Florida Shipper articles from December 2006

Florida Shipper archives from December 2006

Customs Update: SAFE Port Act details.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Susan Kohn Ross While Republicans and Democrats made the recently passed Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act a political plank in their election-year battle for control of Congress, it's worth taking a practical...

The stick, the carrots and other low-hanging fruit.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam In the wake of ugly storms and brittle budgets, Caribbean Basin nations faced the expiration of the Caribbean Basin Initiative with the dour certainty there would be no Free Trade Agreement of the Americas until Brazil...

Federal trade promotion resource guide.
December 4, 2006... General counseling and assistance:* Export.gov - the U.S. government's export assistance portal (www.export.gov). * Trade Information Center (TIC) - first stop for export assistance (1-800-USA-TRADE). * U.S. Export Assistance Centers...

Analysis: Irony time in Nicaragua.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam In Nicaragua, it is a time for ironies. President Bush has just returned from communist Vietnam where he wanted to present a completed free-trade agreement but was rebuffed by conservatives in his party following the...

ECLAC study: Regional port efficiency is a must.
December 4, 2006... There remains a great deal of room for improvement to boost the competitiveness of Latin America's ports, even though many have shown significant increases in productivity in recent years, according to a study released by the United Nation's...

ECLAC: Latin American debt down, uncertainty continues.
December 4, 2006... New Latin American debt issuance amounted to only US$3.5 billion in the second quarter of 2006, the lowest level since the last quarter of 2002, and a drastic reduction from the US$14.7 billion issued in the first quarter, according to the...

Simply irresistible.
December 4, 2006... When the Caribbean-Central America Action (CCAA) organization meets in Miami in 2007, the chances are very high that Fidel Castro will have passed and Cuba will be on its way, like China after Mao, to find a way to accommodate a dependent,...

US midterm elections and the Caribbean.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Sir Ronald Sanders In midterm elections for the U.S. Congress, the American electorate achieved what several governments around the world could not. It registered intense unease with the U.S. government's war in Iraq and caused the...

Subs to be recycled as anti-terror weapons.
December 4, 2006... The four oldest Ohio-class Trident ballistic missile submarines will be converted into stealthy near-shore reconnaissance and land strike platforms to deter terrorists and provide new attack vectors. The submariners and Navy SEALs will...

Canada sets background checks for port workers.
December 4, 2006... On Nov. 15, Canada announced it will conduct criminal background checks on the nation's port workers, just days after deploying a biometric identity card for airport workers. Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon announced the Marine...

Port of Los Angeles sets US TEU record.
December 4, 2006... More than 800,000 cargo containers transited the Port of Los Angeles in October. This marked the most containers ever for any U.S. port, according to the Los Angeles port. "I think we were ahead of them in February, but they have really...

Bernuth announces bunker surcharge decrease.
December 4, 2006... Bernuth Lines has implemented a decrease in its bunker fuel surcharge, effective Dec. 3. The surcharge decreased $24 for 20-foot containers to $120, $48 for 40-foot containers to $224 and $54 for equipment over 40 feet to $255. For...

SeaFreight lowering bunker fee.
December 4, 2006... SeaFreight Line reduced its bunker surcharge, effective Dec. 3. The surcharge dropped from $144 to $120 for 20-foot containers, from $272 to $224 for 40-foot containers, from $309 to $255 for 45-foot containers and from $6 per weight or measure...

Crowley reduces bunker surcharges.
December 4, 2006... Crowley has reduced bunker surcharges for Caribbean, the Bahamas, Virgin and British Virgin Islands beginning on Dec. 3. For the Bahamas, the surcharge on 20-foot equipment is reduced from $42 to $30 and for 40-foot equipment it dropped...

FAA could delay actions at Lauderdale airport.
December 4, 2006... The Federal Aviation Administration terminal area forecast due in January 2007 is expected to add a six-year window for expansion because of a forecast 10 percent reduction in operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. ...

Trade harvest in Hanoi.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Alan Field The U.S. and Russia signed a bilateral market access agreement on Nov. 20 that puts Moscow one step closer to joining the World Trade Organization. The deal, signed by Russian Minister of Trade and Economic...

US, Colombia sign trade pact.
December 4, 2006... The U.S. and Colombia have signed a trade promotion agreement that will eliminate tariffs and other barriers to trade in goods and services. The agreement removes duties on more than 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial...

City of Hollywood and Crowley come to the rescue.
December 4, 2006... In the spirit of goodwill, the City of Hollywood and Crowley Maritime Corp.'s liner services group recently joined forces to provide Higuey/Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with the first fire rescue truck in that municipality's history. ...

Analysts, carriers continue debate over economic forecasting.
December 4, 2006... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo During his seven years as head of the carrier discussion group that attempts to bolster freight rates and promote solidarity among carriers in the eastbound Pacific, Albert A. Pierce accepted his role as a...

Crowley moves logistics center.
December 4, 2006... Crowley Maritime Corp.'s logistics group has moved and expanded its Jacksonville distribution center to the Jacksonville International Tradeport business park. The new location is between the Jacksonville International Airport and the...

Grimaldi vessel makes first call at Jaxport.
December 4, 2006... The Grimaldi Group vessel Repubblica di Amalfi called at the Jacksonville Port Authority's Blount Island Marine Terminal for the first time in early November. With a capacity of 3,400 cars and 1,316 TEUs, the Repubblica di Amalfi is part...

CSA's Busby passes on.
December 4, 2006... Philip Fransioli Busby died Nov. 17, from pneumonia at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., surrounded by his loving family. Busby was pioneer in maritime transportation and the development of containers and a leader in the Caribbean shipping...

NOAA urges ships to alter course.
December 4, 2006... NOAA has announced that it will publish new suggested routes for ship captains to use when entering or leaving the Florida ports of Jacksonville and Fernandina, the Port of Brunswick, Ga., as well as in Cape Cod Bay off Massachusetts to reduce...

SunCruz deal working for Port of Palm Beach.
December 4, 2006... Facing declining bond ratings from a drop in revenue, the Port of Palm Beach commissioners were expected to vote on Dec. 1 in favor of leasing a berth to SunCruz Casinos to operate a 600-passenger day-cruiser. This follows a sour review...

Little time.
December 11, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson New Marad chief hopes to use short tenure for short sea So little time, so much to do: Sean T. Connaughton knows he has a narrow window of opportunity as maritime administrator in which to carry out his vision of...

G&G now short-sea shipbuilder.
December 11, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Each year when short-sea shipping advocates gather to raise the dead, the chant remains the same: * Short sea removes trucks from highways, saving lives and reducing congestion. * The Jones Act and the Harbor...

This is hard.
December 11, 2006... South Florida has some of the worst traffic in the United States. Influential business leaders have noticed this and formed the Meeting Our Vehicular Needs committee, led by Stanley Krieger, a volunteer and general counsel for Norman Braman's...

Q&A with Bob Kunkel: short-sea issues.
December 11, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson A few months ago, Bob Kunkel was frustrated. The idea of creating a coastwise system to relieve congestion on land transportation routes - short-sea shipping - had caught on among a handful of carriers who saw...

Study: CAFTA to spur US exports.
December 11, 2006... BYLINE: Alan Field Implementation of the United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) will provide U.S. manufacturers with a promising set of trade and investment opportunities, according to a new report...

Maersk Asia service drops Miami call.
December 11, 2006... The prospect of ocean cargo carriers dropping calls at U.S. ports to avoid the hassles and paperwork of post-9/11 security compliance became a reality recently with the final call of the Maersk container ship Jervis Bay to Miami. The...

US gives El Salvador $461 million.
December 11, 2006... On Nov. 29, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corp. gave El Salvador a $461 million gift for improved infrastructure and an antipoverty program intended to stimulate economic growth. "This agreement is a testament to El Salvador's strong...

Bahamas looks to foreign investment.
December 11, 2006... The Inter-American Development Bank has predicted an infusion of $18 billion in investments in the Bahamas, Minister of Financial Services and Investments the Hon. Vincent Peet announced recently. He told participants at the 2006 annual...

US envoy pledges port security support.
December 11, 2006... The new U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the eastern Caribbean, Mary Ourisman, has pledged assistance in keeping the ports of the Caribbean safe for Cricket World Cup 2007, according to local reports. According to the reports, the ambassador...

Puerto Rico textile plant to close.
December 11, 2006... Hanesbrands Inc. will close its Ponce, Puerto Rico, textile manufacturing plant and move production to existing lower-cost production capacity in the Caribbean basin by the end of January. The Ponce plant, which makes fabric for T-shirts and...

MIA avoids slow growth in airfreight.
December 11, 2006... International airfreight traffic slowed dramatically in October, traditionally one of the strongest months of the year. But Miami International Airport posted a 21 percent increase over the same period last year for international cargo, far...

Maersk expects $600 million loss.
December 11, 2006... A.P. Moller-Maersk recently said its container shipping unit will lose nearly $600 million in 2006 compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.2 billion because of falling freight rates and rising fuel bills. The world's biggest ocean...

New places, new problems.
December 18, 2006... BYLINE: Alan M. Field As Democrats prepare to take control of Congress in January, trade in textiles and apparel remains fraught with the uncertainties typical in the sector. "We are the canary in the coal mine," said Laura E. Jones,...

Caribbean cup half empty, half full.
December 18, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam The cup of promise embraced by Central America and the Caribbean Basin is half empty and half full, according to leaders who gathered in Miami in early December to discuss the future region. In one year in one...

Descend MPO to Congress.
December 18, 2006... It is time for the Miami Dade County commissioners, especially those who are on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, to descend into a seat in Congress. They have prepared for it and they will know exactly what to do when they get there. ...

US ramps up container security.
December 18, 2006... Every container heading for a U.S. port from Puerto Cortes, Honduras, Southampton, England, and Pakistan's Port Qasim will be inspected before loading, federal officials announced as part of the Secure Freight Initiative. Puerto Cortes is...

CCAA recommends Maritime Security Alliance.
December 18, 2006... The Caribbean Central America Action association has formally recommended that Caribbean Basin port states join together in a security alliance before the beginning of the Cricket World Cup to reduce security risks during the event and...

'Active' 2007 Atlantic hurricane season predicted.
December 18, 2006... The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will feature 14 tropical storms, of which seven hurricanes will be named, according to long-range forecaster Dr. William Gray. The Colorado State University team, led by Gray and Philip Klotzbach, failed...

EU trade chief wants pacts with emerging nations.
December 18, 2006... Peter Mandelson, trade chief of the European Union, announced recently that he will seek the right to negotiate bilateral trade deals with India, South Korea and developing Asian nations. Mandelson said the bilateral deals with India, South...

Making adjustments: Fewer peaks expected as capacity matches demand.
December 18, 2006... BYLINE: John Gallagher The prospects for growth of containerized freight look good for 2007, especially at facilities that have adjusted their operations to accommodate growth, experts say. "The container shipping industry has enjoyed...

Merry shipping.
December 25, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Florida shippers can expect mostly good news in 2007 Season's greetings, Florida shippers! Things are good and likely to get better. How much better depends on economic dynamics, any unanticipated fallout from...

Hum bug.
December 25, 2006... They call it Florida's road map for its economic future over at the booster zone known as Enterprise Florida. If it is a road map, it goes around in circles within circles, like a big wheel within a squeaky wheel. I wanted to read the...

Congress liberalizes textile rules to bolster Haiti.
December 25, 2006... Battered by regional blame for the botched overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide as Haiti's president, the White House has succeeded in convincing Congress to lend a hand in the rehabilitation of Haiti. The Haiti measure was one of a handful...

Democrats to call for scanning of all containers.
December 25, 2006... House Democrats intend to file legislation calling for scanning of all U.S.-bound containers, Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi said this month. At the top of the Democrats' "100 Hours" reform agenda is adoption of all of the 9/11 Commission's...

China, Cuba open eye clinic in Xining.
December 25, 2006... The eye hospital China-Cuba Friendship was inaugurated recently in the Chinese city of Xining in remote Qinghai province. The ceremony was headed by Bai Na, provincial vice secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Dr. Jose Ramon...

Ford awards Trailer Bridge exclusive Puerto Rico contract.
December 25, 2006... Trailer Bridge Inc., the tug and barge Jones Act carrier, has won the exclusive contract to transport new Ford Motor Co. vehicles to Puerto Rico beginning in 2007. "This is our largest award ever and we are delighted to be exponentially...

Ecuador proposes trans-Amazon landbridge.
December 25, 2006... Ecuador's president-elect Rafael Correa has proposed a land-and-river trade route linking his country's Pacific coast to Brazil's Amazon Basin, saying it could be an alternative to the Panama Canal. The highway-waterway route would provide...

CSI extends to Cartagena.
December 25, 2006... The recently announced expansion of the Container Security Initiative called Secure Freight, has been extended to Colombia. The National Nuclear Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection have signed an agreement with the...

New cargo link to Bahamas.
December 25, 2006... Miami is often one giant Christmas shopping excursion for Bahamian citizens who fly back to their islands with more cargo than actual baggage. Efforts to limit the amount of cargo that can be fitted on Bahamas-bound aircraft have been resisted...

2007 will be the year of '10+2'.
December 25, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson After more than two years of discussions with the trade community, Customs and Border Protection will publish rules in 2007 that require the collection of additional data on imports to improve the identification of...

Customs to phase in new import data requirements.
December 25, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson Customs and Border Protection intends to implement rules requiring importers to provide additional data to identify high-risk shipments by the end of summer, 2007, but the agency plans to phase in the "10+2"...