Week In Review : Service Providers

Bourne The European Liner Affairs Association board, which met in Taipei this week, approved the closure of the Brussels-based organization by July 1. Container carriers established the ELAA in 2003 to persuade the European Commission of the value for maintaining the ocean carrier conference system. While the ELAA failed in this effort, the association helped smooth the transition of the i...

Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., (OOIL) the Hong Kong-based parent company of container carrier OOCL, said it had a net loss of $401 million in 2009 compared to a profit of $276 million in 2008. The company, which reported earnings in U.S. dollars, said revenues for the year was $4.3 billion, 33 percent less than the $6.5 billion in 2008. Container liftings were 4.16 million TEUs...

The Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey will honor five senior executives by inducting them into the International Maritime Hall of Fame on May 12. The five honorees are: • Yung-Fa Chang, founder and chairman of the Evergreen Group. • Anthony ”Tony” A. Chiarello, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NYK Logistics (Americas) Inc. • Jam...

FedEx Corp. said Thursday it had net profit of $239 million for its third quarter ended Feb. 28, 146 percent more than the $97 million earned in the same 2009 period. The company said revenue in the quarter was $8.7 billion, up 7 percent from $8.14 billion a year ago. FedEx said it expected revenue and earnings through increased demand in the current quarter. “With our improved pe...

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has awarded a $207,000 technical assistance grant to help improve Caribbean aviation safety. The grant with the Executive Secretariat of the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS) will promote the development and harmonization of civil aviation regulations, practices and procedures in the region by supporting a Caribbean Airp...

Manatee County Port Authority Thursday approved a long-term $30 million agreement with Port Dolphin Energy, a company owned by Norway's Hoegh LNG, to build a deepwater port for liquefied natural gas ships. During the first five years of the agreement, Port Manatee would receive more than $16 million in cash and assets, followed by about $15 million over the remainder of the agreement. ...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Wednesday it has launched a fact-finding investigation into ocean vessel capacity and shipping equipment availability for U.S. exports and imports. The announcement came as FMC Chairman Richard Lidinsky and several shipper and carrier representatives testified to members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation about th...

Singapore based NOL, the parent of liner carrier APL, is taking a $300 million loan for “general corporate funding purposes,” according to a statement the company made to the Singapore Stock Exchange Wednesday. The term loan has been taken by the APL (Bermuda) business unit, and is guaranteed by the parent company. The funding was arranged by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. In 2009, NOL ...

Taiwan-based container line Yang Ming has issued more than $150 million in bonds, the proceeds of which will help to pay down debt this year, local and maritime press outlets reported Wednesday. The line owes more than $300 million that must be settled this year, Lloyd’s List reported, with the company paying the rest of the debts through internal resources. ...

Delegates from the International Transport Workers Federation meeting in Berlin on Wednesday launched a campaign to persuade all governments to commit resources to end the increasing problem of Somalia-based piracy. The group also voted "to support the inclusion, where appropriate, of armed military personnel on ships in addition to the commitment by flag states of naval vessels," but sai...

Project cargo specialist carrier Intermarine said Wednesday it recently loaded two massive cold boxes for an LNG plant under construction in West Africa. Built at a fabrication plant in New Iberia, La., the 700-ton boxes were transported to Houston by barge where they were transloaded to the Industrial Achiever for the ocean journey to West Africa. “Although appearing rather simple, t...

The U.S. Maritime Administration said a fourth obsolete vessel from its reserve fleet in Suisan Bay, Calif., departs Thursday for scrapping. The Winthrop Victory, a Victory cargo ship built during World War II, will be towed to BAE Systems’ San Francisco shipyard, where it will be cleaned of marine growth and loose exterior paint prior to departure from the area. The vessel will be fo...

Ocean carrier NYK Line on Wednesday announced a series of changes among its Group Americas executive team. President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Nozaki will return to Japan as executive vice president of Kinkai Yusen Logistics. Yasuyuki Usui will succeed him as president and CEO of NYK Group Americas. Peter Keller will retire and become a senior advisor to the board of NYK Group ...

The U.S. House of Representatives sent to the Senate Wednesday a bill to extend Federal Aviation Administration programs through the end of June. Passage of the measure marks the 12th time FAA authorization has been extended since it was scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2007. The current extension is scheduled to expire March 31. The short-term extensions are stopgap measures to keep avi...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday provided relief for the underfunded Highway Trust Fund and extended funding authorization for surface transportation programs through the end of the year as part of a $17.6 billion jobs bill. The HIRE ACT, which includes tax cuts for those who hire unemployed, transfers $19.5 billion in interest foregone since 1998 from the general fund to the Highway Trust F...

Crist Florida Gov. Charlie Crist called on the Florida state legislature to pass two bills that he said would boost Florida ports. Crist said he was joining with state Sen. Jeremy Ring and Rep. Lake Ray to promote two proposals: • House Bill 963, which he said would help Florida more effectively compete with other states vying to attract port-related businesses. • House Bill 1169, ...

The Port of Baltimore received 320 BMW cars Sunday, marking the first shipment under a five-year agreement with the auto manufacturer. The automaker in December chose the port as an import hub for vehicles made in Germany and the United Kingdom. BMW intends to bring about 50,000 vehicles through the port each year for processing and distribution to dealers. Port officials expect the i...

A new distribution center for imported beer in Savannah will handle about 3,000 TEUs of cargo annually, the Georgia Ports Authority said. The distribution center for Diageo will be operated by Matson Global Distribution Services, a third-party logistics provider. The first shipment to the new distribution center arrived in January. This distribution center will primarily handle be...

The House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime will hold a hearing Wednesday on whether there is sufficient ship capacity to serve U.S. foreign trade. The subcommittee is planning another hearing next week on the "state of United States’ merchant fleet in foreign commerce.” Wednesday's hearing is because of anecdotal evidence and media reports that "suggest that the ability of the...

Shipping line OOCL said in a customer advisory it would no longer provide chassis for container yard or store door shipments of import and exports originating or destined to facilities in or around Boston and Miami. "All motor carriers, either working as suppliers for OOCL or OOCL customers, must provide chassis for these shipments," the Hong Kong-based carrier said in an advisory to cust...

Maersk Line Ltd. said it will add a third U.S.-flag tanker to its fleet. The U.S.-flag arm of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group said it will reflag the 2009-built Samho Moonstone, which will be renamed Bro Hawaii when reflagging process is completed in mid-April. The 5,664-deadweight-ton ship will operate in Asia spot markets targeting U.S. preference cargoes. Tuesday, Maersk Line Ltd. w...

The International Air Transport Association this week cut in half its forecast for losses in 2010 but said the airline industry’s recovery is still mostly benefiting Asian and South American carriers. “Helped by the strong year end we have cut our estimate of 2009 net losses from $11 billion to $9.4 billion,” IATA said in its monthly economic update. “More significantly we now forecast sm...

Kelly Ed Kelly, general manager of the Transportation Security Administration’s Air Cargo division, was posthumously awarded the Jim Foster Award for Excellence this week by the Airforwarders Association. Kelly died late last year after contracting an illness. He was responsible for conceptualizing and implementing a strategy to screen all air cargo transported on passenger planes. A key p...

The Association of American Railroads has named Thomas Farmer assistant vice president of security, responsible for working with individual railroads and federal oversight agencies on freight rail security. Farmer joins the railroad lobby from the Transportation Security Administration, where he was acting general manager for mass transit. He also was senior counsel for intermodal program...

Retailers polled on their supply chain activities during the 2009 peak season said low inventory levels last year did not negatively impact sales volume, according to a survey by Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium. Those polled said strategies most commonly used during the last peak season were: • Reduced inventory levels. • Increased emphasis on forecasting. • Improved planning...

The leading U.S. East Coast dock labor union and the largest U.S. retailer have thrown their support behind an industry coalition petition asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend for up to 20 days in April restrictions on all Chilean table grapes imports. “The International Longshoremen’s Association is 100 percent behind the petition,” said Richard P. Hughes Jr., ILA preside...

The Department of Homeland Security is accepting applications from trade and transportation professionals interested in serving on the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee for a two-year term, expected to begin in early 2011. The panel provides industry input to DHS and Treasury Department on matters related to trade enforcement, border security, trade facilitation and department oper...

Truckers are unhappy with a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plan to next year ban trucks built before 1994. At a meeting that attendees described as "heated," truckers complained that a second part of the plan would ban trucks not equipped with engines that meet or exceed 2007 federal emissions standards starting in 2017. Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor...

A Haiti-based conglomerate and Miami shipping line said they plan to redevelop Terminal Varreux in Port-Au-Prince, which was damaged in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Haiti's WIN Group and Santé Holding Corp. said they will build new jetties, deepen berths and develop container and breakbulk cargo facilities at the 150-acre terminal. Historically, the terminal had concentrated on liquid and dry ...

The Iraq government will seek bids to build a $6 billion port in the southern city of Basra, Reuters reported this week. The port would be linked to a proposed $3 billion rail line to Baghdad and then to Europe. Iraqi transport officials envision the port, which would have a dredged depth of 55 feet (thus able to accommodate the world’s largest cargo ships) as competing with the Suez ...

A large dredger to help build DP World's new London Gateway terminal arrived in England over the weekend and the Times of London said it was expected to begin operation Wednesday. The terminal in Thurrock will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEUs and will be one of the most automated in the world, according to DP. DP World said most of the dredge spoils will be used to reclaim land to ...

Container traffic at the Port of Marseilles-Fos rose 24 percent in February to 159,202 TEUs. Growth in traffic from Far East services prompted a 30 percent jump at the Fos deepsea terminal, which handled 121,218 TEUs during the month. The Marseilles terminal, which handles regional feeder traffic, saw 10 percent growth to 37,985 TEUs, due to recovering markets in North Africa and the East...

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen has been named “port person of the year” by the American Association of Port Authorities. Allen will receive the award next week during the association’s annual spring meeting in Washington. The ports group said Allen was selected for the award because of his efforts to make the marine transportation system safe and efficient. “Adm. Allen rec...

The Asia/Europe trade could see an influx of capacity over the next few weeks, according to the maritime news service Alphaliner. “These moves will ease the capacity crunch on the Far East-to-Europe market, which the trade has been facing since late December, following a strong recovery of demand figures,” Alphaliner said in its Monday newsletter. “The additional capacity could reverse th...

French container line CMA CGM is weighing offers from private investors to bolster its coffers after a turbulent 2009. The line confirmed Monday to American Shipper it has received offers from various interested parties. A report in Monday’s Financial Times said the carrier is considering offers from Louis Dreyfus Group (France's only other large ship owner), Goldman Sachs and Butler Capi...

The growing practice of slow steaming container shipping services has coincided with an unexpected deterioration in the on-time arrivals of vessels, Drewry Shipping Consultants said Tuesday. According to Drewry's latest Container Shipper Insight report, out of 1,600 ships tracked in the three months through Dec. 31, only 53 percent arrived either on the scheduled day of arrival or a day p...

Chilean carrier CSAV, one of the few carriers to report container liftings on a monthly basis, said it moved 184,000 TEUs in February, up from 124,800 TEUs in February 2009. Liftings were down for the second month in a row from 189,100 TEUs in January and 191,000 TEUs in December. Rates are slightly lower than they were a year ago, but have risen since last summer. CSAV said an index ...

Zim said it will introduce a service between Asia, India, Mediterranean and Europe. The Asia-Med-Europe (AME) service will employ a dozen 3,800-TEU ships and begin with the April 7 sailing from Shanghai. It will incorporate Zim's NEC line between the East Mediterranean and Europe. Port rotation is Shanghai-Da Chan Bay, Port Kelang, Nhava Sheva, Haifa, Ashdod, Felixtowe, Antwerp, Hambu...

Citigroup Inc. has hired a director from a London shipbroker to develop its physical shipping operations as the bank seeks to expand its commodities business, Bloomberg reported Monday. The bank has lured Alistair McLuskie, a director with Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the world's second-largest shipbroker, to join as director of physical freight on April 1, Citigroup said in an e-mailed ...

Strong winds and sandstorms on Sunday cut traffic passing through the Suez Canal to its lowest level in two decades, international press outlets reported. Only 26 ships were able to transit the canal, which saw an average of 47 transits per day in 2009. It had been 20 years since so few ships were able to pass through the waterway, which is owned and managed by Egypt. Five ports along...

Virginia Gov. Bob McConnell’s administration could shelve a plan to privatize three container terminals at the Port of Virginia, according to a story last week in the Newport News-based Daily Press. CenterPoint Properties, a real estate industrial trust that specializes in logistics facilities, last year made an unsolicited offer to enter into a long-term agreement with the Virginia Port ...

Terminal operator COSCO Pacific said Monday February container throughput rose 27 percent at the 20 terminals in which it has a stake. The company handled 3.2 million TEUs collectively at its 16 Chinese and four international terminals. There were significant gains at COSCO’s terminal in Nansha (98.5 percent growth to 185,000 TEUs), Dalian (73.2 percent growth to 127,000 TEUs) and Nin...

Norwegian company Wilh. Wilhelmsen said it plans to restructure so that its shipping and logistics activities will be carried forward under a separately listed entity that is able to raise capital. The Oslo-based company said the change will "position the group for future growth." It said it hopes to raise $200 million to $400 million in an initial public offering for the shipping and...

The first service for the startup liner carrier The Containership Company will call at the Port of Los Angeles, the port said Friday. The service will link Taicang, in China’s Jiangsu Province, with Southern California on a five-ship port-to-port loop, using vessels OF 2,500 TO 3,000 TEUs. The new container line confirmed the new service to American Shipper in late February, but said at t...

An ocean service connecting China and Taiwan with Australia’s three biggest cities will undergo an overhaul in late March, according to research by American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data. The CAS service, operated with ships from APL, Hamburg Süd, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Evergreen, will shrink from a six-ship, 42-day round trip to a five-ship, 35-day round trip. Most notably, the ser...

Facilities at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King Point in New York are in urgent need of repair or replacement, according to a blue ribbon panel appointed by Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. According to a report, "several structures, including the academy’s piers, have become unserviceable, while others have required urgent repairs to prevent further significant deterioration ...

Japanese ocean carrier “K” Line on Friday announced changes to its executive team, effective April 1: • Hiroyuki Maekawa, president and chief executive officer, will become chairman executive officer. • Kenichi Kuroya will be promoted from vice president to president and CEO. • Keisuke Yoshida will move from managing executive officer to senior executive officer. • Shigeo Itay...

Cathay Pacific and sister airline Dragonair saw air freight volume rise 18.7 percent to 119,801 tons in February, compared to the same month in 2009. The cargo load factor was 77.1 percent, a rise of 12.4 percent, while capacity, was down 2.1 percent. For the year to date, volume has risen 24.9 percent while capacity has declined 1.5 percent. “We experienced a spike in demand prior to...

Jean Louis Cambon, head of the ocean management committee for tire manufacturer Michelin, has been elected chairman of the European Shippers’ Council’s influential Maritime Transport Council this week. Cambon, who is also a prominent member of the French Shippers’ Council (AUTF) is well known in liner shipping circles. “The ESC should seek a constructive relationship with the carrier ...

The U.S. Coast Guard is imposing restrictions on ships arriving from the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. A Department of Homeland Security assessment found that under U.S. law and the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, that ports in Timor-Leste "are not maintaining effective antiterrorism measures." In order to enter the United States, ships that have been to Timo...

Japanese carrier MOL said Thursday it is adding five calls in the Far East to its CSW service connecting Asia to the East Coast of South America. MOL will add calls at Xingang, Dalian, Qingdao, Busan and Shanghai, with only Hong Kong and Singapore already served by the loop. The service sails around the southern tip of Africa in both directions, stopping at South African ports both wa...

Classification society the American Bureau of Shipping and A.P. Moller - Maersk have agreed to extend the time period between which some ships must undergo out-of-water dry dockings from five to seven-and-a-half years. ABS said an agreement signed this week covers an initial fleet of 14 Maersk Line containerships. It has been initiated under a pilot program approved by the Danish Maritime...

Executive directors of the nation’s two largest seaports expressed dismay Thursday at the lack of funds dedicated to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach during the first round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants in February. The U.S. Department of Transportation gave away $777 million in grants, but none for the two ports. “I was shocked that L...

APM Terminals said the government of Liberia has named APM Terminals as the preferred bidder to operate the 25-year concession at the Port of Monrovia. APM said it will invest about $120 million over the 25-year concession agreement. The firm responded to a public tender issued in December. Bidders were asked to rehabilitate the existing Marginal Wharf, develop container and general ca...

Maersk Distribution Services has leased 195,000 square feet of industrial space in Savannah from Duke Realty Corp. Duke said the property is at 318 Grange Road, about one mile from the main entrance of the Port of Savannah. ...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Tuesday that China Shipping Container Line and three intermediaries have agreed to pay a total of $625,000 in civil penalties for alleged violations of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC said under a compromise agreement the parties settled and paid penalties, but did not admit to violations of the act or FMC regulations. China Shipping agreed ...

Evergreen Line and China Shipping said Wednesday they will start a new intra-Asia service linking China with the Philippines and Thailand. It represents a continued partnership with Taiwan-based Evergreen and China’s two state-owned lines -- China Shipping and COSCO Container Lines -- since relations between Taipei and Beijing started improving in 2008. The new service, dubbed CPT, wi...

DHL Express Sri Lanka has opened a new facility inside the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo. The 15,000-square-foot facility is designed to provide faster clearance and seamless handling of inbound and outbound international consignments, and to accommodate future growth over the next five years. “The infrastructure is modeled on successful global hubs that have self-cont...

The U.S. government should develop a plan to better guide transportation policy and investment during the next decade instead of continuing to rely on annual budgets based on wish lists from various constituencies, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last month. Rendell Rendell spoke during a session of the National Governors Association annual meeting abo...

The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to reimburse about 2,000 Department of Transportation employees who were laid off for two days without pay when the department’s legal authority to spend money expired on March 1. Congress passed emergency legislation to extend spending authority for another 30 days and subsequently passed a jobs bill that included an extension of spend...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed the 2010 American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act (H.R. 4213), which includes legislation providing for a one-year retroactive extension of the biodiesel tax incentive. Expiration of the tax incentive on Dec. 31 has essentially caused the production and use of biodiesel in the United States to cease. Structured as a federal excise tax credit...

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday that starting next year it will ban from its terminals trucks built before 1994, and that truck drivers may begin to apply for grants and financial assistance to replace older, more polluting trucks. The agency will provide $28 million designed to encourage the owners of up to 636 pre-1994 drayage trucks that regularly serve the...

OOCL said this week in a customer advisory that it will limit acceptance of online booking requests to a maximum of eight weeks out "due to the continued tight space availability in the North American export market." Under the new rule, which came into effect March 8, OOCL said it is limiting acceptance of online booking requests via oocl.com or cargosmart.com to eight weeks. Shippers...

Containership owner and charter Seaspan Corp. said Tuesday it received two new ships on March 5. Guayaquil Bridge, a 2,500-TEU vessel, was built by Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. It is on charter to “K” Line under a 10-year, fixed-rate time charter. The Guayaquil Bridge is the first of seven Seaspan vessels that will be chartered to K-Line. COSCO Japan, an 8,500-TEU ship constructe...

Cathay Pacific Airlines said Wednesday its core airline business had operating profit of $36 million in 2009, a huge reversal from the $185 million it lost in 2008. Including gains from fuel hedging and sales of shares in a Hong Kong aircraft maintenance and repair company, Cathay had net profit of $604 million, compared to a loss of $1.7 billion in 2008. Revenue in 2009 fell 22.6 percent...

Air France Cargo-KLM Cargo now publishes all its air cargo rates on OAG Cargo’s Air Freight Rates (AFRA) application, OAG said Tuesday. AFRA provides direct access to real-time air freight rates and information and is designed to help freight forwarders make buying decisions in 144 global markets. Air France-KLM Cargo has established a global interface to OAG Cargo, which will see the...

Many U.S. agriculture producers and manufacturers are losing significant export sales to Mexico because of tariffs that country imposed after Congress last year nixed a cross-border trucking program designed to fulfill free trade obligations, business groups said Tuesday. Representatives for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Potato Co...

Logistics network Descartes Systems Group, said it had net profit of $14.3 million in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, compared to $20.2 the prior fiscal year. Revenue in the most recent fiscal year was $73.8 million versus $66 million in the prior year. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company reported its results in U.S. dollars. Geographically 59 percent of revenues were generate...

Damco said Tuesday it has won a contract to handle logistics and customs compliance in Vietnam for tire manufacturer Michelin. The three-year contract will see Damco, the logistics and freight forwarding subsidiary of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, handle Michelin’s exports from Thailand into Vietnam, inland transportation, cross-docking and distribution to customers in Vietnam. Damc...

Port Corpus Christi Authority of Texas has applied to IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) Futures U.S. to serve as a designated delivery point for Cotton No. 2 future contracts. The port authority noted in its application that Southwest cotton merchants and producers face significant obstacles to delivering under current contract terms, because the designated delivery points are “out of the fl...