Florida Shipper articles from June 2007

Florida Shipper archives from June 2007

Sourcing China yet?
June 4, 2007... Congestion at North America's west coast ports and continuing capacity problems at major European ports have complicated the China sourcing equation to such an extent that companies need to consider alternatives, according to experts at Boston...

Hotbed for trade: Companies from the U.S., Europe, China and India vie for business in dynamic Southeast Asian markets.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: Rosalind McLymont Southeast Asia's growth potential leads to proliferation of free-trade deals It's no accident that GlobalWare Solutions, a supply-chain management firm, chose Singapore to establish its Asia headquarters. ...

Business calls for China and US reforms.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam In its first white paper following China's World Trade Organization phase-in period, the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham-China and AmCham Shanghai) said that growing U.S.-China trade and commercial ties...

China's new focus.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: William Hoffman More companies in China seek home-grown logistics solutions as domestic consumer market expands North American transportation and logistics companies are seizing the opportunity to expand in China and help lay...

Few issues threaten West Coast longshore contract talks.
June 4, 2007... East Coast ports can expect little growth from labor controversies out west, Pacific Shipper reported, because with no apparent strike or lockout issues to contend with next year, West Coast waterfront employers and dock workers have made it...

Pierce: TSA's days are numbered.
June 4, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Albert Pierce, former executive director of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, said that liner discussion groups "have three years, max, before they are outlawed just like in Europe." The outspoken...

FCBF selects new leadership.
June 4, 2007... The Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association announced its 2007 leadership team, with Fred Rivera, a seven-year member and former treasurer as the new president. He replaces Karma Ruiz who was named chairman. Rivera is a...

Pacer, Trailer Bridge offer joint Puerto Rico service.
June 4, 2007... Pacer Stacktrain and Trailer Bridge said they have established a joint service to move 53-foot domestic containers between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The cooperative agreement will offer fully integrated wholesale intermodal service that...

North Dakota seeks shipper for potatoes to Cuba.
June 4, 2007... The Associated Press is reporting from Havana, Cuba, that the state of North Dakota wants to ship potatoes to Cuba and is looking for an ocean-cargo carrier to move them while keeping them fresh. Representatives from two potato-producing...

Atlantic could spawn 10 hurricanes in 2007.
June 4, 2007... The National Hurricane Center said on May 22 that as many as five major hurricanes may form in the Atlantic Ocean this year. The center in its annual forecast said the hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 through November,...

China, Bahamas celebrate 10th anniversary of diplomatic ties.
June 4, 2007... A reception was held in Beijing on May 23 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of China-Bahamas relations, according to the local papers. The two countries established diplomatic relations on May 23, 1997. Trade volume between the two sides...

US air-cargo security faulted.
June 4, 2007... The Transportation Security Administration has not developed a strategy for inbound air cargo, or air cargo that arrives in the U.S. from foreign countries, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Homeland Security...

Canaveral appoints Curry director of operations.
June 4, 2007... The crew at Port Canaveral wants the world to know that Tracy Curry is taking the reins as the new director of operations on June 4, making local and national history. Curry is the first female in the port's 53-year history to run the...

Port of Miami cranes for sale.
June 4, 2007... With new cranes installed and operational, Miami-Dade County, Fla., and the Dante Fascell Port of Miami have put their aging gantry cranes No. 1, 2 and 3 with surplus equipment, spare parts and scrap up for bids. The General Services...

Hilton Head security.
June 11, 2007... While the U.S. government under the explicit direction of President Bush spends $1 billion a week in Iraq, Congress has been generous enough to spend nearly $250 million this year to protect the nation's ports and transportation infrastructure....

Tampa taps Asia.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Tampa leads Gulf-Far East trade growth The Port of Tampa's Gulf-Far East trade grew 151 percent to 8,325 TEUs in 2006, up from 3,323 TEUs in 2005. This placed Tampa in the lead in percentage growth among Gulf ports....

Competition of the mind.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: John Engler Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. In an era of unprecedented global competition, the realization that the U.S. is still the world's No. 1 manufacturing powerhouse strikes many as pure fiction. But it's...

Target and affiliate sue US over gender differences in tariff rates.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: William Armbruster Target Corp. and its affiliate, Associated Merchandising Corp., have filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, accusing the U.S. of gender discrimination in the tariffs it imposes on similar items of...

Caribbean services lead container ship arrival delays.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: Peter T. Leach Oceangoing container ships arrived on schedule less than half the time in the first three months of the year, and the poor performances cannot be explained by poor winter weather, according to the latest quarterly...

PierPass truck trips increase.
June 11, 2007... Terminal operators in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last year processed approximately 13,000 truck moves during each shift of the PierPass extended gates program. The traffic moving during the night shifts on weekdays and the...

CMA CGM (Caribbean) revamps Caribbean services.
June 11, 2007... CMA CGM (Caribbean) Inc. has upgraded its CAGEMA service in the eastern Caribbean and introduced a new sprint from Miami to Kingston at one end of its new BRAZEX rotation. This is part of a two-year effort to reduce transit times and increase...

Central America and Caricom begin talks.
June 11, 2007... The Caribbean Community and Central America recently conducted free-trade discussions in Panama. Caricom members and the CA-6 coalition of six Central American countries hoped to agree on a framework for negotiations, including locations...

Founder of conservative Cuban group steps down.
June 11, 2007... El Nuevo Herald announced in Spanish that Ignacio Sanchez, a founder of the conservative Cuban Liberty Council, resigned from the organization at the urging of the board of directors, after it was disclosed that he represents a French firm...

District councils assist exporters.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: Rosalind McLymont Private-sector volunteers supplement advice from Commerce Department It wasn't MicroCool Engineering Concepts' first export order, but at $500,000, it was the largest order the company had received in its...

Real estate firm to build south Florida inland port.
June 11, 2007... First Industrial Realty Trust Inc., the largest provider of diversified industrial real estate in the U.S., on June 4 announced it has acquired a 537-acre land site with vested and fully entitled development rights to construct more than 6.2...

Jaxport recruits corps engineer Murphy.
June 11, 2007... The Port of Jacksonville has named Army Corps of Engineers veteran Tim Murphy head of the newly created Department of Engineering and Construction. Murphy, a registered Professional Engineer in Florida and Alabama, has spent the past 19...

Brunswick wins Mercedes-Benz depot.
June 11, 2007... For two years, the Port of Jacksonville and the Port of Brunswick have been vying with the ever-changing flow of executives at Mercedes-Benz to secure the company's planned consolidated shipping center. Last month, the Georgia port won the...

World air-cargo growth slows.
June 11, 2007... Freight demand slowed for international air carriers in the first four months of the year, according to the most recent report from the International Air Transport Association. While passenger demand grew 6.7 percent, cargo growth was much more...

China, US agree to open skies for cargo.
June 11, 2007... China has agreed to lift virtually all restrictions on U.S. air-cargo carriers by 2011 and to allow more than twice as many passenger flights by 2012. The deal will lift all government-set limits on the number of cargo flights and cargo...

UPS and DHL expand services.
June 11, 2007... UPS plans to launch a new round-the-world flight this summer between Singapore and the Middle East, Europe and the United States. The Atlanta-based carrier said the new flight will improve pickup times and provide more airlift in response to...

Alitalia adds Milan-Miami freighter.
June 11, 2007... Alitalia Cargo has launched a weekly freighter route between Milan Malpensa airport and Miami International Airport, its 10th weekly service to the United States. The new trans-Atlantic route, which launched on May 18, deploys an MD-11...

Editors:.
June 11, 2007... Your Feb. 26, 2007, article, "Logistics Schools Face Student Enrollment Shortage," highlights the deficiency of student enrollment in logistics programs at colleges and universities. Not only are educators struggling to fill their classrooms...

Commerce Department publishes Trade Finance Guide.
June 11, 2007... BYLINE: William Armbruster The U.S. Department of Commerce has produced a free guide designed to help U.S. companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, learn the fundamentals of trade finance and turn export opportunities into...

Hope in NAFTA's record trade.
June 18, 2007... Seaboard's sage, Jose Perez-Jones, has been asked a number of times lately to quantify the benefits of the Central America Free Trade Agreement to the parties involved. He says he knows there is a benefit but the numbers are hard to parse along...

Change is in the wind.
June 18, 2007... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Mexico emerges, Maersk slips and Crowley dominates A subtle change occurred in Florida's container trade lanes from April 2006 to March 2007 as the hemisphere's two major free-trade accords and the growth of...

Agricultural shippers hit LA-Long Beach clean-air fees.
June 18, 2007... Exporters and importers of agricultural products warned that a proposed truck concession program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could increase the cost of shipping all containers, not just agricultural containers, through Southern...

Peak-season growth expected to slow.
June 18, 2007... 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 last year, according to the latest Port Tracker published by Global...

Clock ticking on Andean Trade.
June 18, 2007... The Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act will expire on June 30 if the U.S. Congress does not act to extend the agreement. Meanwhile, approval of free-trade agreements between the U.S. and Colombia, Peru and Panama have been...

China helps Cuba with port modernization.
June 18, 2007... Cuban ports will be revitalized following an investment plan of more than $180 million over three years, Prensa Latina, an official Cuban news outlet, quoted the official newspaper, Granma, as reporting. Gilberto Ponce Rios, deputy...

UN's ECLAC boosts Caribbean Basin short-sea.
June 18, 2007... The U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is promoting short-distance maritime transport to improve connectivity within the region, official Ricardo Sanchez told the South American news service BNamericas. ...

Taiwan, China duel for Caribbean Basin allies.
June 18, 2007... Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has decided to abandon the Central American nation's support for Taiwan in favor of support for mainland China. The Associated Press reported that Arias criticized Taiwan as being "stingy with aid to its...

Finding a forwarder.
June 18, 2007... BYLINE: Rosalind McLymont Picking one that's right for you is critical to export success You're exhibiting at a trade show, about to give up on finding new clients for the "miracle car wax" you sell to auto dealerships and retailing...

Customs appoints Winkowski field operations chief.
June 18, 2007... Customs and Border Protection has appointed Thomas S. Winkowski assistant commissioner for field operations. Winkowski is currently second in command of field operations. He will succeed Jayson Ahern when Ahern becomes deputy commissioner...

Ortiz and Lewis advance at Sea Star.
June 18, 2007... Sea Star Line has promoted Jennifer Ortiz to the position of district sales manager, Southeast, based in Jacksonville, Fla., and Pete Lewis to director of eastern Caribbean sales, a new position. Lewis will report to Bill Stallings, vice...

Hamburg Sud names Parker VP.
June 18, 2007... Hamburg Sud North America announced the appointment of Jeff Parker as vice president of customer service in charge of the company's Philadelphia Service Center. The Philadelphia Service Center oversees the management and handling of...

Quinter selected for international position.
June 18, 2007... Peter Quinter, a Fort Lauderdale attorney and occasional contributing editor to Florida Shipper, has been selected vice chair of the International Committee of the Broward Alliance. Quinter has been active in the trade and commercial...

TWIC delayed.
June 18, 2007... The Transportation Worker Identification Credential program is being delayed until the fall. The new start date is for the rollout of the Department of Homeland Security test program at the Port of Wilmington, Del., according to the head...

Pirated goods top $200 billion.
June 18, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Counterfeit goods surpassed $200 billion in value worldwide in 2005, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates in a new report. The 30-member OECD released the details of an 18-month...

DHL expands in Japan.
June 18, 2007... Express carrier DHL inaugurated its $41 million expanded facility at Kansai International Airport, Japan, on June 7. The 10,100-square-meter DHL Kansai International Airport Gateway, five times larger than the previous facility, is located at...

Airport planned for Louisiana.
June 18, 2007... The Louisiana Airport Authority is moving forward with a plan to build an air-cargo airport near Donaldsonville, according to a report in the Baton Rouge Advocate. The authority hopes to build the airport on about 25,000 acres of land in...

Landlord port.
June 25, 2007... Most of Florida's 14 ports are landlord ports that make their money leasing out terminal space and charging tariffs for the use of additional facilities and equipment. When a port runs out of land, as is the case with the Port of Palm Beach,...

Inland ports ahoy.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: Peter Leach and Rick Eyerdam Equity firms seek infrastructure investments When First Industrial Realty Trust announced on June 4 that it had acquired a 537-acre land site in Palm Beach County, Fla., to develop an inland port,...

UPS chief executive: Adapt, or become irrelevant.
June 25, 2007... Latin America will not be the next hot spot for trade and economic growth unless governments in the region address awkward and inconsistent customs and border issues, said UPS Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Eskew at a recent conference. ...

Miami Customs officials to release consolidated cargo.
June 25, 2007... U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Miami said they expect an increase in the number of intensive examinations for shipments identified as "high risk" because the new internal data system Customs has can do a better job identifying...

Port Everglades Terminal deploys container security system.
June 25, 2007... The Port Everglades Terminal LLC at Port Everglades, which primarily serves Mediterranean Shipping Co., has added a new technological innovation -- CommerceGuard container security monitors that can detect and report intrusion into a container...

Furniture from China targeted for sanctions.
June 25, 2007... The Peoples' Daily in China is reporting that China is extremely concerned over the U.S. decision to initiate an anti-dumping investigation of wooden bedroom furniture exported from China, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan said...

Crowley to take over logistics in El Salvador.
June 25, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. recently announced it will continue to provide logistics services in El Salvador using its own staff when its agency agreement with TranSebastian ends on July 1. Crowley began logistics operations in El Salvador in 1998....

Hilton to expand in Caribbean Basin.
June 25, 2007... Hilton Hotels Corp. has announced the formation of three alliances to construct 55 hotels across the Caribbean, Central America, Russia and the United Kingdom over the next five years. Hilton has agreed to team up with Caribbean Property...

Puerto Rico statehood up again.
June 25, 2007... The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill that could put Puerto Rico on a path to statehood or independence. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and Luis Fortuno, R-Puerto Rico, who say they have...

Security officers certified.
June 25, 2007... Thirty-two security officers from Antigua, Jamaica, Nevis and St. Maarten successfully completed the most recent port facility security officer IMO certification course staged by Security Administrators Ltd. Capt. John Ulett, managing...

Barbados Shipping Association elects St. Hill president.
June 25, 2007... Glyne St. Hill was elected president at the 26th annual general meeting of the Barbados Shipping Association on June 7 in Bridgetown. St. Hill is a member of the Caribbean Shipping Association's Silver Club and has been serving as the...

Distribution centers sprouting in Midwest.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: David Biederman Midwest cities that once were pillars of a heavy manufacturing economy have turned to newer industries such as biotechnology, life sciences and renewable fuels for growth and jobs. Now many are adding logistics to...

Public-private rail shuttles touted.
June 25, 2007... Rail shuttle services to inland logistics hubs could become a reality if local communities are willing to participate in public-private partnerships, according to a rail industry consultant. Based purely on economics, most rail shuttle...

Chile reaches out.
June 25, 2007... BYLINE: Richard Knee Country continues to forge ties with Far East and Europe. Trade with U.S. rises. So do shipping rates. Ocean shipping rates in the U.S.-Chilean trades are rising, and container ship capacity on the northbound leg...

Seaboard to add capacity on Jamaica loop.
June 25, 2007... Seaboard Marine has announced the purchase of the Romea, a "combination" vessel with roll-on, roll-off and lift-on, lift-off capabilities. The ship has been renamed the Seaboard Sun and will enter service in August on a rotation to Grand Cayman...

APL adds service.
June 25, 2007... Container carrier APL will add a third vessel string with fixed weekly sailings to complement its existing CAX and MCX services linking the U.S. East Coast and Central America, beginning on June 30. The first voyage of the Central America...

Task force to develop airfreight security strategy.
June 25, 2007... The International Air Transport Association and International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations will form a Global Air Cargo Industry Task Force in an effort to redirect homeland security efforts to place a greater security burden...

Air Cargo Americas Conference planned.
June 25, 2007... The annual Air Cargo Americas Conference, which is the Western Hemisphere's largest air-cargo trade show, is scheduled for Nov. 7-9 in Miami. The World Trade Center Miami organizes the conference, which has been around since 1991. American...