 13, 2006... The Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach has elected Hudson R. Warren Jr. as president for a third term for fiscal year 2006-2007. He is employed as vice president, global distribution and transportation, at...

Hub Group's Yeager Receives Honorary Degree.
July 13, 2006... During recent graduate commencement ceremonies at the University of Denver, Phillip C. Yeager, founder and chairman of Hub Group Inc., was presented with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree in recognition of his significant achievements...

Rasmussen to Lead Usl Operations in Australia.
July 13, 2006... U.S. Lines has announced the top executive teams to head its operations in Australia under the overall control of Noel Coom, vice president, Australasia. Jointly heading the team in Australia will be Rolf Rasmussen as director, sales and...

Too High.
July 21, 2006... Maritime companies rarely publicly criticize their competitors. While shipping lines compete intensely, they also have developed highly convenient and efficient alliance structures with each other that make their lives easier and their bottom...

With East Coast Plans, Foss Maritime Buys Constellation Tug.
July 21, 2006... Foss Maritime Co. of Seattle said it is expanding into the East Coast market with the acquisition of Constellation Tug Co. of Charlestown, Mass. No financial terms were disclosed. Foss, the largest tug operator on the West Coast, said...

Tacoma, Olympia Ports Enter Rail, Logistics Strategic Partnership.
July 21, 2006... The ports of Olympia and Tacoma, Wash., last week agreed to form a strategic partnership designed to improve regional rail system capacity, establish a logistics center for warehousing and distribution and create a major South Puget Sound...

Port of Oakland Generates $1.8 Billion in Marine Revenue.
July 21, 2006... The Port of Oakland contributed approximately $208 million in state and local taxes in California and generated $1.8 billion in direct operating revenue for businesses providing maritime services for cargo vessels at the port in 2005. According...

Getting Lng from There to Here.
July 21, 2006... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto It is the ultimate of cool cargoes. It is also a part of the energy supply solution for the U.S. and the rest of the world, while at the same time one of the most contentious, controversial and expensive of those...

Rising Demand for Lng Presents Unique Opportunity for Maritime Sector.
July 21, 2006... BYLINE: Robert N. Cowen The enormous growth in the global liquefied natural gas business has created an unprecedented opportunity for the U.S. maritime industry. World demand for LNG is expected to triple by the year 2020. In the U.S....