Gulf Shipper articles from April 2008

Gulf Shipper archives from April 2008

NAFTA bashing.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: Janet Plume This year is turning out to be a tough one for free-trade agreements. The downturn in the housing market, the credit crunch and the recession have amplified the erosion of U.S. competitiveness in the global economy....

Bracing for the bow wave: Gulf ports prepare for September TWIC deadlines.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: Janet Nodar The Transportation Security Administration is supposed to issue somewhere between 1 million and 1.5 million Transportation Worker Identification Credential cards by September. But as of early April, only 203,000 TWIC...

Time for TWIC.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: BILL MONGELLUZZO Authorities push enrollment as deadline looms Please enroll. We're ready for you." That's the message to the industry from Maurine Fanguy, the Transportation Security Administration official in charge of the...

Shake, rattle and roll: Learning to read the cards.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: R.G. EDMONSON The Transportation Worker Identification Credential is nothing but a costly piece of plastic without the devices to read the data embedded on the card. Now that TWIC enrollment is rolling across the land, the...

Crews named security chief at Houston.
April 28, 2008... The Port of Houston Authority has chosen William H. Crews, former chief of security at NASA's California flight research facility, to be its first port security and emergency operations manager. Crews will oversee the port's police...

NIT League appoints Carlton as new chief.
April 28, 2008... The National Industrial Transportation League, the nation's largest shipper lobbying group, named longtime Maritime Administration official Bruce Carlton as executive director. Carlton succeeds John Ficker, who resigned last year to take a...

Horizon Lines promotes Avara.
April 28, 2008... Horizon Lines announced that Michael T. Avara has been promoted to senior vice president and chief financial officer. He succeeds Mark Urbania, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities in the private equity investment area, the...

Smith wins regional award.
April 28, 2008... Joe Smith, chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership's Transportation Initiative, won the annual Future of the Region Awards, a program of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Smith was selected from five nominees based on his leadership and...

Feldman named 2008 Person of the Year.
April 28, 2008... Lenny Feldman, a member of the international trade and customs law firm Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg, P.A., and manager of its Miami office, will be honored as 2008 Person of the Year by the Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarders...

CN plans $1.5 billion upgrades.
April 28, 2008... Canadian National Railway plans to spend more than $1.5 billion on its system this year, not counting what it may spend to upgrade regional tracks around Chicago if it wins approval to buy the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern line. CN operates...

Screening for insecurity.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: MICHAEL FABEY Forwarders worry mandates could spark diversions Freight forwarders may have thought they won a victory in legislation governing air cargo carried on passenger planes, but many now say new screening mandates...

WWL to add two vessels to Gulf-South America service.
April 28, 2008... BYLINE: JANET NODAR In May, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics will add two pure-car-truck-carriers to its existing Gulf of Mexico-South America ro-ro service. The new vessels will add capacity for carrying 3,000 cars a month, in addition to...

Global growth key to capacity management.
April 28, 2008... Container lines serving the U.S. trades plan to keep a tight lid on capacity increases this year to maintain a relatively even balance between growth in the supply of container capacity and demand for cargo space. Without a reasonably tight...

Caytrans BBC expands fleet.
April 28, 2008... Caytrans BBC LLC added the multipurpose 'tweendecker BBC Faaborg to its fleet, bringing the total vessels to four. The other three vessels in Caytrans' service are the Malte B, BBC Aramis and BBC France. Caytrans specializes in mining,...

Solving the food crisis.
April 21, 2008... BYLINE: Janet Plume Understanding the global food shortage is not a simple task. Your family budget no doubt has been hit by the higher food prices at the grocery store. But the 83 percent hike in world food prices since 2005 -- of which...

Cap-and-trade programs.
April 21, 2008... BYLINE: BILL MONGELLUZZO Supply-chain industry missing the boat As they rush to comply with a proliferation of anti-pollution requirements, freight transportation companies resemble a horse wearing blinkers. They see the finish line...

US-South America trade agreements:.
April 21, 2008... BYLINE: HERBERT A. SAMPLE Election-year roadblocks lie ahead An old political adage in Washington teaches that trade agreements should only be considered during odd-numbered years, not when voters are deciding your fate. But the...

Continental divide.
April 21, 2008... BYLINE: PETER T. LEACH South America's export markets expand Like the three blind men trying to figure out what the elephant looked like, anyone who examines U.S. trade with South America sees a kaleidoscope of contrasting market...

Industrial real estate takes off in South America.
April 21, 2008... BYLINE: DAVID BIEDERMAN Sustained economic growth and a rapidly developing consumer market add up to one thing for industrial real estate developers: opportunity. In South America, developers and related third-party logistics providers...

China and Peru plan to expand bilateral trade.
April 21, 2008... After completing a six-day visit to China and Japan, Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced that China and Peru would sign a preliminary partnership to increase their commerce more than fourfold by 2015. In November, the two countries...

Rising costs threaten China's export advantage.
April 21, 2008... The combination of cheap labor and low-cost ocean freight, which has fueled the boom in China's exports to the U.S., may be coming to an end, according to two supply-chain experts. China's labor advantage will come to an end by 2010 as its...

Minority-owned firms are more likely to export.
April 21, 2008... A new report by the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce indicates that 2.5 percent of minority-owned companies are likely to export. That's twice the 1.2 percent rate for companies not owned by minorities....

Technology streamlines agricultural trade.
April 21, 2008... Not many exporters know about PHIS, but those who do are enthusiastic about its promise of greater accuracy and less paperwork. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Public Health Inspection System is...

Equity firm invests in Intermarine.
April 21, 2008... New Mountain Capital LLC, a New York-based equity investment firm has invested substantially in privately held project-cargo carrier Intermarine. In a statement, New Orleans-based Intermarine said it had "secured growth capital" from New...

Cedar Port barge terminal opens near Houston Ship Channel.
April 21, 2008... Partners hope to shift boxes off roads and onto barges Cedar Port Public Dock, a barge terminal across the Houston Ship Channel from the Port of Houston's Bar-bours Cut container terminal, opened earlier this month. The Chambers County...

Oil expansion at home.
April 14, 2008... When we plan the agenda for the New Orleans Breakbulk Conference every year, we try to find a distant region of the world that is an emerging epicenter for breakbulk and project cargo movement. These are often rugged places with little...

Shortages of vessel capacity and containers frustrate forwarders.
April 14, 2008... BYLINE: WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER AND JANET NODAR Poor customer service and security rules create additional headaches Vessels are not made of rubber, and they cannot stretch. So says Barbara Platz, ocean export manager for Schenker Inc....

Maersk Line to drop NASA service.
April 14, 2008... Maersk Line said it will terminate its service between North America and the east coast of South America, known as the NASA service, on Aug. 17. Maersk had operated the service independently until last year when it entered into a...

CMA CGM, China Shipping end Liberty Bridge service.
April 14, 2008... Space will get even tighter on the trans-Atlantic for U.S. exporters with the termination of the weekly Liberty Bridge service. CMA CGM operated the service in conjunction with China Shipping. Each carrier contributed two vessels with a...

Wallenius Wilhelmsen expands intra-Americas service.
April 14, 2008... Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics is adding two pure car (and) truck carriers to its existing roll-on, roll-off intra-Americas service, effective April 28. The vessels will provide capacity for 3,000 cars per month. The carrier said the...

CMA CGM (America) LLC names Young manager.
April 14, 2008... CMA CGM (America) LLC appointed Jamie Young to the position of manager, import customer service. She will oversee the daily performance and quality of the import customer service call center. Young brings more than 13 years of industry...

Browning joins Intermarine.
April 14, 2008... Intermarine announced that Stacy Browning has joined its team in Houston. She will focus on the company's growing relay services. As a former Intermarine employee with many years of experience in its customer service group, Browning is...

USDA seeks advice on meat exports.
April 14, 2008... The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service is looking at ways to fully automate the paper-based application and export certificate processes for meat and poultry. The FSIS is developing a new program, the Public...

Hoist Liftruck seeks new export markets.
April 14, 2008... Marty Flaska, owner of Hoist Liftruck Inc., has gladly opened the door when foreign buyers come knocking. But now it's Hoist that will be knocking on doors overseas as it looks to take advantage of the opportunities stemming from the weak...

Hoist gets a lift from Hollywood.
April 14, 2008... Hoist Liftruck will get a lift next month when it is showcased on the Travel Channel program "John Ratzenberger's Made in America." The show will air on May 14 at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time. Ratzenberger, an actor who starred in the...

The aging manufacturing industry.
April 14, 2008... BYLINE: WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER The average American factory worker is 52 years old. That's a scary thought. And it's part of the reason why actor John Ratzenberger is on a crusade to promote U.S. manufacturing. "We're literally running out...

Container cranes arrive at Port of Mobile.
April 14, 2008... After an 11-week journey from China to the Gulf of Mexico, the Zhen Hua 7 vessel delivered two $7.5 million container cranes to the Port of Mobile's new Mobile Container Terminal in late March. It took China-based Shanghai Zhenhua Port...

Port Manatee is in the zone.
April 14, 2008... Since last October, Manatee County Port Authority Chairman Joe McClash has been meeting with landowners, leading maritime experts and port staff to refine an idea he calls the Port Manatee Encouragement Zone. On March 19, seven large...

Declining steel imports hurt New Orleans port revenue.
April 14, 2008... Revenue at the Port of New Orleans is expected to be 9 percent short of earlier estimates this year on plummeting steel imports. The port's dock board at its monthly meeting on March 28 voted to adjust revenue figures on revised estimates...

Port of Houston receives No. 1 ISO certification for its security management system.
April 14, 2008... The Port of Houston announced that its security management system was the first to receive ISO 28000:2007 certification. The system, which will be used by port police and for security operations, took three years to develop. ABS Quality...

The Year of Steel.
April 7, 2008... The weak dollar is converting many Gulf ports from mostly handling imports to mostly handling exports, and steel is one cargo following that trend. The U.S. steel industry has had a hard time competing internationally because of...

Chugging along on a green track.
April 7, 2008... BYLINE: JOHN D. BOYD Railroads work to lessen pollution from locomotives and operations Since the days when coal-fired locomotives churned out billowing black smoke plumes, railroads have rarely stood out as "green" companies. ...

Smoke alert!
April 7, 2008... BYLINE: JOHN D. BOYD New EPA rules mean locomotive engine rebuilds face tougher emission standards The Environmental Protection Agency is imposing tighter diesel emission rules, some of which take effect immediately, on locomotives...

Motor carriers turn to export market.
April 7, 2008... BYLINE: JOHN GALLAGHER As the trucking industry gets rocked by ruthless price slashing spurred by slack demand, more carriers are turning to the export market to make up the revenue shortfall. "It can be a hassle, but it's booming,"...

MSC hikes US fuel fee.
April 7, 2008... Because of increasing fuel costs, Mediterranean Shipping Co. on March 20 announced plans to raise the bunker adjustment factor on imports from Italy, Spain, southern France and Portugal to the United States. Effective April 15, the carrier...

Intermarine to raise bunker and canal surcharges.
April 7, 2008... Intermarine, agent for Industrial Maritime Carriers and West Coast Industrial Express, said the carriers are revising their bunker and Panama Canal surcharges to and from South America and the Caribbean, effective April 23. The new...

Intermodal center opens at former Missouri air base.
April 7, 2008... A former air base in Kansas City, Mo., has been transformed into the CenterPoint-KCS Intermodal Center by Kansas City Southern Railway, Centerpoint Properties, Hunt Midwest Enterprises Inc. and the Port Authority of Kansas City, Mo. The...

Cargolux expands service.
April 7, 2008... Cargolux announced on March 25 that it will start a weekly service to Miami with continuation to Houston before returning to its home base in Luxembourg. The flight will depart from Luxembourg at 8:30 a.m. every Sunday morning and arrive...

Auction-rate bonds torpedo ports.
April 7, 2008... Variable rates surge when auctions fail What if they held an auction and no one came? The collapse of the municipal bond auction rate market two months ago has some port authorities scrambling to staunch the flow of suddenly ballooning...

'Works hard and plays hard:'.
April 7, 2008... BYLINE: PAUL T. ROSYNSKY 2008 Bertel Award winner Danny Hughes In the four years that local businessman Danny Hughes has been on the dock board of the Port of New Orleans, he has dealt with issues his predecessors probably never...

Reserve Fleet sells vessels to recycler.
April 7, 2008... Two vessels from the Beaumont Reserve Fleet and two from the James River Reserve Fleet are headed to International Shipbreaking Ltd. of Brownsville, according to the Beaumont Enterprise. Beaumont Reserve Fleet's liquid bulk tanker Adonis...

WWL shifts port call in the Gulf.
April 7, 2008... Global roll-on, roll-off carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics has moved its North America-Middle East service's Gulf of Mexico call to the Port of Galveston from Houston. Galveston is WWL's principal Gulf call for its direct South America...

Beaumont approves new cargo wharf.
April 7, 2008... Port commissioners at Beaumont have approved construction of a $17 million, 650-foot general cargo wharf on the Neches River. The contract is part of the port's $52.5 million capital improvement program. The deep-water project is expected...