Week In Review : Shippers

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...

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...

Ten House lawmakers representing districts on the southwestern border on Thursday urged the Senate to get moving on the stalled confirmation of Alan Bersin to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Baucus The Congressional Border Caucus expressed concern in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus that CBP is without a permanent leader at a time when securit...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has amended its Farm Storage Facility Loan program to allow producers to build cold storage facilities to store fresh fruits and vegetables. The program is part of the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative and uses discretionary authority provided by the 2008 Farm Bill. “On-farm storage may cost a lot of build, but it can help ...

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...

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. 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...

Bunning Three weeks after standing in the way of an emergency bill to sustain unemployment benefits and highway programs for an extra 30 days, Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky is blocking confirmation of two Obama administration nominees for trade-related posts. Michael Punke is President Obama's choice to be U.S. ambassador and permanent representative to the World Trade Organiza...

Kirk The U.S. and Indian governments announced an initiative to encourage small businesses in both countries to participate more in bilateral trade. The initiative, “Integrating U.S. and Indian Small Businesses into the Global Supply Chain,” is part of the “Framework for Cooperation on Trade and Investment,” signed by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Indian Minister of Commerce and I...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will travel to Japan on April 5-9 to promote U.S. agricultural exports to the Asian country. Vilsack will meet with Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hirotaka Akamatsu, as well as U.S. exporters and Japanese importers. “My mission on this trip will be to continue to push hard to open markets and to bolster an open, rules-ba...

DHL Supply Chain said Wednesday it has opened a logistics facility for Sony Australia and Sony Computer Entertainment Australia in Sydney. The 20,000-square-meter facility will house the manufacturer’s consumer electronics, broadcast and professional and PlayStation products in the one location. “The new DHL facility will provide Sony Australia with greater flexibility in managing flu...

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...

Kirk The Obama administration’s initiative to double exports within five years is based on the premise that companies in the international marketplace grow faster, add jobs faster and pay higher wages, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in address to the National League of Cities on Tuesday. A critical part of the effort is to provide more counseling and other resources to make it ea...

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...

ATC Logistics & Electronics (ATCLE) said this week it has begun offering customers with foreign trade zone access to reduce expenses on import duties, tariffs and fees. ATCLE said it has activated its use of FTZ No. 196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub. ATCLE assembles, repairs and handles logistics for manufacturers and providers of products such as GPS units and cell phones. The com...

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 ...

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...

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...

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said his office will release this month an extensive report shedding light on sanitary and phytosanitary rules around the world that are being used as unfair technical barriers to protect domestic agriculture interests from imports. “As tariff barriers fall, these non-tariff barriers are becoming some of the most difficult challenges our exporters face,”...

credits:Siemens AG, Munich/Berlin Stimulus grants designed to create wind power jobs are mostly going to foreign manufacturers to build wind farms in the United States, according to a report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University's School of Communications in Washington. The Energy Department has doled out more than $2 billion from the 2009 Recovery Act for renewabl...

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...

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 ...

U.S. exports continue to be a sign of strength in the economy as goods and services sold abroad increased 15.1 percent in January from the $123.9 billion value from the same month a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. On a monthly basis the trade deficit narrowed 6.6 percent to $37.3 billion between December 2009 and January. Exports were almost flat in January, dipping 0...

NYK Logistics Rus, a Russian-based subsidiary of the Tokyo-based NYK Group, has opened a representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. It’s the first office in Kazakhstan for NYK, which in October 2009 took a 25 percent stake in Tranco Terminal, an Almaty-based car-terminal-operating company. NYK said it aims to develop its logistics business for the automotive sector as wel...

Moulton Logistics Management will locate a distribution and logistics facility near Charleston in Berkeley County, S.C. The $25 million investment is expected to generate 500 new jobs in the next five years. Los Angeles-based Moulton Logistics Management provides order fulfillment, call center and integrated logistics services to direct response, retail and multichannel merchants. ...

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...

Obama President Obama, in an effort to stimulate U.S. economic growth, signed an executive order on Thursday for the federal government to “use every available federal resource in support” of his recently announced National Export Initiative. That order also created the Export Promotion Cabinet, which includes the secretaries of State, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, as well as ...

U.S. farmers are pressing Capitol Hill to approve recently proposed legislation to eliminate financing and travel restrictions affecting agricultural trade with Cuba. “If I can leave you with one thing to remember today, it is that the Cuban embargo is working; it is working against U.S. farmers and ranchers,” Bart Schott, first vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, tol...

Thirty senators are warning that U.S. dairy farmers and processors will be harmed by increased imports of dairy commodities from New Zealand that could result from upcoming talks to open up trade among several Asian nations. The United States and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are scheduled to conduct their first round of negotiations on a regional Asia-Pacific trade agreement later this m...

The Menlo Worldwide Logistics subsidiary of Con-way Inc. said it has launched a warehouse management and domestic distribution service in Singapore for MMD, a wholly owned company of TPV Technology, the world's largest LCD monitor manufacturer. The operation is located within Menlo's 84,000-square-foot multiclient warehouse and serves as MMD's Singapore domestic distribution center. Menlo...

ProLogis, a developer of distribution facilities, said Thursday it had signed lease agreements totaling about 174,000 square feet to three U.S. customers. "While the industrial markets are still relatively soft, increasing occupancies and the lack of new supply continue to foster a more stable environment. We are encouraged by these early signs of fundamental improvement in our business."...

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...

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 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 European Union and Singapore have begun talks toward establishing a free trade agreement. Officials are meeting in Singapore this week. “The proposed free trade agreement will strengthen economic ties between Singapore and the EU, provide new opportunities for traders and consumers alike and contribute to generating growth in our economies," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch sa...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has adopted as a final rule, with changes, an interim rule that requires inspection of Canadian grown fruits and vegetables imported into the United States. The rule also removes the user fee exemption for certain commercial vessels, trucks, railcars and planes, as well as international airline passengers ente...

India, Brazil and Indonesia have topped the table of Transport Intelligence’s new Emerging Market Logistics Index, which the U.K.-based consultant released this week. The index ranks 38 countries from the developing world in terms of the attractiveness of their logistics markets to foreign investors. It measures the scale of opportunities through three indices: market size and growth attr...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it’s proposing to allow, under certain conditions, imports of all varieties of Fuji apples from Japan into the United States. Based on recently completed research, the agency has determined that the measures in place for Fuji (Malus domestica) apples imported into the United States from Japan would be eff...

Ahern Jayson Ahern, who retired in December as acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has joined the Chertoff Group, a security-consulting group established last year by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Ahern's hiring has not been formally advertised through a press release, but the veteran law enforcement official is listed on the company's Web site...

Swiss forwarder and logistics provider Panalpina had consolidated profit of 10 million Swiss francs ($9.3 million) in 2009 compared to 114 million francs in 2008. Revenue fell to 7.3 billion francs ($6.8 billion) in 2009 compared to 10.6 billion francs in 2008. Overall, Panalpina transported 731,000 tons of air freight, 19 percent less than in 2008, and 1.1 million TEUs of ocean freig...

Panalpina said this week it has added 42,000 square feet of warehouse space in Los Angeles, expanding its space in Los Angeles to more than 100,000 square feet. The Swiss logistics company’s leased facility in Los Angeles has 27 docks doors and high-rise racking. “As companies are increasingly outsourcing all but core functions, this latest expansion in the crucial Southern California...

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...

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...

A coalition of Delaware River port companies and labor unions petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday to suspend for up to 20 days in April the restrictions on all table grapes imported from Chile and to clarify that Crimson seedless variety grapes will be exempted from those restrictions this year. The petition, organized by the Chilean & American Chamber of Commerce of ...

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...

Kenco Logistics Services, through its subsidiary Kal-Serv, has formed a joint venture with Schnellecke of America, called Team 3 Logistics, to provide logistics services to support automotive production in the U.S. Southeast. Schnellecke, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, is an established logistics services provider to automakers in Europe, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. The ...

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...

Geodis, the logistics subsidiary of SNCF Group, has appointed Bruno Mandrin to director of its groupage and express division. Mandrin, who entered the transport and logistics industry in 1977, joined Geodis Calberson in 1994. He became deputy director of the groupage division in May 2009. The division comprises about 11,000 employees across 160 sites in five European countries. Gilles...

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...