Gulf Shipper articles from August 2007

Gulf Shipper archives from August 2007

Steel corrected.
August 6, 2007... The lead sentence in last week's editorial proclaiming U.S. steel imports at a record in May was inaccurate. U.S. steel imports from China reached record volumes in May -- topping 523,000 tons or slightly more than one-sixth of all U.S. steel...

Intermodal evolution in the Gulf:.
August 6, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Which comes first, the cargo or the railroads? Gulf ports will be adding hundreds of thousands of TEUs in capacity over the next few years, including the continued build-out of Houston's Bayport, Phase 1 of the...

Barge firms still on hook for hurricane damage.
August 6, 2007... Three companies connected to a runaway barge that ended up in a residential neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina continue to face liability for the damage the barge caused. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ginger Berrigan ruled the court...

Corpus Christi seeks partners for container terminal project.
August 6, 2007... The Port of Corpus Christi ended an exclusive negotiation contract with the Spanish-based terminal operator Dragados-SPL to develop the La Quinta Trade Gateway Container Terminal, the Corpus Christ Caller-Times reported. The port commission...

Port of Pensacola struggles financially.
August 6, 2007... The Port of Pensacola once again failed to meet budget projections as disruptions at the Florida panhandle port caused a $9,000 shortfall, Pensacola News Journal reported. In the last year, the port has seen a 36 percent drop in revenue but...

Alabama law expands ports' jurisdictions.
August 6, 2007... State port authorities in Alabama won key legislation that will expand their jurisdictions to include their entire county of origin, The Tuscaloosa News reported. The expanded jurisdictions are scheduled to take effect in September. The...

New Orleans Customs office moves to temporary location.
August 6, 2007... Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened a temporary office at the Robin Street Wharf in New Orleans. The address is 1380 Port of New Orleans Place. A new office is under construction on Coffee Drive. It will be a...

First 747-400 delivered to UPS.
August 6, 2007... The first 747-400 in UPS's fleet arrived at the company's headquarters in Louisville, Ky., last month. The jumbo freighter will travel on the company's long-range international routes with a primary focus on trans-Pacific service. UPS...

Airlines raise fuel surcharges.
August 6, 2007... Jet fuel prices have jumped to their highest level in a year, reaching more than $2.20 per gallon in some markets and pushing airlines to increase fuel surcharges. Northwest Airlines, American Airlines and Cargolux were among the carriers...

Ports Association of Louisiana names McBride vice president.
August 6, 2007... The Ports Association of Louisiana, a non-profit trade organization that lobbies the state government on behalf of state ports, appointed Adam McBride vice president. He previously served as port director at the Port of Lake Charles. ...

Watered-down WRDA.
August 13, 2007... The Water Resources Development Act, the vehicle by which Congress authorizes new projects for the Army Corps of Engineers, is long-overdue legislation for the shipping industry. The 2007 bill includes authorizations for dredging to 50 feet at...

More manufacturing may head offshore.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill DiBenedetto Rising chemical costs threaten U.S. manufacturers The downturn in the housing industry, the subprime mortgage crisis and surging energy costs may be the biggest challenges facing the U.S. economy, but a...

US still top manufacturer.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: William Armbruster Production concentrated in industrial goods It's a bit of an exaggeration, but if you're in the container shipping business, it's easy enough to think that the only U.S. exports are wastepaper, scrap metal...

Fain to lead UPS Freight marketing and sales.
August 13, 2007... UPS Freight has appointed John Fain head of the company's global marketing and sales department. Fain joined Overnite Transportation Co. in 1982 as the firm's general counsel. Over time, Fain took on different responsibilities, including...

Hall to head Ceres North American operations.
August 13, 2007... Daniel Hall has been promoted to senior vice president, North American operations, for Ceres and Yusen terminals. Hall joined Ceres in 1992 as vice president of Ceres Marine Terminals' Charleston, S.C., facilities. In that position, he...

UPS Freight names Holmes president of trucking.
August 13, 2007... Jack Holmes, a 28-year veteran of UPS management, was named president of the trucking unit this month. He will officially assume his post on Sept. 10. After joining the company's West Chester, Pa., office in 1979 as a part-time employee,...

Lake Charles to boost security equipment.
August 13, 2007... The Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security awarded the police departments protecting the Port of Lake Charles a $50,000 state grant to help increase communication and visual inspection technology, the port announced. The Harbor Police...

Proposal advances to ban felons from port areas.
August 13, 2007... Congress has approved a proposal to ban "serious felons" from secure port areas. However, the felonies in question already are part of Transportation Security Administration rules. The House voted 354-66 to instruct its members of the...

Who will pay to fix Katrina's damage?
August 13, 2007... The Port of New Orleans' two-year battle to receive insurance money for the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina continues. Its primary insurer and the federal government refuse to pay, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The port is...

TraPac terminal at Jaxport moving forward.
August 13, 2007... The Tower Group Inc. has signed an agreement with the Jacksonville Port Authority to begin work on the second phase of the new TraPac Container Terminal project at Dames Point. Phase 2 construction is expected to begin in October. Tower...

Ilmenite ore returns to Gulfport.
August 13, 2007... Last month, the Port of Gulfport received its first shipment of ilmenite ore since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf area in 2005. The K. Silver arrived from the Port of Altamira, Mexico, and docked at the SSA Marine terminal on July 18....

Kansas City becoming important rail hub.
August 13, 2007... BYLINE: Bill Mongeluzzo During the railroad boom of the 19th century, cattlemen and farmers on the Great Plains looked to Kansas City as their gateway to the eastern United States. Today, Kansas City is a hot spot of railroad activity...

OH Logistics expands in Texas, Illinois.
August 13, 2007... Ozburn-Hessey Logistics has expanded its presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the opening of a distribution center and an international station. The new center spans more than 60,000 square feet. The Tennessee-based firm now has four...

Short-sea and trucks.
August 20, 2007... Advocates of short-sea shipping will tell you before they even introduce themselves that they don't want to compete with the trucking industry. Maybe that's not such a bad idea, given the state of today's roadways and bridges in the United...

Gulf-Mediterranean trade soars.
August 20, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Strong euro, cheap resin pushing exports Trade between the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean is considered "mature." One might also use terms such as stable, flat or less than exciting -- until recently, that is....

Stutin receives Crowley award.
August 20, 2007... This month, Tyler A. Stutin, a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy midshipman, received the Crowley Maritime Security Enhancement Award for his work while at the academy. Each year, Crowley presents the award to students who have demonstrated...

FKI Logistex promotes Roach.
August 20, 2007... FKI Logistex, a provider of integrated material-handling equipment, this month promoted Chris Roach to vice president of customer service for North America. Roach will report to Steve Ackerman, president of the company. Roach has more than...

Dillman rejoins Ceres.
August 20, 2007... Ceres Gulf Inc. has appointed James Dillman as vice president of Texas operations, replacing Cameron Simmons who is retiring. Dillman will oversee company operations at the Port of Houston and the Port of Galveston. In addition to being a...

Air cargo could benefit North Carolina.
August 20, 2007... Piedmont Triad International Airport and the region surrounding the Greensboro, N.C.-based airstrip should develop the area into a hub for air-cargo deliveries, according to John Kasarda, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of...

Largest ro-ro carrier hits US shores.
August 20, 2007... The world's largest roll-on, roll-off carrier, Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Faust arrived at the Port of New York and New Jersey last month. Built by Daewood Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in Korea, the Faust weighs more than 30,300 metric tons...

Crowley receives second of three new barges.
August 20, 2007... Late last month, Crowley Maritime Corp. christened and launched barge 455-2, the second of three new Heavy Lift 455 Series flat-deck barges from Portland, Ore.-based Gunderson Marine. The first barge, Marty J, was delivered in January. The...

Ballast water rules become more complicated.
August 20, 2007... A federal district court in Northern California has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to create regulations governing all water discharges from a vessel under the Clean Water Act. It's a regulatory nightmare in the making for owners...

Retelling Katrina.
August 27, 2007... This week marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, whose storm surge razed most of the Port of Gulfport and the Mississippi Coast, and then burst canals and drowned 80 percent of New Orleans, wrecking about one-third of the port and...

Two years later.
August 27, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Hurricane Katrina still shapes the coast Seven hundred and thirty days ago, a wall of water devastated the Mississippi, Alabama and eastern Louisiana coastline. That wall of water also surged across the Louisiana...

New ILA chief to address academy alumni.
August 27, 2007... Richard Hughes, the newly elected president of the International Longshoreman's Association, next month will conduct his first public speaking engagement since being elected. He will be a guest speaker at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy...

McBride still at Lake Charles.
August 27, 2007... To paraphrase a great quotation, "Rumors of my departure are greatly exaggerated." The article in the Aug. 6, 2007, edition of Gulf Shipper concerning my appointment to the board of the Ports Association of Louisiana contains an important...

MR-GO closing continues to hamper business.
August 27, 2007... The anticipated closing of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet continues to reverberate through New Orleans' maritime industry as a 107-year-old port business announced it would move some of its operations out of town, the New Orleans...

Port Arthur leases warehouse space.
August 27, 2007... Matrix Service of Oklahoma will lease 43,000 square feet of warehouse space at the Port of Port Arthur to store material that will be used to insulate liquefied natural gas storage tanks. The company plans to truck the insulation to the port in...

Midwest drought slows barge traffic.
August 27, 2007... Delivering this year's corn crop to the Port of New Orleans could be problematic as a drought in the Midwest is hampering the movement of barges along the Mississippi River, the southeast Missourian newspaper reported. Although the river's...

Louisiana exports continue to grow.
August 27, 2007... Louisiana exports are on pace to set a record as more than $13.4 billion worth of goods left state docks during the first six months of this year, according to a report released by the World Trade Center of New Orleans. Compared to the...

Texas gives green light to security funding entity.
August 27, 2007... A new security district that would govern the operations and maintenance costs of security infrastructure in the Houston Ship Channel is close to being created as Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently signed a new law establishing its rules. ...

Many oppose new container-scanning law.
August 27, 2007... BYLINE: Ari Natter Shippers will most likely be the first to pay the price for a recently passed homeland security bill that requires 100 percent scanning of maritime and air containers, and possible rerouting hazardous rail cargo around...