Florida Shipper articles from November 2006

Florida Shipper archives from November 2006

E-Passport deadline passes.
November 3, 2006... The deadline for countries required by the U.S. to issue passports with radio-frequency identification tags passed at the end of October. All but three of the 27 nations involved - Andorra, Brunei and Liechtenstein - are now issuing the...

Leading Women in Florida Transportation.
November 6, 2006... Florida Shipper recognizes five for excellence in leadership In a complex trade and logistics market such as Florida, leadership matters. Where change can be rapid and sometimes daunting, individuals with experience, wisdom and patience...

Vision wi-fi.
November 6, 2006... The Port of Miami's visioning process should include the immediate application of orange bunting placed at the port to define the size and shape of the hole that must be dug for the ramp that will provide four-lane truck access, should a tunnel...

World box fleet tops 9 million TEUs.
November 6, 2006... The world container ship fleet has topped 9 million-TEU capacity and will balloon to 10 million TEUs next year as shipyards deliver a record number of increasingly larger vessels. At the start of October, there were 3,872 fully cellular...

US strips visas from Dominican politicians.
November 6, 2006... In a move that might be repeated for several other Caribbean and Central American nations, the U.S. State Department has stripped visas from 4,880 Dominican citizens in the last four years and 10 months, according to information obtained by the...

Cemex makes bid for Rinker.
November 6, 2006... Cement is big business in Florida and bigger business in Mexico where Cemex SAB de CV has often been accused of dumping to the detriment of Florida's cement industry. In late October, Rinker Materials Corp., the parent of the dominant Florida...

Maersk Line to add capacity to SAE service.
November 6, 2006... Maersk Line, which has been wooed by the Port of Mobile for its Fashion Express to Central America, has chosen to add two larger ships to its weekly U.S. East Coast-Central America South Atlantic Express, or SAE, service calling at the...

Gencom plans Bahamas Ritz-Carlton.
November 6, 2006... The Gencom Group plans to develop the Ritz-Carlton Rose Island on Rose Island at the mouth of Nassau harbor with an opening date of 2009. Major Bahamas construction and subsequent provisioning means big business for Florida shippers. The...

Tony Blair hosts conference on Caribbean investment.
November 6, 2006... British Prime Minister Tony Blair invited investors to London's Lancaster House for an event entitled "Transforming the Caribbean Economy - New Avenues for Investment." According to the organizers, the Nov. 2 event explored how within two...

Bush offers help and a shot at UN seat to Dominicans.
November 6, 2006... President George Bush and the leader of the Dominican Republic agreed on Oct. 25 to jump-start a delayed free-trade agreement to remove barriers to commerce between the two nations. Invited for an Oval Office meeting with Bush, Leonel...

AA Cargo system expedites perishables.
November 6, 2006... American Airlines Cargo division recently introduced AA Cool Perishables, which provides pre-cooling and expedited USDA and customs clearances for fresh shipments onsite. AA Cool Perishables is designed to assist in maintaining product quality...

Johnson appointed Port of Miami director.
November 6, 2006... Two Coast Guard veterans added for security George M. Burgess, Miami-Dade County manager, recently announced the appointment of Bill Johnson as director of the Port of Miami. Johnson immediately followed his appointment by adding a potent...

Port Canaveral approaches revenue record.
November 6, 2006... Florida's Port Canaveral expects to report record revenue of $51 million, for fiscal 2006, according to a statement from the port. The port's financial staff says that its preliminary figures show that total revenue for the Canaveral Port...

Auto logistics accelerate.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: Alan M. Field Not long ago, executives at TRW Inc. were surprised to discover that an important shipment of auto parts would take 45 days to reach a plant in Ohio from a low-cost supplier in Brazil. Unprepared for the delay, TRW...

Lambs or lions.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Professional politicians are already at work on the 2010 race for Florida governor and have been for the past six years. I first heard of Marco Rubio when a spin-doctor friend was hauling him around, introducing him as...

FedEx announces rate increase.
November 13, 2006... FedEx Corp. said it increased the net average shipping rate for FedEx Express by 3.5 percent, which is composed of a 5.5 percent average increase in standard list rates, offset by a 2 percent drop in its fuel surcharge. The new rates will take...

Oakland's Bridges named to Virginia post.
November 13, 2006... The Virginia Port Authority 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 meeting...

APM signs Jaxport lease.
November 13, 2006... The Jacksonville Port Authority's board of directors has approved a new 25-year lease with APM Terminals North America. The company, a unit of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk and one of the Florida port's largest tenants, has provided stevedoring...

Conference examines Caribbean investment.
November 13, 2006... Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo was one of several heads of state to address the Caribbean Investment Conference titled, "Transforming the Caribbean Economy: New avenues for investment" in London. Also addressing the forum was host of the...

St. Kitts looking to Middle East.
November 13, 2006... The growing number of Middle Eastern ships registered in St. Kitts & Nevis indicates a growing trade link, according to the island nation's shipping marketers. Speaking in advance of its regional debut at the Seatrade Middle East Maritime,...

Panalpina nears profit record.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: Bruce Barnard Panalpina, the Swiss ocean and airfreight forwarder, said it is on course for a record year after nine-month profits surpassed earnings for all of 2005. Net earnings in the first three quarters soared nearly 45...

Customs to play ACE in revising in-bond cargo import system.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson Importers' ability to move cargo in-bond from a port of arrival to an inland port of destination is a love-hate affair, especially for Customs and Border Protection officials. The in-bond system is a convenience...

Customs sets deadline for truck e-manifests.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: Angela Greiling Keane Truckers entering the U.S. at 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 by which...

Logistics cost savings lurk in hidden supply chain.
November 13, 2006... BYLINE: 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 that...

US ports escape peak congestion.
November 13, 2006... As November marks the end of the peak shipping season in the eastbound Pacific, the nation's retailers are saying officially that the U.S. port, rail and trucking industries made it through the busiest period of the year without any significant...

Grow power.
November 20, 2006... BYLINE: Rick Eyerdam Anyone who wonders how much a port can grow need only look at the 1950s era photo of one of the first container ships, the Gateway City gliding down Miami's Government Cut past the tiny sand spit of Australian pines...

Sorry, Denise.
November 20, 2006... I still have my first AP stylebook. It includes instructions on how to operate a teletype machine and warns that only the player selections made by the Associated Press should be called All Americans. In 52 pages, it has room to explain how...

Caribbean call centers touted.
November 20, 2006... Telecommunications executive Patrick Casserly recently addressed the conference hosted by the Caribbean Council at London's Lancaster House, entitled Transforming the Caribbean Economy, New Avenues for Investment and suggested that the...

Trucking company president charged with fuel theft.
November 20, 2006... Federal prosecutors have charged the president of a Miami trucking company and six of his employees from Miami with purloining at least 8,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel bound for customers. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office...

Deadline in doubt for Caribbean single economy.
November 20, 2006... The governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Ewart Williams, has expressed doubt that the Caribbean Community will meet its deadline for a single economy by 2008, according to reports from Barbados. "From where we stand now,...

Bahamas approves resort development financed by Tiger Woods, Ernie Els.
November 20, 2006... Tiger Woods and Ernie Els have received approval from Bahamian officials for a luxury resort on Nassau's New Providence Island they are helping finance along with a group led by a British billionaire. The $1.3 billion private residential...

Antilles Freight wins export award.
November 20, 2006... Antilles Freight Corp., a Florida-based shipping company, was named the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Exporter of the Year at the 24th annual Minority Enterprise Development Week (MED Week) awards gala, held in Miami recently. The...

CARICOM to benefit from increased EU subsidy.
November 20, 2006... Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, which were former colonies, are slated to benefit from a $200 million annual European Union subsidy beginning in 2007 and continuing through 2013. The promise by the EU comes in...

TSA to tighten 'known shipper' rules for air-cargo operations.
November 20, 2006... BYLINE: 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...

Airfreight volume climbs.
November 20, 2006... Global air-cargo volume increased by 5.3 percent in September compared with a year earlier, according to data from Airports Council International. Gains were led by the Middle East, up 16 percent; and the Asia-Pacific region, up 7.7...

Polar Air Cargo begins service to Beijing.
November 20, 2006... On Nov. 11, Polar Air Cargo began scheduled-service operations into Beijing Capital International Airport with two weekly flights. Polar now serves China through its operations in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The U.S. Department of...

FedEx cancels Airbus order.
November 20, 2006... Airbus's troubled A380 aircraft program suffered a serious setback when FedEx Corp. walked away from an order for 10 freighter versions of the superjumbo jet, the first airline to cancel a contract in response to lengthening delivery delays....

Trade with Central America.
November 20, 2006... BYLINE: Richard Knee CAFTA still too new to judge 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...

Raymond named Horizon chairman.
November 20, 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. He has held those positions and been a...

Shane, Widdows honored.
November 20, 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,...

Starkey named CFO at Port Canaveral.
November 20, 2006... Margaret "Margi" Starkey has been named deputy executive director/chief financial officer of the Canaveral Port Authority. Starkey began her career with the port authority as a staff accountant in 1993. She soon was promoted to assistant...

TNT Logistics adds two North America managers.
November 20, 2006... TNT Logistics North America has added James Coyle and Foster Thomson IV as business development managers. Based in Jacksonville, both will focus their efforts on development business opportunities with new customers in the fast-moving consumer...

CCAA to address critical issues Dec. 4-6.
November 20, 2006... The organization Caribbean Central American Action will address the critical areas of transportation, logistics and maritime security at this year's Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin. It will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dec....

Bitter brew.
November 27, 2006... The lessons from Seattle's loss of MSC When Mediterranean Shipping Co. decided to abrogate its 220,000-TEU commitment to the Port of Seattle's Terminal 18, the dynamics and risks of terminal marine operations and logistics became painfully...

Transportation management needs technology upgrade.
November 27, 2006... There is widespread concern by shippers that their current technology for managing transportation will not meet future needs. A study of 173 manufacturers, distributors and retailers by the Aberdeen Group of Boston made this conclusion. ...

Stocking stuffers.
November 27, 2006... In 2005 there were 883 reported Hispanic worker fatalities, marking an 11 percent increase from 2003, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the U.S. census, native Spanish-speaking workers totaled 38.3 million or about...

Ports plan chassis pool.
November 27, 2006... The port authorities of Georgia and South Carolina announced their intention to work with an ocean carrier organization to form a common chassis pool for the Southeast region. The Georgia Ports Authority, the South Carolina State Ports...

Central American countries pledge to eliminate corruption.
November 27, 2006... The Central American nations attending the 12th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Guatemala issued a statement on Nov. 15, pledging to build Central America into a transparent region free of corruption. Guatemalan President...

NIT League members urged to confront issues.
November 27, 2006... Dealing with the new "ICC" was a common theme at this month's 2006 TransComp and Intermodal Expo sponsored by the National Industrial Transportation League, the Transportation Intermediaries Association and the Intermodal Association of North...

CSX Intermodal details growth plans.
November 27, 2006... CSX Intermodal is combining technology, along with new and expanded terminal facilities, to meet growing demand for fast, reliable distribution of a variety of consumer goods ranging from television sets to tennis shoes, CSXI President Jim...

Jamaican prime minister: US passport move not linked to Chavez.
November 27, 2006... Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has dismissed the growing suspicion that the imposition of the passport requirement by the U.S. against air travelers is linked to CARICOM's collective decision to support Venezuela for the...

EU facing new fight over banana trade.
November 27, 2006... Ecuador has asked the World Trade Organization to rule that the European Union has ignored past WTO decisions and continues to discriminate against banana exporters. The filing by the world's biggest banana exporter is the latest fight...

Industry awaits new TSA rules.
November 27, 2006... BYLINE: Angela Greiling Keane The Transportation Security Administration has begun to focus on the new air-cargo rule that was written by industry advisory groups several years ago and released in May. However, last month the TSA pushed...

Democrats are expected to challenge how transportation systems are funded.
November 27, 2006... The sweeping Democratic victory in the House and Senate on Nov. 7 will reshape transportation policy for years to come and challenge a transportation industry accustomed to 12 years of Republican rule on Capitol Hill. The battle for...

New Model Intermodal Transport Agreement promotes uniformity.
November 27, 2006... The Transportation Intermediaries Association and the National Industrial Transportation League, the leading trade association representing the freight transportation industry, are offering a new Model Intermodal Transportation Agreement. It...

UPS expands global delivery options.
November 27, 2006... With international services by far its fastest growing business, UPS is adding to its delivery capabilities outside the United States. In what the company calls its biggest expansion in a decade for international parcel services, UPS said...

Fitch downgrades Port of Palm Beach outlook.
November 27, 2006... Fitch Ratings has affirmed the "A-" rating for the Port of Palm Beach District's outstanding $52.9 million port revenue bonds. But the Rating Outlook was revised to "negative" from "stable." According to the statement from Fitch, the...