Gulf Shipper articles from March 2007

Gulf Shipper archives from March 2007

Labor crunch.
March 5, 2007... Everywhere one turns these days in the transportation industry, there is lament over the labor shortage. From longshoremen on the docks to ship crews, equipment operators and truck drivers, there are few ports that aren't hurting for skilled...

Wanted: drivers.
March 5, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Gulf feels effects of motor carrier driver shortage While a Katrina-exacerbated shortage of drivers has eased at the Port of New Orleans, motor carriers at the Port of Mobile, Ala., said they are still coping with...

EGL shops for a buyer.
March 5, 2007... Forwarder EGL is still looking for a buyer even as Chairman James R. Crane is looking for a new partner to buy out the company. Crane's proposed management buyout of the global forwarder hit a roadblock when financial partner General...

Forward Air hits speed bumps.
March 5, 2007... Airlines have regained some luster for Forward Air at a time when its core business appears to be wobbling. At first glance, the airfreight trucking company's results for the final quarter of 2006 and the full year suggest a brighter picture....

Louisiana exports make comeback after storms.
March 5, 2007... Louisiana exports have rebounded more than a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the state's coastal region, according to a report commissioned by the World Trade Center of New Orleans. With agricultural products leading the...

Coffee brews over US border.
March 5, 2007... Hoping to keep coffee flowing across the country's border, a trade group representing the U.S. coffee industry unveiled an Internet-based program to teach members about the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. The program,...

Crowley adds bigger vessel.
March 5, 2007... Crowley Maritime Corp. is strengthening its Central American service with a new roll-on, roll-off vessel that will add capacity to its U.S. East Coast-Central America northern zone service. The Stena Shipper, which can hold up to 150...

Rickmers-Linie hauls long loads.
March 5, 2007... Project forwarder Deugro Projekt GmbH and Rickmers-Linie last month completed the transport of a major project shipment on behalf of Linde Engineering for two air separation facilities under construction in Saudi Arabia. In addition to a...

Mediterranean Shipping adds Central America service.
March 5, 2007... Several Gulf ports now have additional access to Central America through Mediterranean Shipping's new service to Guatemala and Honduras, the company said last month. Mediterranean Shipping Co., which has Gulf sailings from the Port of New...

Port Fourchon elects new executive board.
March 5, 2007... The Greater Lafourche Port Commission elected four new executive board members to steer the port through coming years, the Galliano, La.-based port announced last month. The four new executive board members each have experience leading the port...

Maritime pioneer dies.
March 5, 2007... BYLINE: Joseph Bonney and William Armbruster Peter J. Finnerty, a key contributor to U.S. maritime policy legislation and regulation for more than three decades, died of an apparent heart attack on Feb. 8 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 64....

WTC names new president.
March 5, 2007... The World Trade Center of New Orleans has elected J. Dwight LeBlanc Jr., a New Orleans native with deep roots in the Crescent City, as president. LeBlanc, a partner in the law firm Chaffe McCall, has spent much of his career focused on...

Perishables on a tightrope.
March 5, 2007... BYLINE: William Hoffman Food shippers go heavy on technology, cross-docking Like so many shippers caught between rising costs, constrained capacity and increased consumer demands for more products at lower prices, food businesses are...

Dell targets supply chains.(Company overview)
March 5, 2007... BYLINE: William Hoffman Returning founder tightens efficiency, eliminates redundancies Michael Dell didn't take long after returning as chief executive of his namesake company to locate the source of the firm's recent financial and...

Shipbuilder seeks new site at Tampa.
March 5, 2007... A 22.5-acre shipyard at the Port of Tampa is being sold for about $100 million to Gibraltar Development, which plans to transform it into a residential community, the St. Petersburg Times reported last month. International Ship Repair and...

Gulfport recovery too slow, lawmaker says.
March 5, 2007... The Port of Gulfport has raised the ire of an influential Mississippi lawmaker who has complained the port's recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina are too slow and its leaders fail to recognize its importance, the Sun Herald reported last...

Two stevedoring companies merge.
March 5, 2007... Two stevedoring companies with a long history of servicing Gulf ports announced a merger last month that will create at least 72 new full-time jobs throughout the region. Pacorini USA and Global Stevedoring will combine services to better...

Bayport has growth spurt.
March 5, 2007... First Industrial Realty Trust has announced plans to build 1.3 million square feet of ware-house space near the Port of Houston's Bayport Container Terminal. Last month, the company purchased approximately 88 acres of land located between...

CSX to repurchase common shares.
March 5, 2007... Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. will begin buying back $2 billion of outstanding common shares, its board of directors decided last month, while also increasing its quarterly dividend on common stock by 20 percent. The decision comes as the...

ABX Air sees profit increase.(Financial report)
March 8, 2007... BYLINE: 3/12/2007 Cutting back operations for DHL is making ABX Air more profitable. The cargo airline saw its fourth-quarter revenue plunge 15 percent to $306.3 million, and its total 2006 revenue fall 14 percent to $1.26 billion, as DHL...

Growing trade imbalance.
March 12, 2007... There was little mention of any Gulf port at The Journal of Commerce's Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference earlier this month in Long Beach, Calif., where the huge box market with Asia dominates every conversation. We have been hearing for...

Copper capital.
March 12, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar The Port of Panama City, Fla., dominates the Gulf's copper trade, turning this niche markets into a specialty. The port went after the Gulf's copper business in the fall 2002 after officials noticed that copper was...

UPS given time to evaluate A380 order.
March 12, 2007... The last remaining order for A380 freighters is hanging by a thread. UPS and Airbus announced a restructured agreement for UPS's purchase of 10 all-cargo versions of the troubled aircraft, a pact that includes a new timetable for UPS to...

Record cargo continues at Fort Worth airport.
March 12, 2007... The Fort Worth Alliance Airport maintained its 2006 record pace for air cargo in January as more than 20,900 tons of goods were shipped through the North Texas airport. Highlighting that January record cargo volume was an Emirates SkyCargo...

Consolidators International boosts domestic service.
March 12, 2007... Banking on what it predicts will be a re-emergence of industrial production in the U.S., independent freight forwarder Consolidators International announced that it will expand service with the creation of a new domestic division in three of...

Fast track renewal uncertain.
March 12, 2007... BYLINE: Alan M. Field Future of bilateral free-trade pacts in question Unless the Trade Promotion Act, popularly known as "fast track," is renewed on July 31, the Bush administration's free-trade agenda will be stopped in its tracks....

Port of Houston to upgrade terminal security.
March 12, 2007... The Port of Houston will spend more than $11 million to improve security at its maritime terminals. This includes construction of new fences and access control systems. The port commission agreed to fund the improvements as part of a $20...

Port of Lake Charles names new commissioner.
March 12, 2007... Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has appointed Stephen Herbert to the Port of Lake Charles Board of Commissioners. Herbert will replace Leonard Knapp whose three-year term expired this year. Herbert is a registered professional land surveyor...

CCAA appoints Rosales president.
March 12, 2007... The Caribbean-Central American Action, the private economic development organization for the Caribbean, has selected a new president. Manuel Rosales took the post of president last month after serving as assistant administrator in the...

NYK shuffles top deck.
March 12, 2007... NYK Lines (North America) announced a new senior management team, effective next month, with the appointment of six executives to eight new positions. Tetsuichi Nozaki, current managing director of NYK Line (Hong Kong), will serve as...

Closure plans in works for MR-GO.
March 12, 2007... The Army Corps of Engineers will begin drafting plans to close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, reversing an earlier idea that called for the corps to strengthen its banks. The change came at the behest of Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who...

Texas grant provides funds for port worker training.
March 12, 2007... In a move to ensure enough qualified workers to fill future jobs at Texas ports, the Texas Workforce Commission awarded nearly $1 million for a training program to teach current and new port workers skills for success on the docks, the Port of...

Florida Rock signs lease with Port of New Orleans.
March 12, 2007... The Port of New Orleans' Elaine Street facility will get a $2 million facelift by a Florida-based company that signed a 20-year lease to move some of its operations to the Crescent City. Florida Rock Industries Inc., a Jacksonville-based...

What's in a name.
March 19, 2007... For the first time in many years, there are dramatic changes in the who's who list of major container carriers in the Gulf. As Laura Mecoy reports in this week's special report on the Top 10 Container Carriers in the Gulf, the biggest players...

Gulf's top 10: Gulf container carrier market stirred by mergers.(Company overview)
March 19, 2007... BYLINE: Laura Mecoy Last year saw more upheaval in the Gulf container market than anyone can remember, as several venerable names disappeared to make way for a handful of emerging giants that dominate the global trade. In 2005, CP...

Gulf ports bulk up: Strong volume growth continues.
March 19, 2007... BYLINE: Janet Nodar Bulk cargoes, massive imports and exports of essentials such as grain, petroleum products, fertilizers and even orange juice concentrate can take a back seat to breakbulk and container cargo, but they are still the...

Brownsville loses millions on bridge project.
March 19, 2007... The Brownsville Navigation District lost $15.4 million of taxpayer funds in a convoluted deal that had once promised a new bridge connecting the Port of Brownsville with Matamoros, Mexico, the Brownsville Herald reported this month. The...

Trinidad port hires SSA Marine.
March 19, 2007... SSA Marine, the giant Seattle-based maritime terminal operator, is now working as a consultant to Trinidad's Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corp., the port recently announced. SSA Marine will help the corporation run and develop...

Port of Brownsville seeks federal funds.
March 19, 2007... Officials from the Port of Brownsville are asking the federal government for financial help in their quest to widen and deepen the port's shipping channel and build a new dock. Three representatives from the port, two commissioners and the...

Intermarine expands fleet.
March 19, 2007... New Orleans-based Intermarine USA added a new vessel to its fleet, the third of six heavy-lift ships the company will add to its inventory in the next year. The Industrial Dawn, a D-class 8,000-dwt. vessel, is sailing on the company's...

Empty containers find homes.
March 19, 2007... The increasing problem of container imbalances in the ocean shipping trade is leading more companies to seek solutions through brokers who can help ocean shipping companies locate and utilize empty containers, a report released by a major...

Flat world, por favor.
March 26, 2007... The Department of Transportation's decision to make good next month on a decade-old promise to open the U.S.-Mexican border to trucks through a yearlong, cross-border pilot program may be a good idea at the wrong time. As with most any...

Border bottleneck.
March 26, 2007... BYLINE: Leticia Lozano Entering U.S. challenges Mexican truckers U.S. flags flutter in the distance as thousands of Mexican trucks rumble toward the Laredo, Texas, border crossing, one of the world's busiest trade routes, undeterred by...

Founder in new deal to privatize EGL.
March 26, 2007... After failing in his initial bid to take over EGL Eagle Global Logistics and make it private, the company's founder, chairman and chief executive announced a new effort with different partners. Jim Crane, 18 percent owner of the company's...

Averitt Express continues Midwest expansion.
March 26, 2007... Averitt Express, a Tennessee-based freight and supply-chain management firm, this month announced the expansion of a facility in Cleveland. The expansion project, which includes the opening of a new service center, will add 10 new...

JPMorgan eases border shipping.
March 26, 2007... JPMorgan Chase Vastera, a supply-chain and logistics management company, has created a new service dubbed Border Logistics Management, that provides a one-stop shop for companies shipping supplies across the U.S.-Mexico border. The service...

Berg Steel plans pipe plant in Mobile, Ala.
March 26, 2007... The Alabama State Port Authority plans to sell 86 acres of land in Mobile to Berg Steel Pipe Corp., which expects to close on the sale by late April. Berg Steel plans to use the site for a $75 million spiral steel pipe manufacturing...

Gontarski named Maritime Person of the Year.
March 26, 2007... The Port Manatee Propeller Club this month announced that Joe Gontarski has earned the Maritime Person of the Year award. Gontarski, who first moved to the Tampa area in 1976 when he joined the Port of Tampa, was given the honor for his...

Maritime labor leader Simpkins dies.
March 26, 2007... Talmage E. Simpkins, a labor leader in the maritime community and constant proponent of seafarers, died on March 11 at age 79. Simpkins, who began his career in 1956 as an administrative assistant to the executive director of the AFL-CIO...

Green Reefers launches Florida-Guatemala service.
March 26, 2007... Green Reefers ASA, a Norway-based shipping line specializing in frozen and refrigerated cargo announced the start of a new service, connecting the Port of Tampa, Fla., to Guatemala. The Green Toledo had its inaugural voyage earlier this...

Chubb expands insurance coverage.
March 26, 2007... Hoping to keep pace with the ever-growing shipment of goods overseas, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies this month announced a new ocean cargo insurance policy and a Web-based information portal. The new policy, which should be...

Lake Charles Cogeneration may build new power plant.
March 26, 2007... The Port of Lake Charles, La., may soon see a $1.3 billion gasification plant that would provide up to 200 permanent port jobs and bring at least 40 years of steady business, port officials announced. Under a deal with Lake Charles...