Florida Shipper articles from February 2007

Florida Shipper archives from February 2007

Pay as you go.
February 26, 2007... With a transportation crisis looming in the U.S. and already under way in Florida, road builders are championing dedicated user fees. One champion is Peter Ruane, president and chief executive of the American Road & Transportation Builders...

Distribution reinvention.(Company overview)
February 26, 2007... Lessons from Procter & Gamble The world's largest maker of household products is reinventing the way it ships products around the globe, cutting its distribution network in half and pushing more of its products into transportation...

PIERS economist sees economic rebound.
February 26, 2007... BYLINE: Michael Andrews The U.S. economy rebounded at the end of 2006 on the back of unseasonably warm weather and lower oil prices. The advance report on fourth-quarter GDP showed surprisingly strong economic activity and reassuring...

Logistics schools face student enrollment shortage.
February 26, 2007... Bill DeWitt's problem isn't getting students to pay attention in class. It's getting them into his classroom. It's a logistics problem of sorts, which is fitting, as DeWitt runs the logistics, transportation and supply-chain management...

Florida Shipper parent acquires AIG.
February 26, 2007... United Business Media PLC recently announced that its Commonwealth Business Media division, the parent company of Florida Shipper and The Journal of Commerce, acquired U.K.-based Aviation Industry Group Ltd. for $11.6 million. AIG...

Truckers, highway users team up against toll roads.
February 26, 2007... Opposition to the sale or lease of public roads to private investors is uniting trucking and consumer groups that more often are rivals. Americans for a Strong National Highway Network will try to reverse what they consider to be a...

Cuba ranks No. 34 of 193 US trade partners.
February 26, 2007... Don't tell anybody in Miami's congressional delegation, but Cuba remained one of the more important markets for U.S. farmers in 2006. U.S. food exports to Cuba totaled $340.4 million last year, with all of it cash on the barrel head. ...

Tropical to raise rates to Barbados.
February 26, 2007... Tropical Shipping said it will implement a general rate increase for service between the U.S. and Barbados on March 11. According to Tropical, the rate hike resulted from the increased cost of operations to the distant port. Rates will...

CMA CGM to add Miami call to Brazex service.
February 26, 2007... According to the Port of Miami, CMA CGM plans to add Miami to the port rotation of its Brazex east coast of South America service. Its first call at Miami is tentatively scheduled for March 21. The weekly service will offer calls at...

Bernuth sails weekly to Bahamas.
February 26, 2007... Bernuth Lines has begun a weekly service between Miami and three island ports in the Bahamas. On Jan. 25, the crane-on, crane-off vessel Nera II began calling at Governor's Harbour and Harbour Island in Eleuthera and Morgan's Bluff on Andros...

Seaboard upgrades Web site.
February 26, 2007... Seaboard Marine has upgraded its Web site to make it easier to track schedules, bookings, tracing and charges. At http://www.seaboardmarine.com, customers can create bookings on the Web, view and manage information on current bookings --...

MOL enters cyberspace.
February 26, 2007... In an effort to streamline contract negotiations with customers and give shippers an up-to-the-minute look at rates and services, MOL has instituted an Internet-based contract program. Dubbed the Contract Viewer, the new program allows...

All-water services grow more popular.
February 26, 2007... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach and Bill Mongelluzzo Rail rate hikes keep East Coast ocean services full Importers accustomed to shipping most, if not all, of their inbound freight from Asia to the eastern U.S. via West Coast ports are...

TWIC clock ticking for ports.
February 26, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Potentially costly deadlines loom for ports and terminals that plan to redraw restricted areas to reduce the number of employees and visitors who require the new Transportation Worker Identification Credential,...

Transport plan calls for user fees.
February 26, 2007... BYLINE: Earle Eldridge The White House message on transportation congestion is simple: Those hoping to avoid it will have to pay. User fees to pay for improvements aimed at relieving congestion in the nation's transportation network...

Or get off the DOT.
February 19, 2007... The Interstate System has dragged businesses and residences from the city centers to environmentally sensitive -- shall we say swampy -- cheap land, often purchased by informed politicos or their relatives and friends. Those roads are...

Growing ports mean growing pains.
February 19, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam The second week in February was an important week in Florida port development history, as experts on both sides of the county spoke the unspoken truth that growing ports mean growing pains wherever they prosper and...

Jacksonville courting Korea's Hanjin Shipping.
February 19, 2007... The worst-kept secret in Jacksonville is that the port's marketing eagle, Roy Schleicher, is deep in negotiations with Korea's Hanjin Shipping to open a second Asia-direct terminal sometime after the 2008 opening of the TraPac terminal for...

Marad head: ports must go 'green'.
February 19, 2007... Pollution from port operations is probably the largest deterrent to port terminal and rail expansion, said Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton at an environmental conference. The only way for ports to handle the projected doubling of...

EU says no to US-style box checks.
February 19, 2007... The European Union will not post Customs officials in the ports of its trading partners, European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Laszlo Kovacs has decided. According to reports in Europe, Kovacs informed a member of the European...

Container data now online.
February 19, 2007... With the release of the December 2006 trade data on Feb. 13, U.S. imports and exports of containerized data became available on USA Trade Online. The Web site -- www.census.gov/trade -- has long provided access of U.S. import and export...

Marine robots to patrol ports.
February 19, 2007... Marine Robotic Vessels International LLC will be unveiling its Interceptor Unmanned Surface Vessel for the first time in public at an Abu Dhabi security conference. This fourth-generation, modular, adaptable unmanned vessel has been...

Caribbean leaders agree on future trade relations.
February 19, 2007... The Caribbean Community held the first of its joint subcommittee meetings on external trade negotiations and the single market economy and concluded with a blueprint consensus among four of the region's heads. The consensus was derived...

Bahamas agribusiness eyed by China.
February 19, 2007... Chen Jingsten, China's first secretary, and Luo Xiaoqing, China's second secretary, recently met Godfrey Eneas, the Bahamas ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and Arnold Dorsette, assistant general manager of...

China is a powerhouse for Latin America.
February 19, 2007... Latin America could experience a trade boom in the next five to 10 years if China sustains its current growth rate, according to Andres Solimano, a member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America. He spoke about the...

Panama asks for IMO audit.
February 19, 2007... Panama, often an outsider on flag state issues, has decided to align with the International Maritime Organization's fledgling voluntary flag state audit scheme. More vessels are registered in Panama than any other flag state, a reality...

Hapag-Lloyd ads Port Everglades service.
February 19, 2007... With the addition of Hapag-Lloyd's Mediterranean and east coast of South America services this month, Port Everglades is moving to the forefront among Florida's seaports that handle containerized cargo, said Port Director Phil Allen. The...

PierPass survey: Trucker earnings rise.
February 19, 2007... Harbor truck drivers in Southern California reported that they are making more round-trips per day and their earnings are higher since the PierPass extended gate hours program was initiated at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach in July 2005....

Choices.
February 12, 2007... Halifax is a carrier-friendly port where the news that Maersk was dropping all calls was taken like a jilting by a fickle lover. The local business press and the regular press covered and analyzed the 10 percent impact that the Maersk...

Brazil: A challenge that likes a challenge.
February 12, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Slowed by labor unrest, corruption, a weak infrastructure, port strikes and the election cycle, the tenth-largest economy in the world grew by only 2.5 percent in recent years. Only Haiti, the poorest country in the...

Tradeshows coming to Brazil this Aprils.
February 12, 2007... Automec April 10-14 Anhembi Exhibition Centre Sao Paulo Automec will showcase a full range of auto parts and components, accessories and tuning products and repair and maintenance equipment. It is the event for the rapidly developing...

Maersk slashes US inland network.
February 12, 2007... In a radical restructuring, Maersk Line will slash the number of inland U.S. destinations that it serves through direct bills of lading beginning in May. The move means hundreds of shippers in the interior of the country who rely on...

Lawmakers restore highway funding.
February 12, 2007... In late-night negotiations on Jan. 29, House and Senate appropriators agreed to fully fund 2007 highway and transit money called for in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU law (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for...

House bill to revise trade laws.
February 12, 2007... U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., recently unveiled the Trade Law Reform Act of 2007, comprehensive legislation to reform and strengthen key U.S. trade remedy laws. English has introduced similar legislation during the past several years. ...

School to start trade program.
February 12, 2007... Jacksonville's First Coast High School is about to launch an International Trade Career Academy with the help of the Port of Jacksonville. Freshmen at the school can enroll in the program this fall, and all First Coast High students can...

Kalmar acquires US crane repair company.
February 12, 2007... Kalmar Industries has agreed to buy Port Equipment Service Inc., a Portsmouth, Va.-based company that maintains and repairs the kind of cranes and container-handling equipment that the Finnish group manufactures. Established in 2001, PES...

Panama Canal to raise container tolls 12 percent.
February 12, 2007... The Panama Canal Authority will raise tolls on container ships by $9 per TEU in 2008 and another $9 per TEU in 2009 under a set of proposals for restructuring pricing and fees that was approved by its board of directors on Jan. 25 and...

Ex-Im Bank to launch freight finance program.
February 12, 2007... The U.S. Maritime Administration has launched an initiative known as the Transportation Freight Financing Program. The new program enables any transportation logistics company to offer better terms to its customers and ensures that invoices...

American and Lan Chile ease fuel surcharges.
February 12, 2007... As fuel prices ease, airlines around the world began on Jan. 25 to lower fuel surcharges on cargo flights. American Airlines Cargo declared that for most U.S.-origin international shipments, its surcharge will drop from 50 cents per...

Feds hand chassis inspections to ocean carriers, railroads.
February 12, 2007... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach Ocean carriers and railroads will soon be required to perform the same safety inspections and maintenance on the chassis they own as the truckers hauling them perform on their trucks. Those requirements are...

UPS warns that 2007 profit could decline.(Financial report)
February 12, 2007... Net income increased 7.5 percent for UPS in the fourth quarter of 2006 as international business outpaced domestic revenue, and the express provider warned that a slowing U.S. economy could shave earnings this year. Net income in the...

Port and Terminal Technology: One-stop shipping.
February 5, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Kalmar builds, finances, maintains and operates terminal equipment After too many years of wheel-spinning, John Ballestero of Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co. stood among other executives awaiting the late...

Perils and pinnacles of technology.
February 5, 2007... Imagine you are Dave McDonald or Stan Payne. One of the major Asia liner conferences has decided to back a new container terminal in Florida, as California will be outpriced and outmoded when the Panama Canal expands to handle larger vessels...

Jacksonville wants to be logistics nerve center.
February 5, 2007... The Jacksonville International Business Coalition, the mayor and the port have been asked to collaborate to turn Jacksonville into the "Silicon Valley of Logistics," according to Mayor John Peyton. He said he hopes to enlist the help of...

Dubai targets trade zones.
February 5, 2007... Dubai World, the state-owned holding company, announced plans to invest about $790 million in setting up industrial parks in different parts of the world, including India. The company recently launched a separate division, Economic Zones...

Additional Asia link for Tampa.
February 5, 2007... Zim Integrated Shipping Services is adding a vessel to the Asia-Gulf Express (AGX) service, which calls at the Port of Tampa. This will bring the total to 10 3,000-TEU capacity ships in the AGX service. Tampa continues to be the first...

POMTOC elects Rovirosa.
February 5, 2007... The Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co. concluded its annual election and selected Jorge P. Rovirosa, executive vice president of Florida Stevedoring Inc. and Farovi Shipping Corp., as senior manager for the 2007 term. As POMTOC's...

Crowley adds ship to Virgin Islands service.
February 5, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp.'s liner services group will add a new ship to its U.S.-Virgin Islands trade. The Westerland will be the third container ship to sail on a weekly, fixed-day schedule between Florida and St. Thomas. The 502-TEU ship...

Crowley opens electronic notices in Puerto Rico.
February 5, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp.'s Puerto Rico-Caribbean liner services group sent its first electronic arrival notices for freight entering Puerto Rico recently. The notices, which contain the bill-of-lading information, give customers notice 24 hours...

Tropical Shipping christens shallow-draft ship.
February 5, 2007... Tropical Shipping recently celebrated the christening of its newest ship, the Tropic Dawn, at the Port of Palm Beach. Built in Indonesia in 2006, the 236-foot, shallow-draft ship can better service shallow ports in the Bahamas, Turks and...

Caribbean port management meeting to be held in Miami this month.
February 5, 2007... The American Association of Port Authorities' Executive Management Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean will be held Feb. 12-14, at Miami's Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel and Marina. It will cover the top issues relevant to Caribbean...

The agile port.
February 5, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongelluzzo Mike Lingerfelt, president of Washington United Terminals in Tacoma, envisions the day when ocean carriers will send strings of vessels from Asia to the U.S. carrying only intermodal cargo destined for inland...

Seaboard acquires, renames ship for S. America service.
February 5, 2007... Seaboard Marine has completed the purchase of the Karonga, a multipurpose vessel that has been used by Seaboard in the South American trade in recent years. The vessel has been renamed the Seaboard Reliance. Sailing from the U.S. to Chile and...