AS Daily

   The U.S. Transportation Department has allocated $15.6 million in federal emergency funds to Washington state to help repair the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River, which collapsed May 23.    A section of the four-lane bridge, located 60 miles north of Seattle, fell into the river after an overhead beam was struck by a truck with an oversized load, disrupting travel in both directions.    The funding follows $1 million in quick release emergency relief provid...

   A new test in the Pacific Northwest by U.S. Customs authorities to see how effectively and efficiently southbound trucks from Canada can be pre-cleared before crossing the border is limited to participants in the voluntary FAST security program, but will be open to all truck drivers when the pilot program switches after six months to a major crossing near Niagara Falls, the official in charge of the initiative said.    On Monday, Customs and Border Protection officers began pr...

   The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new hours of service rules, which require truckers to take a 30-minute rest every eight hours and impose a 34-hour restart for truckers, goes into effect in less than two weeks.    With the impending deadline fresh in their minds, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing Tuesday to get to the heart of the changes, what they will mean to trucking companies, and how they will affect the f...

   Freightliner Group has acquired European intermodal services provider ERS Railways B.V. from Maersk Line.    The intemodal operator said the purchase of ERS supports its strategy of developing businesses in rail markets beyond its base market in the United Kingdom.    Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed and is still subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.    Rotterdam-based ERS was started in 1994 as an intermodal rail freigh...

   MOL said the fore and aft sections of the containership MOL Comfort continue to drift in the Indian Ocean.    The ship cracked in half on Monday when caught in a storm and the crew successfully abandoned ship and were rescued.    The company said at around 4 a.m. local time, the two parts of the ship were drifting at about two knots near 12’57”N 61’10”E in an east-northeast direction.    The Japanese liner company said it has arranged for a patrol boat, which h...

   The Stifel Transportation and Logistics Research Group wrote Thursday it appears near-shoring in Mexico is taking hold, judging from discussion at the Nearshoring Mexico Summit held last week in Dallas by Armstrong and Associates.    “We heard of the northbound load imbalance from several presenters,” Stifel wrote in a note to investors. “Most agreed that it falls in range throughout the year (depending on seasonality) of two northbound loads for every southbound load to four north...

   The G6 liner carriers said Wednesday they will skip two sailings on their Asia-Europe Loop 7 service in summer as part of a planned vessel maintenance program.    The sailings to be skipped will be the westbound voyage 004W27 that would have departed Qingdao July 3 and the eastbound voyage 004E32 that would have departed Rotterdam Aug. 5. Port rotation for the service is Qingdao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ya...

   FedEx secured fourth quarter fiscal year operating profits of $1.1 billion, an increase of 11 percent over the same period in 2012, the company said Wednesday.    For its full fiscal year ending March 31, FedEx had operating profits of 3.2 billion, marginally lower than the previous year. Fourth quarter revenue was $11.4 billion, up 3.6 percent year-on-year, while full year revenue was $44.3 billion, up 3.7 percent on the previous year.    FedEx had net income of $679 mi...

   The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday rejected a request by Delta Air Lines to vacate the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s support of sales of U.S.-manufactured aircraft to Air India.    The court has asked Ex-Im Bank to further explain its financing decision for the Air India transactions, but it chose to leave undisturbed the bank’s financing of the Air India transaction and did not question the bank’s flexibility in carrying out its statutory mandate.  ...

   The Jacksonville Port Authority's board of directors voted Monday morning to offer its chief executive officer position to Brian W. Taylor, a former executive vice president and chief operating officer of Horizon Lines, which is one of four carriers that offers shipping services between Jacksonville and San Juan, Puerto Rico.    They also elected AT&T executive Joe York to serve as the next chairman, taking over from James Citrano on July 1.    Taylor left Horizon in...

   MOL reports its containership MOL Comfort has split in half, but that as of 7 a.m. the fore and aft sections of the 7,041-TEU ship continue to float with containers onboard in the Arabian Sea near the coast of Oman.    The company said the fore part of the ship is located 13’00”N 60’40”E, and the aft part is about 19 miles southwest from that point. At present, both parts of the ship are drifting in an east-northeast direction, the company said. It is arranging for tugboats to tow ...

   U.S. Bank has unveiled its Over the Road Plus card, an expansion of its Over the Road card offering, which enables drivers to easily purchase fuel at thousands of truck stops and other retailers.    The new card enhances U.S. Bank's offerings by adding checking services to use where the card is not accepted, pre-approval per-diems, and funding for emergency repairs. Fleet managers can, through a program tied to the card, manage fuel limits and gallons per fill up.    “By...

   NYK Line will launch a new roll-on/roll-off service connecting U.S. East and Gulf coast ports with the west coast of South America, starting July 24.    The service, called NYK Chile Express, will have a rotation of Baltimore, Jacksonville, Houston, Vera Cruz, Manzanillo (Panama), Guyaquil, Callao, Iquique, and San Antonio.

   Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled 6.4 million tons in May, an increase of 15.1 percent compared to April, the Lake Carriers’ Association said.    However, the association noted the amount was a decrease of 6.6 percent compared to a year ago. Loadings also trailed the month’s long-term average by 4.8 percent.    Shipments from U.S. ports totaled 5.8 million tons, a decrease of 2.9 percent compared to a year ago. The May total included 380,000 tons shipped t...

   Cargolux has added twice-weekly, direct service from Hong Kong to Columbus, Ohio, using Boeing 747-8 freighters.    The flights began Sunday, the same day the carrier unveiled new service into Brazil.    Officials expect goods on the route to include cargo associated with the fashion industry.    “We are pleased that we are expanding our North American network by adding Rickenbacker International Airport to our global portfolio of destinations,” Cargolux’s chie...

   Old Dominion Freight Line has relocated its Fort Wayne Service Center in Indiana to an expanded, 71-door, newly constructed facility.    The center, which officials call state-of-the-art, will employ 44 people.    “The improved facility allows OD to maintain its strong rate of growth in Fort Wayne,” the carrier's Randy Barton said in a statement. - Jon Ross

   Pilot Freight Services has opened a new station in A Coruna, Spain, and plans to open additional offices in Barcelona and Madrid by the end of 2013.      The company, which recently reported $500 million in revenue for 2012, opened its first European station in Amsterdam in 2011.    "We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the opening of our station in Amsterdam, as our customers have really seen the benefit of having Pilot employees on the ground in Europe. Ou...

   The United States and Canada on Monday began a limited demonstration program at the Blaine, Wash.-Surrey, British Columbia port of entry for pre-inspecting U.S.-bound trucks in Canada instead of on the U.S. side of the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced.    The first phase of the pilot program is designed as a "proof of concept" to determine the viability of assigning CBP officers to Canadian border facilities to pre-inspect trucks, drivers and car...

   The Sahil Group and Sahil Freight Express will open the 44,000-square-foot packaging and warehousing facility in Mumbai by Sept. 1.    The owners are currently looking for a joint-venture partner to help operate the facility, which is located near the Mumbai and Nhava Sheva ports. In specific the partner should specialize in delivering packaging to customers in India and globally, primarily in the healthcare, automotive, telecommunications and aviation industries, an...

U.S-EU free trade negotiations.    The United States and European Union announced during the G-8 Summit in Ireland that they would begin formal trade negotiations the week of July 8 in Washington.    U.S. and European Commission officials have been making preliminary plans for talks since the beginning of the year and the announcement follows final approval in recent days from the European Parliament.    Completion of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is expe...

   The portal-based ocean shipping e-commerce network INTTRA on Tuesday unveiled a new application designed to reduce the millions of manual transactions ocean carriers process annually.    The product, called INTTRA Change, will allow shippers to submit electronic documents to carriers in the output format from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or transportation management system (TMS) while allowing carriers to receive it in an electronic-data-interchange (EDI) format...

   Early aircraft retirement, a $1.7-billion profit improvement program and improvement in its express segment are reasons why Cowen and Co. is anticipating slightly better performance from FedEx stocks when the company releases its fiscal fourth-quarter numbers Wednesday morning.    Cowen predicts a lower earnings-per-share number than most analysts, but sees the steps FedEx is taking in the market as hallmarks of an improving company. Modal shift is affecting FedEx, but Cowen still ...

   The three largest container shipping carriers in the world, Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM, said this morning they have agreed in principle to establish a long-term operational alliance on East–West trades, which they're calling the “P3 Network.”    The carriers said the P3 Network would initially operate 255 ships in 29 strings with 2.6 million TEUs of capacity on three trade lanes: Asia – Europe, transpacific and transatlantic.    While the P3 Netwo...

   Austrian crane manufacturer Liebherr has opened a new $20 million sales and service center in Miami off Okeechobee and the Florida Turnpike.    It will serve as a major hub for Liebherr’s maritime cranes division and further strengthen its business relations to Central and South America and the Caribbean regions, said Gernot Schranz, president of Liebherr Nenzing Crane Co.    Liebherr called the 430,000-square-foot property ideal, stating the port of Miami and Miami Inter...

   Tay Yoshitani , chief executive officer of the Port of Seattle, and Phil Washington , general manager of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, were appointed to the Washington-based Eno Center for Transportation’s board.    Eno’s board also held elections for officers. Lillian Borrone , chairman; Mort Downey , secretary; and David Plavin , treasurer, were all re-elected to their positions for a one-year term.    DSV Road Ltd. has appointed Jesper Hansen as...

   The Jacksonville Port Authority board this morning voted unanimously to extend the contract for its chief executive officer position to Brian W. Taylor.    Based in Charlotte, Taylor has worked both in the public and private sector. He was most recently executive vice president and chief operating officer of Horizon Lines. He left the company in November 2012. Most recently, Taylor was senior vice president of sales and operations for New Breed Logistics in High Point, N.C. He...

   The Canadian Trucking Alliance has voiced concerns over the cross-border trucking fees collected by the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and is worried they may soon increase.    Truckers pay a fee of $5.25 to the U.S. agency every time they cross the border, according to the alliance, and a recent study that shows the fees aren't generating enough revenue could lead to a larger fee. The fees are assessed whether or not the carrier is carrying ...

   The European Parliament has officially given the green light to begin formal talks between European and American officials toward the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.    Official talks will now begin as soon as U.S. officials start negotiations, which means discussions will likely start next month or so, according to the European Union.    EU member states also sent out a list of objectives the European Commission should follow when negotiating.  ...

   The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced actions to manage the domestic sugar surplus, as required by law, while operating the sugar program at the least cost to the government.    “Record-breaking yields of sugar crops and a global surplus have driven down U.S. sugar prices and USDA is required to act to stabilize the domestic market. Today’s actions are designed to manage the sugar program while minimizing federal sugar program expenditures,” the department said.  ...

   MOL reports its containership MOL Comfort suffered a crack amidship and was ingressing water in the hold.    The company said the ship sustained the crack in the Arabian Sea (12'30"N 60'E) at around 7 a.m. local time on Monday morning while in transit from Singapore to Jeddah.    MOL said it was not possible for the ship to continue under its own power and, because damage was extensive, the 26 members of the crew took to lifeboats and were rescued by other vessels. ...

   Developers proposing to build a new canal across Nicaragua are targeting operators of large ships that will not pass even through the new set of locks being build at the Panama Canal.    "It has become imperative to develop and construct a wider and deeper interoceanic canal to support bigger load weight and generate greater efficiency," said  Wang Jing, the chairman and chief executive officer of HKND Group, in a statement posted on his company's Website .    Last w...

   Close to 90 percent of the union workers who voted have decided to strike at Menzies World Cargo.    The Heathrow-based workers are upset their pay has been frozen for the last two years.    “Our door is always open, but time is running out," Oliver Richardson of Unite, Britain's largest trade union, said in a statement. "Unless we get some movement in the next few days we will have no choice but to announce a strike date. It is completely unreasonable for a successful co...

   The Port of Los Angeles saw container volumes drop 12.9 percent in May, continuing the trend at the nation’s busiest container port this year.    Volume fell to 636,851 TEUs during the month, including a 12 percent drop in loaded import cargo (to 326,114 TEUs), and a 16.3 percent drop in loaded export cargo (to 154,904 TEUs).    For the year, total volume has dropped 7.5 percent to less than 3.1 million TEUs. May statistics at the neighboring Port of Long Beach have not ...

   The U.K. consulting and research firm Transport Intelligence (Ti) said the global contract logistics market grew 3.4 percent by value in 2012, but warned that growth hides “increasing divergence in the performance of regional markets.”    Ti’s latest report Global Contract Logistics 2013 , found growth in emerging markets is much higher than those in Europe or North America. The Middle East market grew at 5.7 percent, while the Asian contract logistics market grew at 6 percen...

   The shipping consultants Drewry are predicting that the westbound cargo growth in the Mediterranean-North America trade "is likely to remain poor, so more schedules between the Mediterranean and ECNA (East Coast North America) will need to be rationalized soon. Operating services in isolation, such Hapag-Lloyd’s MGX schedule, and MSC’s loops A and B, appears to be a luxury that is no longer affordable."    The London-based company said in its Container Insight Weekly publication t...

   Cargolux launched Boeing 747-8 service from Luxembourg to Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 16, marking the first ever freighter flight of this size plane into the country.    Viracopos International Airport is the only airport in Brazil certified for 747-8 service.     Officials expect auto parts, pharmaceutical products and fruit to serve as the main exports from Brazil.    "We are extremely pleased to see our new flagship freighter eventually operating to a ...

   Old Dominion Freight will increase its base rates by about 4.9 percent on July 1.    According to officials, the new rates will offset new equipment costs, preserve competitive waves and healthcare for workers, and leave room for a "nominal increase" on lane charges.    “We are sensitive to our customers’ budgets, and we are always reluctant to raise our rates,” Old Dominion’s vice president of pricing, Todd Polen, said in a statement. “This increase is in line with our ...

   COSCO Pacific reports that it handled 5.1 million TEUs in May, 7.6 percent more than in May 2012.    Year to date, the company has handled 24.4 million TEUs, 10.1 more than in the first five months of 2012. - Chris Dupin

   Global Aviation Holdings has named John Graber its new chief executive officer.    During his career, Graber has been creditd with leading successful turnarounds for several major companies. He most recently served as president of CHC Helicopter Services, where he grew revenues and simplified the corporate structure. Prior to that, he was president of ABX Air.    Charlie McDonald will continue to serve as president.    Global Aviation Holdings is the parent comp...

   Canadian and U.S. truckers have complained about punitive measures following C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) security breaches, and the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to make suspension or removal from the program not immediate.    The department has also published a document outlining the measures it will take when security breaches occur.    Carriers had been concerned about the lack of transparency involved in security-b...

   The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) in the group’s effort to turn back the Port of Los Angeles' efforts to regulate the drayage trucking industry.    In 2007, the port created a Clean Truck Program that required trucking companies operating at the port to enter into concession agreements.    The concession agreements made a number of requirements on drayage companies including these five: that they be emplo...

   U.S. exporters are focusing their ire on the Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT), Mexico’s tax agency for what they see as an increasing number of costly, time-consuming NAFTA audits and re-audits by the agency.    These exporters say the current Mexican government had promised to streamline the audit process.     “NAFTA rules of origin in this industry are very complex and require review of multiple levels of processing, which usually occurs at different com...

   A bill to halt shipping fees charged by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was approved Thursday by the New Jersey Senate Transportation Committee.    “Imposing a fee on ocean carriers was a step in the wrong direction," said State Sen. Bob Gordon. He added the fee placed the port at a "competitive disadvantage."    In 2011, the port authority instituted a cargo facility charge (CFC) on all waterborne cargo, including empty containers. The fee is $4.95 for 20-f...

   French liner carrier CMA CGM has announced a "revenue restoration program" on its Asia-Europe trade lane .    Outbound from Europe, the company said it will impose a general rate increase on July 1 of $150 per 20-foot container and $200 per 40-foot container from North Europe (defined as North Continent, Scandinavia, Baltic, and the United Kingdom) to the Far East (defined as China, Japan, Korea, and and Southeast Asia countries).    Also on July 1, CMA CGM&nbs...

   The Canadian government has unveiled plans for a new airport, among other developments, at the federally-owned Pickering Lands site outside of Toronto.    The new airport will replace Buttonville Municipal Airport, which is to be redeveloped as a mixed-use site.    “There will be land for an airport, there will be urban and industrial development and there will be considerable green space on these lands,” said Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty said in a statement. "We...

   The U.K.-based supplier of customs software Impatex said Friday that its Web-based freight management and customs processing package NetFreight is now available in the cloud, following an alliance with freight industry hardware specialist Albacore Systems.    NetFreight, launched in 2005 and acquired by Impatex in 2007, was designed as a browser-based system, operating either on a user’s in-house server, or on an external, hosted server.    “In practice, most NetFreight ...

   The first of Maersk's new "Triple-E" ships was officially named this morning in a ceremony at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Okpo, South Korea.    The world's largest containership bears the name of the late Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, who passed away in April 2012 at the age of 98. Triple-E naming ceremony    His youngest daughter, Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, had the honor of naming the ship during the ceremony, which is the first in a ser...

   The U.S. Export-Import Bank has signed a City/State Partnership with the Tennessee Small Business Development Center to help boost jobs in the state by promoting exports.    "The partnership will bring foreign markets within reach of Tennessee businesses and support thousands of local small-business jobs,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg in a statement.    The Tennessee Small Business Development Center (TSBDC) program is headquartered a...

   Last year, one in four of the more than 607,000 bridges that dot the United States was deemed deficient and is either racked with structural issues or is so obsolete it isn't suitable for traffic.    In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office found there has been some improvement to bridge safety — the number of deficient bridges has decreased in the past decade — but there are still funding issues. And the overall funding picture is murky at best. &nb...

   Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said Wednesday in a hearing the requirement that half of U.S. food aid be move on U.S.-flag vessels is an ”impediment to an effective, efficient program. ”    “Decades ago, this cargo preference was seen as a way to ensure a reserve of ships and crew for the U.S. Navy in times of war. But by restricting competition to the few U.S.-flagged ships still sailing—the majority of which do not meet the ...

   The U.S. agribusiness Cargill said Thursday it has expanded its operational use of CargoDocs, an electronic bill of lading (eB/Ls) solution, to include agricultural shipments from South America.    Cargill first used the solution on a shipment of grain from Houston to Veracruz, Mexico in March.    Electronic Shipping Solutions (ESS), a provider of shipping and trade document and data solutions, is partnering with Cargill to include new trade routes from Argentina and Bra...

   For the next few weeks, increased activity in the Southern Midwest due to the wheat harvest season will drive up rates, according to bulk freight industry watchers.    Many carriers in the area will be tied up as part of harvest programs that pay double the usual truck rates.    Wheat harvest season will start within the week in Northern Texas and Southern Oklahoma, according to reports. Some in the industry are predicting a larger-than-usual crop for Kansas.   ...

   The U.S. Department of Transportation is distributing money awarded last June in the fourth round of TIGER grants.     The City of Bayonne, N.J., and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey received an $11.4 million grant on May 22 that will be used by Global Marine Terminals as part of its $350 million expansion and renovation. The TIGER funds will go to the purchase of two double-cantilever rail-mounted gantry cranes capable of loading and unloading double-stack ...

   TruStar Energy will build a compressed natural gas fast-fill station for Kalmbach Feeds near the company's Ohio manufacturing plant.    The station, which will allow two vehicles to fuel up simultaneously, is slated for completion in early November.    Kalmbach Feeds, an animal feed distributor, is planning to transition its entire fleet to CNG in the next decade.    "Regarding CNG, there has always been the discussion of whether to buy CNG trucks or wait until ...

   DHL Global Forwarding has launched a temperature-controlled, high-visibility air freight service targeted at the life sciences and healthcare industries.    DHL Thermonet uses Smartsenor RFID technology to ensure constant monitoring of temperature-sensitive shipments during transport, and customers can even ask add on the SmartSensor XP option, which will transmit temperature data from the goods surrounding the customer’s shipment. All the data is uploaded to the Internet for easy...

   The Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI) has graduated its first class of students from its nine-month master's program, according to the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.    The class of 2013 consists of 16 students from eight countries including India, China, Philippines, and the United States, many of whom have prior professional experience. More than 80 percent of the students secured new job offers before graduation. Employers include Accenture...

   Switzerland-based Interroll has purchased Portec, a conveyor belt manufacturer based in Colorado, for an undisclosed amount.    The cash purchase is expected to close on July 1.    The acquisition is in line with Interroll’s strategic growth plans and gives the company a better foothold in the United States. The company, which counts Amazon and Coca-Cola as customers, also plans to open a 90,000-square-foot facility in Atlanta later this year.    "The product p...

   To meet the 5 percent yearly demand for global connectivity, airports and airlines must work together toward common goals and investments, Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said recently.    Tyler, in a speech during the Airports Council International's Istanbul conference, said neither airlines nor airports can "afford poorly thought out and overly expensive infrastructure development. To avoid this, we must work together in a collaborat...

   DHL said it has completed its four-year, $105 million expansion of its air hub for the Americas at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.    The enhancements include a new 180,000-square foot sorting facility specifically designed to accommodate larger express shipments; an expanded south ramp for additional wide-body aircraft; an employee and pilot building; and a facility-wide information technology upgrade.      Company officials say the larger facility w...

   The U.S. State Department on Wednesday announced a new limited waiver of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 (SAA) to allow the export and re-export, under license, of certain reconstruction-related items for the benefit of the Syrian people.    Consistent with Section 5(b ) of the SAA and the May 11, 2004 Executive Order 13338, the waiver authorizes the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to issue licenses on a case-by-case b...