Pacific Shipper articles from June 2007

Pacific Shipper archives from June 2007

Can''t Be Explained.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Cargo and port interests at a recent Pacific Northwest intermodal conference in Portland, Ore., spent a lot of time scratching their collective heads. They wondered openly and were surprisingly frank about some...

Tentative Agreement Reached in Cp Rail Strike.
June 7, 2007... Canadian Pacific Railway last week said it reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract with the Teamsters union, ending a three-week strike by track maintenance workers. The Calgary-based railroad and the Teamsters Canada Rail...

Retailers: Peak-Season Growth Will Slow.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Container volumes at the top U.S. gateway ports will continue to increase each month into the fall peak season, although at a lesser rate of growth than in the same period a year ago, according to the latest...

China Targets Rail Development.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By William Armbruster While ports have attracted the lion''s share of the billions of dollars China is pouring into development of its transportation network, Beijing is now aiming investment at its weak inland infrastructure,...

Un Chief Backs Canal Expansion Plan.
June 7, 2007... United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week underscored his support for the planned expansion of the Panama Canal during a visit to the Central American country. Ki-moon toured the Miraflores Locks with Panamanian President...

It''s Shippers Vs. Lowenthal in Struggle over Container Fee Bill.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall Each year, the California Chamber of Commerce publishes a list of "job-killer" bills: legislation the group says would make the state''s economic climate less friendly to business. This year, a measure...

Ag Shippers Oppose Truck Plan, Container Fee.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall A variety of fees, taxes and costly regulations will become layer upon layer of burdensome expenses that could stop a significant amount of U.S. farm exports, a group has warned. The Agriculture Transportation...

U.S. Cold Storage Expands on West Coast.
June 7, 2007... U.S. Cold Storage, a public warehouse company that currently focuses most of its attention on the East Coast and Midwest, is expanding its facilities on the West Coast. Last month, the company announced that it is building a 4.5...

Crowley Receives New Reefers.
June 7, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp.''s liner services group has begun to take delivery of 929 new 40-foot refrigerated (reefer) high-cube containers, 1,453 new 45-foot (102-inch-wide) containers, 1,453 chassis and 347 generator sets. The equipment will be...

Truck Plan Draws Dissent.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo An ambitious but controversial plan of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce pollution from trucks by 80 percent over the next five years is becoming more of a labor issue than a battle over...

Box Charter Rates Climb.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bruce Barnard Container ship charter rates are climbing strongly as carriers compete for a dwindling number of vessels to bolster fleets struggling to keep pace with double-digit cargo growth on main international liner routes....

Nafta Surface Trade Hits Record.
June 7, 2007... A surge in imports carried by truck in March added $1 billion to total trade using surface transportation between the U.S. and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, Canada and Mexico. Overall surface trade amounted to $69.8...

Coast Guard Revives Storm Flag System.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By R.G. Edmonson The Coast Guard is reviving the warning flag system that alerts mariners and coastal dwellers of impending storms. Not that the flags ever really went away. The twin red squares with black center squares have...

Us Steel Imports Decline.
June 7, 2007... Steel imports into the U.S. declined 9.3 percent in April from March levels, based on preliminary figures released by the American Institute for International Steel. "The decline in April continues to show the impact of the inventory...

Us Changes Fumigant Rules.
June 7, 2007... The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has changed federal regulations governing the use of methyl bromide to fumigate wood packing material. The exposure time for wood packing materials to methyl bromide has increased from 16 to...

Container Museum Seeks Artifacts.
June 7, 2007... A group of international maritime industry leaders associated with transportation pioneer Malcom McLean has kicked-off a campaign to collect artifacts, historical data and documents for a public museum and research center about the history of...

Vietnam Cuts Tariffs on Us Manufactured Goods.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By William Armbruster Vietnam will slash tariffs on more than 90 percent of U.S.-manufactured goods to 15 percent or less, a trade official told U.S. exporters. Nguyen Duy Khien, commercial counselor and head of the trade...

Dhl Launches Hangzhou Service.
June 7, 2007... DHL has invested $40 million to enhance its footprint in the Yangtze River Delta and Shandong Province in eastern China. As part of a planned investment of $110 million over the next few years, the express company started gateway operations at...

Yangtze River Development Continues Inland Push.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By David Biederman One of the world''s oldest waterborne trade routes is poised to become one of the most modern. Development of the Yangtze River waterway is a cornerstone of China''s long-term plans to spur economic development...

Oceania Carrier Group Upgrades Australasia Services.
June 7, 2007... The three carrier members of the Oceania Vessel Sharing Agreement -- Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk Line -- plan to upgrade their services linking the west coast of North America, Australia and New Zealand. The Pacific Southwest...

India Conferences Members to Hike Rates.(Conference news)
June 7, 2007... Member lines of the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Ceylon Conferences will implement a rate increase in the eastbound trade as part of their business plan for 2007. Effective July 1 through Sept. 30, rates will increase by $50 a container on...

Project Cargo Network Covers Saipan and Guam.
June 7, 2007... The U.S. territories of Saipan and Guam in Micronesia are now represented in the specialist project-cargo network of the Worldwide Project Consortium. The group has appointed JRC Logistics as its representative with offices in Saipan and...

Tsa Files India Addendum.
June 7, 2007... The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement has filed an addendum that would extend the geographic scope of the agreement to include the Indian subcontinent. The Federal Maritime Commission by a 3-1 vote gave its assent for the discussion...

Air India Plans Dedicated Cargo Service.
June 7, 2007... Air India will begin dedicated cargo services as soon as two A-310s are converted. The two aircraft were delivered on April 24. European Aeronautic Defence and Space, parent of Airbus, which made the aircraft, will convert them to...

Rail Project Fast-Tracked in Vancouver, Wash.
June 7, 2007... A plan to more seamlessly move freight trains in and out of the Port of Vancouver, Wash., got a big push recently when Gov. Chris Gregoire included $2.5 million for the project in the new state budget. The $2.5 million budgeted is a portion...

Kuehne & Nagel Acquires Mexican Border Brokerage.
June 7, 2007... Kuehne & Nagel has acquired Romero and McNally Brokers to increase its brokerage network to four facilities along the U.S.-Mexican border. "The customs clearance business has become a mature, vital and growing core product that we support with...

Tacoma Expands Port Through Eminent Domain.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto The Port of Tacoma is gearing up to build another large container terminal -- or possibly a mix of container terminal and related backup facilities -- after beginning eminent domain proceedings to acquire 138...

Pacific Northwest Ports Struggle to Attract Intermodal Cargo.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto It''s a puzzle, and although the pieces are large and highly visible, they don''t seem to be fitting together very well at the moment. Transportation managers in the Pacific Northwest are uncertain about...

Real Pacific Northwest Ports Struggle to Attract Intermodal Cargo.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto It''s a puzzle, and although the pieces are large and highly visible, they don''t seem to be fitting together very well at the moment. Transportation managers in the Pacific Northwest are uncertain about...

Chile Reaches Out.
June 7, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee Ocean shipping rates in the U.S.-Chilean trades are rising, and container ship capacity on the northbound leg is tightening. Commodity prices of certain major Chilean exports are sparking a shift to containers from...

Senior Prom Portraits.
June 7, 2007... Officially, it''s called the Annual Dinner Dance of the Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach. In the Southern California transport community, it''s known as the Senior Prom. Hundreds of industry representatives...

Winners and Loser.
June 14, 2007... Warren Buffet is our country''s investment rock star. When word gets out that he has chosen a company in which to invest, the stock price of that company usually climbs precipitously. But despite his influence, it wouldn''t be correct to say...

Japan Weighs Trade Pacts with Us, Eu.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Hisane Masaki The Japanese government later this month is expected to adopt policy guidelines for 2007 calling for economic partnership agreements that include free-trade accords with the United States and the European Union....

West Coast Employers Aim for Early Longshore Pact.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo The president of the waterfront employers association on the West Coast expects negotiators for the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to enter contract talks in...

Us Ag Exporters Face Service Issues.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Agricultural exporters in the U.S. are losing market share because of rail equipment shortages and reduced service to seaports, and the situation will most likely get worse as carriers limit their investments to...

East to East.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Richard Knee and Bill Mongelluzzo While the shortest route between two points is a straight line, it''s not necessarily the most reliable, as those moving cargo between the eastern U.S. and the Far East have learned. Use of...

Playing the Ace.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By R.G. Edmonson Bob Perkins was around more than two decades ago, when the U.S. Customs Service created the Automated Commercial System, a computer system that revolutionized the way the government and the trade industry did...

Logistics Costs Increase, But Shippers Are Stretching the Dollar.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By William Hoffman Logistics costs for U.S. shippers in 2006 grew faster than the nation''s economy for the third straight year, rising to 9.9 percent of gross domestic product from 9.4 percent in 2005 in a sign that higher costs...

Going Swift-Ly into Mexico.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By John Gallagher Barely a month after taking back the reins of the sixth-largest trucking company in the U.S., Swift Transportation''s Jerry Moyes is already blazing a faster route south of the border to grab market share from his...

Cross-Border Trucking Program Draws More Criticism.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Ari Natter The Department of Transportation may have hoped to quell a controversy with the publication last week of new details about its new cross-border trucking program, but the new information only brought another round of...

Shanghai, Savannah to Use Rfid to Track Container Cargo.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Alan M. Field Selling people on RFID can be a chicken-egg paradox. Shippers don''t want to invest in radio-frequency identification technology equipment unless ports are equipped with RFID infrastructure, but ports don''t want...

Tsa Says Trans-Pacific Ships Are Close to Full.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said its members'' container ships are nearly full on trade lanes from Asia to all U.S. coasts as the peak shipping season approaches. It said network capacity...

Usda Issues Warning on Gypsy Moths in Japan.
June 14, 2007... The U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture has issued an update designating six high-risk ports for Asian gypsy moth, an imported pest that can attack a wide variety of trees. Vessels that call at...

Westbound Rate Hike Set by India Lines.
June 14, 2007... Member lines of the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Ceylon Conferences will implement a rate increase in the westbound trade. Cargo shipped from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the U.K., North Continent, Scandinavian, Baltic and...

Kobe Shipyard Launches Evergreen Vessel.
June 14, 2007... Ever Safety, the ninth of 10 S-series vessels being built for Evergreen Group in Japan, was launched on June 5 at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries'' Kobe shipyard as Evergreen approaches the end of its current shipbuilding program. S.S. Lin,...

Csav Norasia Puts Xiamen on Itinerary.
June 14, 2007... CSAV Norasia will introduce a direct call at Xiamen on its Asia Black Sea (ABS) service, as it expands its coverage of China. In addition, the carrier will discontinue the existing call at Keelung and drop Jeddah on the westbound leg....

Panama Canal Tonnage Up.
June 14, 2007... Tonnage transiting the Panama Canal increased more than 6 percent in the fiscal second quarter from the year-ago period, along with increases in total transits and booking slot utilization, according to the Panama Canal Authority. Panama...

Shipping Corp. of India to Buy 72 Ships.
June 14, 2007... Shipping Corp. of India plans to invest about $4 billion to acquire 72 vessels over the next five years as part of a fleet expansion plan. The $1 billion order will be joined later by orders for another 60 vessels in phases at a cost of $3...

Kandla Port Sets Tonnage Record.
June 14, 2007... Total traffic at India''s western Port of Kandla increased about 44 percent to a record 10.7 million metric tons in the April-May period, the first two months of the current fiscal year, up from 7.4 million metric tons in the same period a year...

Insulated Box Still Reigns in Airfreight.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Peter Conway In the shipment of perishables, air cargo has always been behind the technology curve when compared to other modes. In road or sea freight, continuous cool chains, logging of temperatures in transit, and even...

Southern California''s Clean Truck Plan Faces Major Roadblocks.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo West Coast transportation interests told a meeting of agricultural shippers that a clean truck plan proposed by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach faces an uphill battle to survive legal and political...

British Columbia Ports Push Merger.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto British Columbia''s Lower Mainland ports of Vancouver, Fraser River and North Fraser remain on a fast track for amalgamation later this year or early in 2008. The process began last year when the ports,...

Pacer Opens New Transload Center.
June 14, 2007... Pacer Distribution Services, the warehousing and distribution arm of Pacer International, has opened a new 52-door transload center in Carson, Calif., to support increased demand for transloading services for international freight shipments...

Flooding Disrupts Vancouver Port Rail Traffic.
June 14, 2007... BYLINE: By Courtney Tower Canadian National Railway said flooding disrupted some trains moving to and from the Port of Vancouver on its mainline tracks in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. Although the flood conditions were...

In Seattle, Performance Audit Triggers Construction Review.
June 14, 2007... The Port of Seattle will review its contracting processes and focus on documentation and record-keeping as a result of the recommendations contained in a performance audit made public by the Port Commission. It also will put more focus on...

Vancouver Gets State Grant for Groundwater Cleanup.
June 14, 2007... The Port of Vancouver, Wash., has been recognized by the Washington Department of Ecology''s Local Toxics Control Account for its work in groundwater cleanup efforts in the form of $5.41 million grant. "We''re thrilled to have received this...

San Diego, Carnival Cruise Kick off Year-Round Season.
June 14, 2007... Cruise enthusiasts can now travel out of the Port of San Diego year-round. Carnival Cruise Lines recently began operating four-day cruises departing Thursdays to Cabo San Lucas and five-day cruises to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada departing on...

Wilmington Waterfront Program Receives Awards for Design.
June 14, 2007... The Wilmington Waterfront Development Program at the Port of Los Angeles recently earned San Francisco-based design consultant Sasaki and Associates two prestigious design awards: the Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape...

Johansen to Take Helm of Portland Port Commissio.
June 14, 2007... Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has selected Judi Johansen to serve as president of the Port of Portland Commission. Johansen is the first woman to serve in that role in the 116-year history of the port. She has served on the nine-member commission...

Tacoma Appoints Zhu Director of Strategy.
June 14, 2007... The Port of Tacoma named Tong Zhu director of commercial strategy. In this position, Zhu will direct the development of port marketing strategies, lead the port''s international offices and staff and manage the port''s business planning staff....

Pacer Promotes Brashares.
June 14, 2007... Jeffrey ("J.B.") Brashares, currently vice chairman for commercial sales for Pacer International, the non-asset-based North America third-party logistics and freight transportation provider, last month was promoted to chief operating officer...

Global Cold Chain Alliance Hires Tucker for Education Post.
June 14, 2007... Bobby Tucker was named director of education and training for the Global Cold Chain Alliance. The four core partner organizations in the alliance are the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, World Food Logistics...

Portland Box Volume Surges 43 Percent.
June 21, 2007... Through the first five months of the year, the Port of Portland''s 100,200 TEUs were slightly less than half of the total container volume it moved in all of 2006. Driven by two new trans-Pacific services by Zim Integrated Services and...

House of Paradox.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Everyone agrees there''s a massive transportation infrastructure disaster looming. The nation''s ports, roads and railroads are at or quickly reaching the capacity breaking point. There is little agreement, and...

Container Growth Slows at Vancouver, Rebounds at Seattle.
June 21, 2007... Container traffic through the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, continued to rise through May, increasing 5.5 percent to 894,422 TEUs over the same period a year ago. The pace of growth at Canada''s largest port was off from the 8.6...

Canadian Government Moves Forward on British Columbia Ports Unification.
June 21, 2007... Three western Canada ports are moving ever closer to integrating under a single port authority Lawrence Cannon, the country''s minister of transport, infrastructure and communities, last week announced the government''s "intention to...

Chiquita Completes Fleet Sale.
June 21, 2007... Chiquita Brands International last week announced that it has completed the sale of its 12 refrigerated cargo vessels for $227 million. The ships have been chartered back from an alliance formed by Eastwind Maritime Inc. and...

Apl Chooses Lng over Electricity in Cold-Ironing Experiment.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall APL Ltd. has developed an "elegant and simple" way for vessels to plug into shore-side power and turn off engines while in port at a capital cost that is less than one-sixth that of a similar system being...

Focus Is on Distribution Centers to Reduce Supply-Chain Costs.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Shippers can do little about record diesel fuel prices, escalating rail rates or port capacity constraints, so they are turning their attention to a segment of the supply chain that they can control -- the...

Freight a Safety-Zone in New Safetea Measure?
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By R.G. Edmonson When Congress was putting together the final version of the SAFETEA-LU legislation, freight transportation advocates had high hopes that the issues of deteriorating infrastructure and growing congestion would get...

Usda Cites Progress in Expanding Asia Beef Exports.
June 21, 2007... The U.S. Department of Agricul-ture this month said it is making progress to expand U.S. beef exports on three Asian fronts. "Recent developments are demonstrating that our constructive and steady discussions with our trading partners are...

Air France Cargo-Klm Cargo Extends Partnership with Envirotainer.
June 21, 2007... Air France Cargo-KLM Cargo extended its partnership with Envirotainer to serve the pharmaceutical market with active temperature-controlled air-cargo solutions. "Air France Cargo-KLM Cargo is Envirotainer''s biggest customer and partner,"...

Boeing Forecasts World Aircraft Boom.
June 21, 2007... U.S. aircraft maker Boeing, in a revised forecast, this month predicted 28,600 new aircraft worth $2.8 trillion will be sold over the next two decades because of rising global airfreight and passenger demand. But Boeing also expressed...

FedEx Freight Opens Toronto Hub.
June 21, 2007... FedEx Freight Canada, the less-than-truckload subsidiary of FedEx Freight, recently unveiled its new combined national headquarters and 48 dock-door service centers in Toronto. Formerly Watkins Canada Express, FedEx Freight Canada officially...

Atlas Air, Sharp in Joint Venture to Build Korean Terminal.
June 21, 2007... Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings announced its subsidiary, Atlas Air, has entered into a joint-venture agreement to build a warehouse at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. The 129,168-square-foot facility will be operated by AACT...

Tnt Eyes Expansion in North Malaysia.
June 21, 2007... TNT said this month that the rapid growth of Malaysia''s economy is spurring opportunities for expansion in North Malaysia. The company said it has appointed a dedicated general manager, Christopher Bain, for Malaysia''s northern region, in...

Greenbrier to Cut Down 2,500 Double-Stack Platforms.
June 21, 2007... Greenbrier Cos. received orders to cut down 2,500 existing 48-foot double-stack intermodal platforms to 40-foot double-stack platforms. "A 40-foot platform more efficiently matches traffic flows and container loads compared to a 48-foot...

Report: Dhl Seeking Stake in Exel-Sinotrans.
June 21, 2007... Express carrier DHL has expressed interest in bidding for a 50 percent stake in Exel-Sinotrans Freight Forwarding Co., the Chinese joint venture between Exel and Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co., the official Shanghai Securities...

Royster to Step Down As Baltimore Chief.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By Joseph Bonney Brooks F. Royster II announced on June 14 he''ll step down on July 31 with three years left on his five-year contract as executive director of the Maryland Port Administration. He said his resignation stems from a...

World Box Fleet Tops 10 Million Teus.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By Bruce Barnard The world container ship fleet has topped 10 million TEUs and the order book has raced past 5 million TEUs after the leading ocean carriers and major charter ship owners signed a flurry of new contracts over the...

Us Coffee Industry Tests Anti-Terror Program.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By William Armbruster The National Coffee Association of U.S.A. Inc. announced last week it is moving into the pilot phase of an industry program to support the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. Participants in the...

Ship Finance Expands Box Fleet.
June 21, 2007... Ship Finance International, the New York-listed owner of one of the world''s largest fleets of oil tankers and bulk carriers, has ordered five small to midsize container ships in China. The company is spending a total of $190 million on...

Fesco Shareholders Vote to Back New Container Ships.
June 21, 2007... Far Eastern Shipping Co. (Fesco) shareholders have voted to support bank financing of $181 million for four 3,091-TEU ships to be built at Poland''s Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa yards, The Vladivostok Times reported. Shareholders also...

Deadline Looms for Trade Deal.
June 21, 2007... BYLINE: By Alan Field In a last-minute effort to revive negotiations on a global trade agreement, Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, arrived in China on June 17 for a four-day visit with China''s senior...