Pacific Shipper articles from September 2008

Pacific Shipper archives from September 2008

ILWU caucus approves pact.
September 1, 2008... International Longshore and Warehouse Union caucus members voted unanimously over a four-day weekend to send to the union's membership the tentative six-year contract negotiated in July with waterfront employers. The stamp of approval from...

Seattle port adopts oversight resolution.
September 1, 2008... The Seattle Port Commission last Tuesday gave final approval to major changes in the way it delegates contracting authority throughout its organization. Resolution 3605, approved unanimously by the five-member panel, strengthens the...

Maersk box results improve.(Financial report)
September 1, 2008... A.P. Moller-Maersk reported last Wednesday that results from its container activities showed marginal improvement during the first half of this year while overall group profit soared because of petroleum price increases that benefited the...

Celebrity swag.
September 1, 2008... "From the very beginning, Los Angeles has been afraid that they were going to throw a party and no one would come. I've been afraid of that, too."  - David Pettit, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense FundJuly 25, 2008...

Brazil, Australia push for resumption of Doha talks.
September 1, 2008... Brazil and Australia have supported the urgent resumption of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round of talks, and are still hoping for a breakthrough before November. Negotiations on a global trade deal collapsed in late July after the...

NRS enrolls in LA's clean-trucks plan.
September 1, 2008... National Retail Systems will join truckload carriers Swift Transportation and Knight Transportation and make a major fleet commitment to the clean-trucks program at the Port of Los Angeles. Secaucus, N.J.-based NRS, which serves retailers...

New trucks attract crowds.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall Pier S at the Port of Long Beach was the site for two unusual sights on a recent Friday. In a parking lot directly across from a TWIC sign-up facility, about 150 Teamsters members and supporters gathered to wave...

Port of haul.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: JOHN GALLAGHER The controversial clean-air program at the Port of Los Angeles will mark a dramatic entrance into the container drayage business for two of the nation's largest trucking companies. Swift Transportation and Knight...

Wood pellet facility proposed for Sacramento.
September 1, 2008... The Sacramento-Yolo Port Commission last month approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with Enligna US to develop a state-of-the-art wood pellet manufacturing plant at the Port of Sacramento that could open within one year. The...

San Diego to see increase in cruise business.
September 1, 2008... The Port of San Diego has lured more cruise destinations. Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Elation begins a new schedule offering three- and four-day cruises from San Diego to Catalina Island and Ensenada starting on Feb. 12. The 2,052-passenger...

Trans-Pacific fuel surcharge headed for record level.
September 1, 2008... Container lines in the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said that their floating bunker fuel surcharge, adjusted monthly according to a formula that tracks world fuel prices at key loading locations, would spike to a record level effective...

Customs to withdraw plan to eliminate first-sale rule.
September 1, 2008... U.S. Customs and Border Protection will formally withdraw its Jan. 24 proposal that would have eliminated the first-sale rule, which provides a favorable methodology for valuation of U.S. imports. Customs' about-face was scheduled to be...

Canada and Jordan reach free-trade accord.
September 1, 2008... Canada and Jordan have concluded negotiations on a free-trade agreement, the third for Canada this year following similar deals with Colombia and Peru. Agreement was reached in Amman last week after a two-day session completing...

Business leader criticizes India's role in WTO talks.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER India's failure to compromise during global trade negotiations this summer has left some bruised feelings in the U.S., a top business official said. The World Trade Organization talks fell apart after India...

BNSF expedites containers.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: JOHN D. BOYD In a move to offer greater appeal to trucking partners and catch the eye of ocean shipping lines, BNSF Railway is shifting its strategy for "expedited" trains to offer speedier domestic intermodal container deliveries....

Air cargo plummets on West Coast.
September 1, 2008... The West Coast is turning into a wasteland for air cargo in 2008. Airports from the Pacific Northwest down to Southern California are having such a tough year that the 7.6 percent decline Los Angeles International Airport saw in June actually...

Russia says it will scrap some WTO commitments.
September 1, 2008... Russian officials decided to withdraw from some of the commitments that country had reached during its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, the Interfax news agency reported. The decision came at a meeting of an inner circle...

Nehru plans direct clearance of some imports.
September 1, 2008... The Port of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's largest port, said it plans to introduce direct import deliveries from its terminals as part of measures to speed cargo movements. The initiative follows a recent meeting of the local customs agency...

Hong Kong tops Memphis as busiest airport in June.
September 1, 2008... Hong Kong International Airport became the world's busiest cargo airport in June, overtaking Memphis as the FedEx Express hub suffered a steep decline in summer traffic. Hong Kong, long the world's largest international gateway, handled...

CMA CGM to open terminal in Tianjin.
September 1, 2008... CMA CGM Group has signed a 50-year concession agreement to build and operate a 1.7 million-TEU container terminal in the Port of Tianjin in North China. The new terminal is expected to open in 2011 and will feature a 3,600-foot quay. A...

China reaches out.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: Richard Knee If you can afford the increased labor and environmental compliance costs, there's abundant business opportunity in China, both immediate and long-term. The national government said in mid-August that rebuilding the...

Reaching for the Pearl.
September 1, 2008... BYLINE: BILL DIBENEDETTO One of the wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China, was built to keep invading hordes out. Two thousand years later, construction will begin on what might well qualify as a modern engineering wonder - a...

Rail project gets public airing.
September 1, 2008... A proposed plan to modernize the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility that serves the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be the subject of a public meeting on Sept. 3. The governing board of the Intermodal Container Transfer...

Reality check.
September 8, 2008... The Port of Tacoma is catching up to the reality of current economic and trade conditions, especially in the trans-Pacific. Perhaps there was some denial occurring: At the beginning of the year, the port forecast that container volume would...

Transcom deploys box security system.
September 8, 2008... The United States Transportation Command said it has deployed a GE container security system that detects tampering and helps protect military container shipments moving from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Transcom, based at Scott Air Force Base...

Wal-Mart confident on China sourcing.
September 8, 2008... Wal-Mart said rising labor, production and commodity costs in China will not impair its ability to source products from China. Vicente Trius, chief executive of Wal-Mart Asia, speaking at the launch of the retailer's regional headquarters...

WTSA to simplify formula for bunker surcharges.
September 8, 2008... Shipping lines that carry U.S. exports to Asia on Oct. 1 will introduce a streamlined formula for determining the bunker fuel surcharges applied to containers shipped from West and East Coast ports. The 10 member lines of the Westbound...

Mexico opens bidding on Punta Colonet port.
September 8, 2008... Mexico's Department of Communications and Transportation has opened the bidding process for construction of a large port at Punta Colonet on the country's Pacific coast. The request for proposals announced last Tuesday is Mexico's official...

Taking Obama's measure.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: Ari Natter Transportation rarely gets mentioned on the presidential campaign trail. Issues around infrastructure are complicated, after all; the work is expensive and the entrenched view of roads as a local matter means they're...

Transport finds place on the ballot.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: ARI NATTER   Mike Erickson When Mike Erickson quit his job at Airborne Express to begin running his own business, he started working out of an office in the basement of his Portland, Ore., home. "For the first six to...

Fighting over the pump.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: ARI NATTER Concerned that a fuel surcharge bill might get tossed into the legislative pot during Congress' frenetic final push to head home and campaign, some groups are turning on the political afterburners in an attempt to stop...

FMC wants data from US-Oceania carriers.
September 8, 2008... The Federal Maritime Commission has ordered four carriers in the U.S. Pacific Coast-Oceania Agreement, and three additional carriers in related discussion agreements, to provide data under a Section 15 order of the Shipping Act. The...

FMC puts ocean carrier, terminal agreements online.
September 8, 2008... The Federal Maritime Commission announced it will each week publish agreement filing notices that appear in the Federal Register on its Web site, http://www.fmc.gov/. Under the Shipping Act, the commission is required to provide notice of...

Brazil seeks sanctions on US cotton subsidies.
September 8, 2008... Brazil has asked the World Trade Organization to impose sanctions on the U.S. worth up to $4 billion for subsidies paid by Washington to cotton farmers. Brazil recently won a six-year dispute with the U.S. over the subsidies, which Brazil...

Ex-Im Bank backs projects in Ghana, India, Mexico.
September 8, 2008... The Export-Import Bank of the United States announced its backing for major projects in Ghana, India and Mexico that could produce an estimated $850 million in U.S. exports of goods and services. Weldy-Lamont Associates Inc. of Mount...

India, ASEAN nations reach free-trade agreement.
September 8, 2008... India and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations have concluded six years of negotiations for a free-trade agreement aimed at creating a single market. Kamal Nath, India's commerce and industry minister, described the new...

Trade ties tangle exports of US poultry to Russia.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: ALAN M. FIELD   U.S. ports and exporters worrythat Russia willcut its poultry purchases next year. When bilateral political ties deteriorate, exporters are often the first to suffer. That lesson was driven home again...

US to expand country-of-origin labeling for food.
September 8, 2008... The Food Safety and Inspection Service is seeking comments on bringing country-of-origin marking regulations into line with recent changes by the Agricultural Marketing Service. Both agencies are within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ...

Logistics mergers lose steam.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: WILLIAM HOFFMAN As freight volumes and the U.S. economy sag, some of the bloom has come off the rose of easy-money-fueled buyouts so popular in logistics just a few years ago. Growing signs that a U.S. recession could spill...

India: Emerging market for US exporters.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: JAMES H. LAMBRIGHT   James H. Lambright Exports are a powerful engine for U.S. companies in the challenging headwinds of today's economy. Exports were up 18.2 percent in the first five months of 2008 and are on track to...

Importer seeks damages from Chinese NVO.
September 8, 2008... A U.S. importer is claiming damages totaling $170,860 against a Chinese non-vessel-operating common carrier in a complaint filed with the Federal Maritime Commission. Tienshan Inc., of South Norwalk, Conn., said that in April it paid in...

Asia airlines report 5.5 percent drop in cargo.
September 8, 2008... Cargo traffic for Asia-Pacific airlines fell for the second straight month in July, dropping 5.5 percent from the same month a year ago, according to the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines. The decline was the worst for Asian carriers in...

Sankyu expands in Vietnam.
September 8, 2008... Major Japanese transportation firm Sankyu Inc. said that its subsidiary, Sankyu Logistics Vietnam, has opened a new logistics center in Haiduong Province in the northern Vietnam. Sankyu Logistics Vietnam Freight Center is located within Tan...

Japan bank to finance Bulgarian box port project.
September 8, 2008... The government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation has signed an agreement with Bulgaria to provide an official development assistance loan totaling up to about 36.9 billion yen (US$339 million) to finance the New Container...

Fesco launches new container ship.
September 8, 2008... Far Eastern Shipping Co. announced that it launched a new container ship at the Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa shipyard in Poland. The 1,730-TEU Fesco Vitim is the latest in a series of vessels being added as part of the company's fleet...

Trans-Pacific outlook remains cloudy for carriers, shippers.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: BILL MONGELLUZZO Considering that the eastbound trans-Pacific trade is struggling through its worst performance since 2001 in terms of cargo volume growth, ocean carriers have much to be thankful for. Freight rates in the U.S....

India could be next in spotlight.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: Richard Knee They seem well equipped to handle current and projected traffic, but need to expand to keep pace with increasing ship sizes. Is the 18,000-TEU container ship coming to a port near you? It's possible, according to a...

Los Angeles allocates security funding.
September 8, 2008... The Port of Los Angeles has been awarded $10.06 million in fiscal 2007 California Proposition 1B grant funds for four security projects: a multi-agency maritime facility, a multi-vehicle inspection facility, a law enforcement tracking system...

STB seeks data on Seattle rail deal.
September 8, 2008... The BNSF Railway has asked the Surface Transportation Board to approve an "abandonment exemption" covering a nearly 13-mile section of track in King Country, Wash., a necessary step before the $107 million Eastside Rail Corridor sale to the...

Mexico's Pacific ports see increase in business.
September 8, 2008... Mexico's Pacific ports saw business gains during the first half of the year -- unlike their Atlantic counterparts. The ports on the Pacific saw average volume gains from the same period a year ago on containerized cargo, up 24.8 percent by...

Tacoma has 'reality check'.
September 8, 2008... BYLINE: BILL DIBENEDETTO   Tacoma expects container volume to decline 3.6 percent this year. High fuel prices, the declining economy and competition from Canadian ports have forced the Port of Tacoma to lower its sights for...

Roadlink hires Dimeo.
September 8, 2008...   Gary "Dino" Dimeo Roadlink Transportation Solutions recently hired Gary "Dino" Dimeo as area director of business development for Southern California. Dimeo will oversee carrier relations, develop intermodal solutions for...

AAPA committee honors Hueneme's Fosse.
September 8, 2008... Commissioner Ray Fosse of the Port of Huenene/Oxnard Harbor District was recognized with a lifetime achievement award for his long-term service to the AAPA's Finance Committee this summer in Vancouver, British Columbia. Fosse has been a...

Say what?
September 15, 2008... Anyone not living in a bunker the past year knows that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, under the guise of cleaning the air, want to reregulate and restructure the harbor trucking industry. The trucking industry, not surprisingly,...

Container forecast revised to show weak 2008 finish.
September 15, 2008... Retailers are forecasting a dismal close to an uninspiring year at the nation's seaports, with containerized imports projected to decline 6 percent in 2008. Port Tracker, which is published each month by the National Retail Federation and...

California sues two port truckers.
September 15, 2008... In a new move on drayage companies at Southern California ports, state Attorney General Jerry Brown last week filed lawsuits against two port trucking operators, alleging they mislabeled their drivers as independent contractors. Brown said...

Bush to nominate Connaughton to head FMC.
September 15, 2008... The White House said President Bush intends to nominate Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton as chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, for a five-year term expiring June 30, 2012. Connaughton has headed Marad since 2006....

India rejects Nehru proposal on port charges.
September 15, 2008... India's Tariff Authority for Major Ports has turned down a proposal by the Port of Jawaharlal Nehru to levy additional charges for inter-terminal handling of transshipment containers between its own terminal and the private terminal operated by...

Democrats blast Bush on cargo security.
September 15, 2008... The Bush administration has made little progress implementing congressionally mandated homeland security law, including several programs involving freight security, according to a report prepared by House Democrats. The report comes a...

Gypsy moth-infested ships turned away.
September 15, 2008... Maritime security forces, led by Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists, recently turned away at least two vessels from U.S. Pacific ports because of infestations of the Asian gypsy moth, the agency reported. The moth is...

The peak?
September 15, 2008... BYLINE: John D. Boyd This is normally the start of the peak shipping season, a time when import containers from Asia flood into West Coast ports and move inland toward store shelves for the big end-of-year holiday sales. It's called a peak...

ATA loses injunction bid.
September 15, 2008... BYLINE: Stephanie Nall and Bill Mongelluzzo   The ports want older, polluting trucks to be replaced. A federal judge last week refused to put an immediate halt to plans by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to decide...

Chertoff calls scan-all a poor plan.
September 15, 2008... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said proposals to scan all import containers remind him of "old Soviet-style heavy regulation - lots of visible people in uniforms, lots of visible mandates from government, all of which are designed...

Mainfreight launches customs brokerage.
September 15, 2008... Mainfreight, an international logistics provider, has established a customs brokerage operation to augment its freight forwarding services in the United States. The service now is available ateach of Mainfreight's 38 facilities in the...

Gulf of Aden attacks spark Marad warning.
September 15, 2008... The Maritime Administration issued an advisory warning mariners to guard against pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden. "There is extremely high activity in the Gulf of Aden with four vessels hijacked and two attacked" between Aug. 19 and 21,...

Koch returns to WSC.
September 15, 2008... Chris Koch, president of the World Shipping Council, returned to his office earlier this month after a three-month tour of duty with Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. Koch took a leave of absence in early May to be McCain's policy...

Crowley's move puts World Cup in Cuba.
September 15, 2008...   Crowley shipped broadcast equipment to Havanna. Soccer fans who tuned in to ESPN on Sept. 6 were able to watch the U.S. World Cup team defeat Cuba 1-0 in the first trip Havana by the U.S. team since 1947. The qualifying...

Mexico suspends exports of meat and poultry to US.
September 15, 2008... Mexico voluntarily suspended shipments of meat and processed poultry to the United States after the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture's Food Safety and In-spection Service identified systemic problems with Mexican sanitation controls and...

Four countries remove restrictions on US beef.
September 15, 2008... U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told a gathering of beef producers in Fargo, N.D., earlier this month that decisions by the governments of Costa Rica, Belize, Qatar and Ghana to allow U.S. beef and beef products from cattle of all ages is...

USDA seeks comments on Chilean citrus proposal.
September 15, 2008... The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wants to allow sweet oranges and grapefruit grown in Chile to be sold in the continental United States. Based on the evidence in a recent pest risk analysis,...

Panama's hub ambitions.
September 15, 2008... BYLINE: PETER T. LEACH One country, two oceans and a wealth of opportunity. That's how Panama sees itself as the country positions itself as the commercial and financial hub of the Americas - a veritable Singapore of the West. How is...

Asia-Pacific airfreight declines.
September 15, 2008... International air cargo fell 1.9 percent in July, dragged down by a 6.5 percent drop in air shipping in the Asia-Pacific region. The decline marked the second straight monthly drop in global air cargo and the steepest decline since the...

Evergreen, Wan Hai set venture.
September 15, 2008... Evergreen Line plans to introduce a new container service, the Japan-Taiwan-Philippine Service (JTP), in conjunction with Wan Hai Lines. The carriers will phase in three vessels on the joint service that is scheduled to start later this...

Hutchison drops plans for India.
September 15, 2008... Hutchison Ports, the world's largest container terminal operator, has ended its efforts to win approval to operate in India. Chief Executive John Meredith said in an interview with the Financial Times that the decision by the Hong Kong...

Japan's Yamato opens unit in China.
September 15, 2008... Japanese express delivery provider Yamato Holdings Co. has set up a logistics service subsidiary in China's Shanghai Wai Gao Qiao Bonded Logistics Zone. The subsidiary, Shanghai Wai Gao Qiao Bonded Logistics Zone Yamato Warehouse Co.,...

Nhava Sheva cuts free time.
September 15, 2008... India's Tariff Authority for Major Ports has ordered a reduction in free storage time for inland and transshipment containers moving through Nhava Sheva Container Terminal, operated by DP World at the Port of Jawaharlal Nehru. The decision...

Customs to refocus on high-risk trade corridors.
September 15, 2008... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson Customs and Border Protection has made a course change in its container security efforts. Officials believe they can still meet congressional demands to scan all containers bound for the U.S., and stick to the...

UN group agrees to reform cargo-liability rules.
September 15, 2008... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson   The new rules would replace a 7-decade-old treaty. There was the large room, and there were the small rooms. The large room was for official posturing. The small rooms were where everyone got down...

Railroads say they are ready for the fall.
September 15, 2008... Ahead of the latest hurricanes and tropical storms, railroad chiefs expected to weather the coming fall harvest and intermodal peaks without traffic tie-ups, partly because of overall weak volumes plus their built-in "surge" ability to meet...

Exports pump up Pacific Coast box volume.
September 15, 2008...   Exports have made up for lower imports this year on the West Coast. Another month of double-digit export growth helped West Coast ports in July to pull almost even with containerized cargo volume in 2007. Exports surged 18.5...

Everett to remodel marine repair center.
September 15, 2008... The Everett Port Commission recently approved a $200,000 design contract for the remodeling and expansion of the Marine Service and Repair Center building in the port's Craftsmen District. The remodel would include conversion and expansion...

Palin, Lingle take stand against California box fee bill.
September 15, 2008...   Vice presidential candidate Gov Sarah Palin opposes a California container tax. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has urged California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not to sign a bill that would impose a $30-per-TEU fee on containers moving...

ILWU warns ports on RFID use.
September 15, 2008...   ILWU officials say they won't let the ports use theclean-trucks program as a way to take away union work duties. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union's marine clerks local in Southern California is attempting to...

Menlo expands operations in Guadalajara, Mexico.
September 15, 2008... Logistics provider Menlo Worldwide Logistics is expanding in Guadalajara, Mexico; expansion includes the relocation of certain functions from Mexico City. Functions moving to Guadalajara will include sales, finance, administrative,...