Gulf Shipper articles from January 2008

Gulf Shipper archives from January 2008

Still closing MR-GO.
January 7, 2008... Everybody except the Army Corps of Engineers said farewell to the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet in 2007. The corps had held out despite the mandate in the Water Resources Development Act and its own recommendation to shut down the shipping...

Uncle Sam in the Gulf.
January 7, 2008... BYLINE: David Beiderman Texas ports handle military cargo Military cargo is big but unpredictable business for a handful of Gulf of Mexico ports and specialized freight forwarders. Approximately 40 percent of all military equipment...

Associated Terminals beefs up top management.
January 7, 2008... Associated Terminals last month promoted seven employees into top-level positions. The promotions covered a wide range of departments including sales, business development and accounting. The promotions are as follows: Todd Fuller, a...

Ford awards Wallenius Wilhelmsen top honors.
January 7, 2008... Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics won top honors from the Ford Motor Co. for its logistics service and had a corporate account manager named Ford's "Logistics Person of the Year." It was the first time the company was recognized by the...

Port Manatee enters containerization era.
January 7, 2008... A new $3.9 million Gottwald crane sprang to life on Port Manatee's docks last month as it unloaded a container filled of Guatemalan honeydew melons from a Fresh Del Monte Produce ship. "This crane represents the future of Port Manatee,"...

Galveston wins wind power business.
January 7, 2008... The Port of Galveston will see more wind power equipment pass through its docks this year as Mitsubishi Power Systems America signed a lease to occupy 25 acres at the Texas complex, the Galveston Daily News reported. The two-year deal...

Alabama port agency buys land for Choctaw Point.
January 7, 2008... The Alabama State Port Authority agreed to pay $1.3 million for 46 acres of land on which it will build the Choctaw Point container terminal, the Mobile Press-Register reported. The land was purchased from the Mobile Airport Authority and...

WRDA could spur growth at Corpus Christi.
January 7, 2008... The long-anticipated passage of the federal Water Resources Development Act could result in development at the Port of Corpus Christi, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. The $23 billion federal bill calls for the government to spend...

Tampa growth tied to diversification.
January 7, 2008... Wainio delivers Tampa Port Authority's yearly address Overall tonnage was down slightly at the Port of Tampa between 2006 and 2007, reflecting the larger economy's weakness in the building trades. However, the port's container business...

Mobile handled record cargo in 2007.
January 7, 2008... A 50 percent increase in container cargo traffic coupled with a record year for coal shipments contributed to the Port of Mobile, Ala., seeing record cargo volume last year, the Mobile Press-Register reported. More than 27 million tons of...

Port Arthur makes way for liquid bulk terminal.
January 7, 2008... The Port of Port Arthur will develop a new liquid bulk terminal in hopes of increasing the number of crude oil shipments destined for Southeast Texas, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. Although they have not selected an exact location for...

Beaumont plans big expansion this year.
January 7, 2008... The Port of Beaumont, Texas, plans to spend about $9 million worth of bonds on construction projects to aggressively expand the port this year, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. Slated projects are construction of a new general cargo wharf,...

Survey finds Americans confused about free trade.
January 7, 2008... BYLINE: William Armbruster Advocates of free trade have a lot of work ahead if they want to convince the American public that trade is a force for good. At least that's a reasonable conclusion based on the results of a recent survey...

The Year of RFID?
January 14, 2008... This year is China's Year of the Rat. Whose year will it be for the transportation and logistics sector? One bright star that seems to be coming into its own after years of development is radio-frequency identification. Ports are using...

The Gulf's marine highway.
January 14, 2008... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Coastal shipping set to expand in 2008 Short-sea shipping has a new name, and the Gulf of Mexico may see new players this year. Sean T. Connaughton, U.S. maritime administrator, has renamed the Maritime...

Project cargo will defy recession.
January 14, 2008... Global slowdown will not affect rates An increasing number of economists are predicting a recession in the U.S. this year with damaging spillover to much of the rest of the world. This anticipated slowdown in global economic activity is...

Beaumont expects record tonnage year.
January 14, 2008... The Port of Beaumont handled more than 3 million tons of cargo during the first 11 months of 2007, and the port expects the yearly totals to break tonnage records set in the mid-1990s. "We feel very positive about this past year," Chris...

Houston approves $3 million in environmental projects.
January 14, 2008... The Port of Houston Authority Commission approved more than $3 million in environmental projects, including a $2.9 million contract to Republic Waste Services Inc. to provide trash disposal and recycling services and a $220,000 contract with...

Danaos orders three container ships.
January 14, 2008... The Danaos Corp., based in Athens, Greece, announced in December that it had ordered three 10,100-TEU container ships. All three will be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in South Korea for delivery in January, February and March 2011,...

APL and Marad sign formal training agreement.
January 14, 2008... In partnership with the U.S. Maritime Administration, global container carrier APL will train U.S. maritime academy cadets onboard its internationally flagged container ships. APL announced that cadets from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and...

Maersk names super-post-Panamax vessel.
January 14, 2008... The naming ceremony for Maersk Line's eighth and final ES-type super-post-Panamax container ship took place on Dec. 15 at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark. The Eugen Maersk is about 1,303 feet long and 184 feet wide and is equipped with a...

Deutsche Post stands firm in US.
January 14, 2008... BYLINE: Michael Fabey It was an express delivery company's nightmare: Police called in the morning of Christmas Eve to quell a queue of customers angry they hadn't received holiday packages and weren't getting the answers they wanted from...

Manatee County Port Authority elects McClash chairman.
January 14, 2008... Joe McClash has been elected 2008 chairman of the Manatee County Port Authority. A 17-year member of the port authority, McClash previously served as chairman in 2007 and 2003. He served as first vice chairman in 2000 and 2001 and second vice...

Baldwin to retire from International Shipholding.
January 14, 2008... Jimmy Baldwin, executive vice president with International Shipholding Corp., will retire at the end of the month after 30 years with the company. ISC suffered a serious blow when Hurricane Katrina struck its rail-ferry terminal at New...

Industrial Terminals creates express delivery lanes.
January 14, 2008... Intermarine announced that Industrial Terminals, the load center for its Americas services, has opened new express delivery lanes to expedite the receiving of pre-cleared cargo. Industrial Terminals, located on the Houston Ship Channel, boasts...

Construction decline predicted.
January 14, 2008... Carriers building their recovery hopes on a rebound in the construction industry this year should think again. The continuing slump is likely to affect many Gulf ports that handle construction materials. When the numbers are in, a key...

Who's the user?
January 21, 2008... It's the start of a new budget year and all around the country, politicians are looking for magical ways to buy things such as roads and bridges without it appearing to cost anything. Raising taxes has become a no-no, so we're casting about for...

Energy cargo powers Gulf-Africa trade.
January 21, 2008... BYLINE: Paul T. Rosynsky UAL plans to increase capacity The Gulf of Mexico's regional expertise in the oil and gas exploration industry is working to the benefit of shipping lines that sail between the Gulf and Africa. Demand for...

Kings Point steps up to the plate.
January 21, 2008... I read the article in the Dec. 24, 2007, issue of Gulf Shipper titled "Mineta calls for unified deferral maritime agency" with some initial amusement followed quickly by dismay. Although Norman Mineta has the right idea in that there is no...

County supervisors question Gulfport's expansion plans.
January 21, 2008... The Biloxi Sun-Herald reported that Harrison County supervisors refused to endorse a proposed expansion at the Port of Gulfport earlier this month. The port, which does not need the county's endorsement, plans to fill in 112 acres of water...

Corpus Christi approves increase in dockage fees.
January 21, 2008... According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the commissioners of the Port of Corpus Christi agreed early this month to increase dockage and wharf fees and a security surcharge, although not at the level the port originally requested. The...

Louisiana workers can begin TWIC enrollment.
January 21, 2008... Port and longshore workers, truckers and others at the ports of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Port Fourchon can now enroll in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential program. ...

New petroleum terminal coming to Texas.
January 21, 2008... The Houston Chronicle reported that Sempra Energy plans to build a marine petroleum terminal and storage facility in Port Arthur, Texas, to improve tanker access to four refineries. The company is assessing customer interest in the proposed...

Isabella Shipping adds Port Manatee call.
January 21, 2008... Isabella Shipping Co. will expand its South and Central America-U.S. Gulf service next month. The company has selected Port Manatee, Fla., as a new port of call. Isabella Shipping plans to deliver tropical fruits and vegetables to Port...

Intermarine promotes Gomez-Ducharne.
January 21, 2008... Intermarine recently announced that April Gomez-Ducharne has been appointed customer service manager in Houston. Gomez-Ducharne oversees all customer service-related activities for Intermarine's North American services. She manages the...

Crowley names Ara to VP post.
January 21, 2008... Crowley Maritime Corp. recently promoted John Ara to vice president with responsibility for the company's Atlantic-Gulf Coast commercial and marine operations business. He will reside in Houston and report directly to John Douglass, senior vice...

White (House) noise.
January 21, 2008... BYLINE: Ari Natter While much of Washington focuses on primaries and caucuses, the transportation industry is looking beyond this year's presidential election to 2009. That's when the highway bill that determines how much the nation...

Houston Air Cargo Association awards scholarships.
January 21, 2008... The Houston Air Cargo Association awarded $10,000 in scholarships this month to three college students who wrote award-winning essays on the air industry. Phillip Cohen, with the San Jacinto North Campus College in Houston, judged the...

Boeing sets freighter mark.
January 21, 2008...  Boeing reported orders for 83 freighters in 2007, a record, accounting for around $18.73 billion at list prices, or 10 percent of the plane maker's annual order book. The news is a further indication that the airfreight business is...

Food shock.
January 28, 2008... Just last month, this column reviewed how skyrocketing oil prices have contributed to the rising cost of food. There's a global shortage of grain, several foodstuffs have been impacted by bouts of bad weather, and the growing use of biofuels...

Tough 2007.
January 28, 2008... BYLINE: Janet Nodar  Diversification helps ports ride out the downturn The great construction boom has ended, triggering a drop-off in related cargo at many Gulf of Mexico ports. Throughout the region, imports of forest products,...

AgriWorld Exchange signs agreement with Mission Produce.
January 28, 2008... AgriWorld Exchange, an online perishable goods trading marketplace, said Mission Produce, one of the world's largest avocado producers and shippers, has signed an agreement to trade fresh produce using AgriWorld Exchange. The agreement enables...

Importers fear higher costs from 10+2.
January 28, 2008... Bringing goods into the country could become more costly once the 10+2 rule proposed by Customs and Border Protection goes into effect. The proposed rule made its debut in the Federal Register on Jan. 2. It requires importers to provide 10...

Industrial Terminals completes new heavy-lift dock.
January 28, 2008... Industrial Terminals, located on the Houston Ship Channel, recently completed a new deep-water dock for project and heavy-lift vessels. Designed to the heaviest load standards of any facility in the region, the dock features two gantry mounted...