Pacific Shipper articles from November 2006

Pacific Shipper archives from November 2006

Vision Quests.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto After attending two conferences last month, each with big themes about the future and the opportunities for trade and infrastructure development, I have to conclude that the "vision thing" is alive and well in the...

Pacer's Orris to Retire in 2007.
November 3, 2006... Donald C. Orris, chairman and chief executive of Pacer International, will retire next year. Michael E. Uremovich, Pacer vice chairman, made the announcement in a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's third-quarter financial...

British Columbia's Coast 2000 Terminals Expands Yard.
November 3, 2006... Coast 2000 Terminals of Richmond, British Columbia, is expanding its container yard by 10 acres, a move that will increase the size of the facility to 30 acres. Coast 2000 is a third-party logistics service provider for the pulp and paper...

Economic Outlook Indicates Weaker Us Imports.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach The outlook for the world economy over the coming years is "very, very favorable," with inflation still benign, according to Nariman Behravesh, chief global economist and executive vice president of Global...

Breakbulk Outlook Remains Strong.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach Breakbulk rates, though softening slightly currently, are likely to remain strong and get stronger over the next four to five years, Fred Bedford, director of Jumbo Shipping, told The Journal of Commerce's 17th...

Alaska -- High Risk, Huge Rewards.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto It's the old chicken-egg argument for Alaska. Does transportation infrastructure drive development, or does development drive transportation infrastructure? Alaska's transportation infrastructure is the most...

Global Warming Warms Up Vision for Northern Sea Route.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto There may be a yin to the yang of global warming after all if you look north, way north. Long a vision, a hypothesis and a subject for scientific debate, a blue-water Arctic sea route over the top of the world...

Alaska's Seafood Future.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto Wild is wild, but aquaculture is here to stay. For Alaskans and Alaska's seafood industry, which prides itself on its "fresh and wild" quality reputation, it is proving to be a difficult adjustment. Another...

Troubled Testing.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Angela Greiling Keane The Transportation Worker Identification Credential is piling up more criticism as the date for the program's implementation gets closer. The Government Accountability Office issued a new broadside against...

Tsa Delays Some Air-Cargo Rules.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By John D. Boyd The Transportation Security Administration is delaying a broad range of deadlines for the air-cargo security rule it unveiled last May so that the industry will have until mid-2007 to comply with portions of it. ...

Customs Sets Deadline for Truck E-Manifests.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Angela Greiling Keane Truckers entering the United States in Arizona, Washington and parts of North Dakota will have to use electronic manifests starting in January. U.S. Customs and Border Protection set Jan. 25 as the date...

Funds Approved to Develop More-Advanced Cargo Scanners.
November 3, 2006... Five companies collectively received $113 million in Department of Homeland Security money to develop the next generation of portable radiological detection equipment for cargo. The agency's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which plans to buy...

Us Economic Slowdown to Continue in 2007.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Michael D. Andrews U.S. economic activity continued to lose momentum in the third quarter, with real gross domestic product rising a weak 1.6 percent at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate. That followed on the heels of 2.6...

Us Steel Imports Decline.
November 3, 2006... Imports of steel into the U.S. declined 11.8 percent in September compared to August, from 4.2 million tons to 3.7 million tons, according to the American Institute for Imported Steel. The group said the decrease reflects the developing...

Wto Probes China Tariffs.
November 3, 2006... The World Trade Organization has established a panel to examine whether China's tariffs on imported auto parts break international trade rules. It is the first time that the trade body is formally investigating allegations of illegal...

China Eyes Trade Deals.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Gordon Feller Cargo and service trade negotiations between China and Australia will be officially launched by the end of the year. High-level government officials have met twice during the six rounds of negotiations, the most...

Tnt Exiting Business of Ocean, Air Forwarding.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Bruce Barnard Dutch global mail and express group TNT is quitting the ocean and airfreight forwarding markets by putting its Freight Management unit up for sale. The decision comes two months after TNT sold its...

Maersk Line Tweaks Us-Central America Service.
November 3, 2006... Maersk Line said it will upgrade its South Atlantic Express service linking U.S. East Coast ports with Guatemala and Honduras. The carrier will deploy two 1,100-TEU vessels on the service in early November to replace existing vessels. The...

Hanjin Forms Australian Unit.
November 3, 2006... Hanjin Shipping has established a wholly owned company in Australia, which will start full operations in January. The South Korean carrier said it has invested approximately $766,000 to set up Hanjin Shipping (Australia) PTY Ltd., which...

'K' Line Gets Largest Box Ship Built in Japan.
November 3, 2006... K Line has taken delivery of the largest container ship ever built in Japan, the 8,000-TEU Humber Bridge. The 1,102-foot-long vessel, built at the Kure Shipyard of IHI Marine United Inc., is the first of eight sister ships on order with IHI...

Logistics Cost Savings Lurk in Hidden Supply Chain.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By William Hoffman Most retailers have two supply chains. There is the visible one that snakes from manufacturers to ports and across transportation nodes to distribution centers and stores. Then there is the hidden supply chain...

Drop in Fuel Prices won't Sway Intermodal Balance.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By John Gallagher Railroads could be in the driver's seat for the foreseeable future when it comes to competing with trucks for freight, even as fuel prices drop from record levels. The nationwide average price for a gallon of...

Union Backs Rail Competition Bill.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By John Gallagher The United Transportation Union pledged to throw its weight behind shipper proposals that force more competition among railroads in response to what has become the most contentious round of negotiations with...

Truck Tonnage Rebounded in September.
November 3, 2006... Truck tonnage increased in September compared to August, but is lower than in September 2005. Recovering nearly all of a slowdown in August, the American Trucking Associations' preliminary September for-hire truck tonnage index rose 1.7...

Rail Shipments Decline.
November 3, 2006... Rail traffic declined in week 42 of 2006 as the soft peak season sapped the strength of intermodal growth and commodity shipments dropped sharply. Shipments totaled 856,622, down 0.6 percent compared to the same week in 2005. U.S. railroads...

Profit Growth Exceeds 25 Percent at Pacer.
November 3, 2006... Pacer International Inc.,a third-party logistics and freight transportation provider, reported an increase of more than 25 percent in net income to $18.3 million in the third quarter ending Sept. 22, up from $14.6 million in the same quarter a...

Matson's Cargo Volume Fell in Third Quarter.
November 3, 2006... Matson Navigation Co. saw profit levels in the third quarter improve from those posted earlier in the year despite weaker container volumes in its Jones Act services. However, even with the recent improvement, operating profit fell to...

ProLogis Sees Earnings Rise.
November 3, 2006... ProLogis said higher rental rates and continued strong global demand for its distribution facilities earned the commercial real estate developer $202.1 million from operations in the third quarter of 2006, up 22 percent from the $159.4 million...

Mineta Volunteers to Chair Highway Users Alliance.
November 3, 2006... Former Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has volunteered to serve as honorary chairman of the American Highway Users Alliance. Highway Users President Greg Cohen said, "The Highway Users is thrilled that Secretary Mineta is offering...

Raymond Named Horizon Chairman.
November 3, 2006... The board of directors of Horizon Lines has appointed Charles (Chuck) G. Raymond as its first board chairman. Raymond will continue to serve in his current roles as president and chief executive. Raymond has held those positions and been a...

Shane, Widdows Honored.
November 3, 2006... The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business last month honored Department of Transportation Under Secretary Jeffrey N. Shane and APL Chief Executive Ron Widdows. Public-private sector partners over the past two years,...

A Paradox Down Under.
November 3, 2006... Northbound meat shipments decline as U.S. sources more from Uruguay. Drought socks Australia's grain producers. U.S. trade with Australia and New Zealand appears to be growing northbound and southbound in dollar terms, but a spokeswoman for...

India Infrastructure Investments to Boost Project Cargo Shippers.
November 3, 2006... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach India's investments in capital projects to increase its power-generating capabilities and improve its lagging port, road and rail infrastructure will provide enormous opportunities for project-cargo shippers over...

Shipping Corp. of India to Get Two New Box Ships.
November 3, 2006... The Indian government last month approved a plan by state-owned Shipping Corp. of India to buy two cellular container ships of 4,300-TEU capacity each at a cost of 6 billion rupees (US$130 million). A Cabinet committee also gave approval to...

New Bidding Set for India Intermodal Rail Licenses.
November 3, 2006... The Indian Railways has scheduled the next round of bidding this month for private container rail operations amid ongoing delays in finalizing a model concession agreement for the private sector. Thirteen private companies, including...

India, Pakistan to Restore Maritime Services.
November 3, 2006... India last month agreed to end a 35-year ban on ocean shipping services with Pakistan in a move that will boost sea trade with that country. The Cabinet that met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved a revised...

India to Aid Port Developers.
November 3, 2006... The Indian government is offering to fund up to 20 percent of the total cost of public-private partnerships as part of its port privatization plan. The draft Model Concession Agreement that is being finalized will provide port developers with...

Bush to Visit Vietnam.
November 3, 2006... The White House announced last week that President Bush will visit Vietnam this month to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' forum in Hanoi. The Associated Press reported that Bush will meet with Vietnamese Prime...

Vietnam Plans Container Port.
November 3, 2006... The Vietnam Ministry of Transport has approved a proposal for the development of a new container port in Van Phong Bay, north of Nha Trang in the central coast province of Khanh Hoa. The proposed International Trans-Shipment Port would be...

China Bans 'zero' Freight Rates.
November 3, 2006... China's Ministry of Communications recently announced that international liner operators would not be allowed to offer zero or negative freight rates in the country. According to the ministry, carriers are prohibited from offering rates...

China Expected to Become Third-Largest Auto Producer.
November 3, 2006... PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted in a recent report that China will produce 5.4 million automobile units this year, overtaking Germany to become the world's third-largest automobile manufacturer after the U.S. and Japan. ...

Ikea Buys Tacoma Tract for Distribution Center.
November 3, 2006... IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, is buying a 70-acre parcel of land in the Frederickson, Wash., area from the Port of Tacoma for about $9.3 million. The Tacoma port commission authorized the sale last month. Derrick Urquhart,...

Los Angeles, Long Beach, Kalmar Developing Hybrid Terminal Tractor.
November 3, 2006... Kalmar, the Dutch container-handling equipment maker, is participating in a project to develop a hybrid-powered terminal tractor that aims to reduce pollution at U.S. West Coast ports. The two-year project will be undertaken in cooperation...

Container Terminal Work Progresses at Prince Rupert.
November 3, 2006... As the days begin to grow shorter, the Prince Rupert Port Authority has installed temporary lighting to allow the 144 people working on the Fairview Container Terminal to work longer hours. "One of the issues in the winter is the shorter...

Guam Buys Yard Tractors.
November 3, 2006... The Port Authority of Guam has received eight new Ottawa yard tractors. The tractors were purchased from Far East Equipment Co. for $85,744 each for a total of $685,952. The new tractors will supplement the port's current fleet of tractors that...

Container Cargo Surges at Port of Portland.
November 3, 2006... The Port of Portland's 2006 resurgence continued over the first nine months of the year, with total container volume jumping 31.2 percent compared to the same period in 2005. In fact, the 153,391 TEUs handled by the Columbia River port...

The Giving Season.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall During the tumultuous Vietnam War era, Ohio Gov. James Rhodes made headlines when he declared that "profit is not a dirty word." His attitude seemed to scandalize many. Thankfully, there is no longer the...

FedEx Dumps Airbus A380 Freighter.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill DiBenedetto FedEx Express dealt a potentially crippling blow to the troubled Airbus A380 program last week when it canceled its $2.3 billion order for 10 freighter versions of the new double-decker aircraft, which was...

Vietnam to Become Member of Wto.
November 10, 2006... Vietnam last week won formal approval from the World Trade Organization to become the trade body's 150th member by the end of the year. The executive General Council approved a deal agreed to in October by the WTO's working party on...

'K' Line, Yang Ming to Cut Asia-Med Capacity.
November 10, 2006... Yang Ming and "K" Line said last week they will merge their two current Asia-Mediterranean services, AMS and AMS2, into a new service consisting of seven 5,500-TEU vessels. The merger, to take place on Nov. 19, will result in a 3,600-TEU...

Fundamental and Costly Transportation Problems Persist for Shippers.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Paul T. Rosynsky Judging by the relative ease at which goods were transported through the country during this year's peak shipping season, the doomsday scenarios prompted by the congestion-filled 2004 season were overdone. ...

Ports Plan Pollution User Fees.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Stephanie Nall Visitors to the Web site maintained by the Port of Long Beach can find a variety of information about facilities and services there. For the last few months, they have also been able to check the air quality at...

Mega-Ship Semantics.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Sam Ruda As the marine and industrial development director at the Port of Portland, I recently served as a panel participant at a San Francisco Propeller Club forum focused on the impact of mega-container ships. My particular...

Nit League: Communication and Collaboration Are Key.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By R.G. Edmonson For its first seven decades, confrontation was the order of the day at the National Industrial Transportation League. The NIT League, after all, was founded to protest rates set by railroads before the...

Colombia, Peru Reopen Markets to Us Beef.
November 10, 2006... Colombia and Peru have lifted bovine spongiform encephalopathy-related bans on imported beef, moves that will restore two-thirds of U.S. beef market access in South America. BSE is commonly referred to as mad-cow disease. U.S. agriculture...

Avion to Acquire Majority Stake in Atlas Cold Storage.
November 10, 2006... Despite initial resistance to Avion Group's unsolicited takeover bid for Atlas Cold Storage Income Trust, the two companies have reached agreement in which Avion will acquire 56.2 million share units of Atlas at C$7.50 (US$6.65) per unit,...

Southern California Intermodal Gateway Plans Face Major Obstacles.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo Intermodal rail traffic has helped make Los Angeles-Long Beach the nation's busiest container port complex, but the continued growth could be derailed by a shortage of capacity at rail transfer yards. BNSF...

Us Ports Congestion-Free During Peak Season.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo With November marking the end of the peak shipping season in the eastbound Pacific, the nation's retailers said the U.S. port, rail and trucking industries made it through the busiest period of the year with no...

Canada's Deltaport Expansion Gets 'green' Light.
November 10, 2006... Canada's environmental assessment agency ruled this month that the Deltaport Third Berth Project at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. The decision is another step...

California Ports Get Mobile Radiation Detectors.
November 10, 2006... Customs and Border Protection this month demonstrated the use of the latest weapon in its anti-terrorism arsenal, a mobile radiation portal monitor that can detect radiation from containers virtually anywhere in a port. Customs Commissioner W....

Maersk Invests in French Terminal.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Bruce Barnard The port operating arm of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk has won control of the container terminal at the north France port of Dunkirk. Netherlands-based APM Terminals acquired a 61 percent stake in the Nord...

Macquarie to Acquire Halifax Container Terminal.
November 10, 2006... Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a U.S.-based equity-fund subsidiary of Australia's Macquarie Bank Ltd., said last week that it plans to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Halterm Income Fund, which operates the largest container...

FedEx Express to Buy Prakash Air Freight.
November 10, 2006... FedEx Express has signed an agreement to acquire its Indian express service provider, Prakash Air Freight, for US$30 million in a cash deal. The transaction is subject to customary conditions, including approval of the Indian government....

Tnt Completes Sale of Logistics Unit.
November 10, 2006... TNT N.V. announced last week that it has completed the sale of its logistics division to affiliates of Apollo Management L.P., a U.S. private equity firm, for nearly $2 billion. TNT also said that board member Dave Kulik resigned to become...

Ship Orders Boost Profit at Hyundai Heavy Industries.
November 10, 2006... Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's biggest shipbuilder, reported that profit increased 21 percent in the third quarter on new vessel orders. The South Korean company has benefited from a boom in orders as container carriers order new,...

Bnsf Posts Record High Freight Revenue.
November 10, 2006... Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. reported that consolidated net income rose to $488 million during the three months ended Sept. 30, up 17.9 percent from the third quarter in 2005. Third-quarter 2006 freight revenue increased by $597...

Lower Rates, Higher Fuel Costs Hit Nol Profit.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Peter T. Leach Neptune Orient Lines said this month that third-quarter net profit before nonrecurring items declined 55 percent from the same period in 2005, and 51 percent through September, as lower freight rates and higher...

Tsa to Tighten 'known Shipper' Rules for Air-Cargo Operations.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By John D. Boyd In a move to alter 10-year-old air shipping rules, U.S. authorities plan to change the "known shipper" designation by adding more information about foreign suppliers of cargo going aboard passenger planes. The new...

Savi to Supply Rfid to National Guard.
November 10, 2006... The U.S. National Guard has awarded a $4.6 million contract to Savi Technology, a Lockheed Martin company, to provide highly mobile radio-frequency identification systems. National Guard units in each state and U.S. territory will receive...

Bridges Named Candidate for Vpa Post.
November 10, 2006... The Virginia Port Authority has named Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the Port of Oakland, as its candidate to replace J. Robert Bray as executive director. If approved by the port authority's board of commissioners at its next...

Real Bridges Named Candidate for Vpa Post.
November 10, 2006... The Virginia Port Authority has named Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the Port of Oakland, as its candidate to replace J. Robert Bray as executive director. If approved by the port authority's board of commissioners at its next...

Jack Joins Board of Directors at Greenbrier.
November 10, 2006... Lake Oswego, Ore., international railcar manufacturer Greenbrier Cos. elected Graeme Jack to its board of directors, effective Oct. 31. The election increases the size of the board to nine members, six of whom are independent directors. ...

Erickson to Head Containerization Foundation.
November 10, 2006... Stanford A. Erickson has been named chairman of the History of Containerization Foundation Inc. He succeeds Michael B. Berzon, who becomes vice chairman. Erickson is the associate publisher of the Transport Topics Publishing Group for...

Holmes to Head Operations at Port of Los Angeles.
November 10, 2006... John M. Holmes, former U.S. Coast Guard captain of the port for the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, is joining the Port of Los Angeles as director of operations. As the senior official in this area, Holmes will oversee the operations...

Trade with Central America.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Richard Knee Despite the expectations of some U.S. industries, the U.S. free-trade agreement with five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic has been neither hero nor villain. Sugar imports are up, but an...

Mol Upgrades Two Services.
November 10, 2006... Japanese liner MOL will resume a weekly frequency on its Intermediate Service between Europe and South Africa starting in January. The service is operated in cooperation with DAL Deutsche Afrika-Linien and Safmarine. The service...

Carrier Group Changes Management Structure.
November 10, 2006... BYLINE: By Bill Mongelluzzo The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a discussion group of 11 ocean carriers in the eastbound Pacific, will change its management structure on Dec. 1, establishing a four-member executive committee. The...

New China-Thailand Service in the Works.
November 10, 2006... Hanjin Shipping will launch a new operation this month between China and Thailand in partnership with Sinorkor Merchant Marine Co. and Dongnama Shipping Co. Three 900-TEU vessels jointly operated by the three carriers will be deployed on the...

Beijing Poised to Become Air-Cargo Hub.
November 10, 2006... China's first airport-based bonded logistics center will begin operation in the first quarter of 2007 and is expected to make Beijing an important Northeast Asian air-cargo transportation hub, according to the official China news agency,...

Entrepreneur Considers Indian Terminal.
November 10, 2006... Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a leading Indian entrepreneur, has expressed interest in developing the $1 billion deep-water transshipment container terminal at Vizhinjam in the country's southern state of Kerala. The project was delayed last summer...

Schenker Expands in Indonesia.
November 10, 2006... Schenker and BAX Global Logistik (BAX Indonesia) reached an agreement in which Schenker Petrolog Utama will take over the operations and activities of BAX Indonesia, effective January 2007. With offices in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and...

Emirates Joins Asia-Us Express Service.
November 10, 2006... Emirates Shipping Line has added a new service to its portfolio, providing a scheduled service connecting major ports in China with the U.S. East Coast. Effective Nov. 21, Emirates Shipping Line has acquired space on the AUX service (operated...

Ooil Orders Four Container Ships.
November 10, 2006... Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the parent company of Orient Overseas Container Line, has ordered four 8,063-TEU container ships from South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries in a deal worth an estimated US$477 million. OOIL...

China Approves Use of Savi's Rfid Products.
November 10, 2006... Savi Technology, a provider of radio-frequency-identification-based supply-chain solutions, received official approval this month from the China State Radio Regulation Committee to use its family of active RFID products throughout the country....