Week In Review : Shippers

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...

The Chilean ocean carrier CSAV said it had operating losses of $599.7 million in 2009, compared to a loss of $133.5 million in 2008. It’s the second staggering loss to be announced by a major container line in recent days, after Maersk Line last week said it lost $2.1 billion in 2009. CSAV’s revenue declined nearly 39 percent to $3 billion, while container volume fell nearly 18 percen...

For a company that likes to keep a low profile, the past week has been a rather public one for Geneva-based liner carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. On Sunday, London’s Financial Times reported that MSC Chief Executive Gianluigi Aponte was pinning rate volatility in ocean freight rates on shippers. He also refuted claims that MSC had cut rates at the beginning of 2009 to chase market shar...

The Waterways Council met in Washington Monday to press congressional support for a set of recommendations to improve the reliability of the U.S. inland navigation system over the next 20 years. The plan was developed over a year by the Inland Marine Transportation System Investment Strategy Team, comprised of key U.S. Army Corp of Engineers personnel and waterways industry representative...

Harding The White House announced Monday that President Obama intends to nominate retired Army Major Gen. Robert A. Harding as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. He is the second candidate for the job after Erroll Southers, a police chief with the Los Angeles World Airports, withdrew his name for consideration in January because of questions about how he handled a...

Logistics company CEVA said last week that 2009 revenue fell 13 percent to 5.5 billion euros ($7.4 billion) from 6.3 billion euros in 2008. "Following a challenging first quarter, we delivered solid and progressive results across the remainder of 2009 and, overall, we believe that CEVA responded well to a different and demanding trading environment, and is well positioned for the future,"...

Jerry Ulm, global carrier relations leader at Owens Corning, died March 1 at his home in Perrysburg, Ohio, after a long illness. He is credited with putting in place innovative policies to improve relations with core trucking providers to reduce the burden of doing business with Owens Corning. The company made it a policy to help truckers by reducing delays getting in and out of their...

California Assemblyman Steve Bradford, D-Gardena, has introduced legislation that would create a state incentive program designed to encourage new investment in trade and environmental infrastructure at California ports and improve the use of current trade infrastructure. The bill, AB 2687, aims to create new construction jobs and encourage the development of longshore, trucking, warehous...

Japanese liner carriers MOL and “K” Line said Friday they would cooperate on two services linking Japan to the West Coast of North America, affecting a couple of existing loops operated by the two lines. Beginning April 7, MOL (a member of the New World Alliance) and “K” Line (a member of the CKYH Alliance) will partner on an express loop between four Japanese ports and Los Angeles and Oa...

CMA CGM said Friday it is raising rates from northern Europe to the Far East beginning April 1. The rate increases are $150 per 20-foot container and $300 per 40-foot container. CMA CGM said it will also quote the port of origin terminal handling charges (OTHC) separately from North Europe to the Far East sea freight for all cargos, including waste commodities, from April 1. ...

MOL said Friday it will start a new service linking Southeast Asia to the Indian port of Chennai beginning March 23. The new SMX service will have a rotation of Laem Chabang, Singapore, Port Klang, Chennai, Penang, Port Klang, Singapore and Laem Chabang. Information on the number and size of ships to be used on the service wasn’t immediately available. ...

One year after Congress cut off funds for a cross border trucking program with Mexico the Obama administration has still not followed through on its promise to make modifications that would allow the initiative to resume and end a bilateral trade tiff. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, speaking to reporters following an address to state transportation leaders, would only say, “We’re tw...

U.S. importers, trade associations and foreign governments have until March 25 to submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concerning the eligibility of certain goods for duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences. “The comments may seek to preserve, reinstate or revoke this treatment. The U.S. GSP program includes provisions, known as competitiv...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday announced it has reached an agreement with the Russian government to reopen the Russian market to U.S. pork and pork products. “Reopening the market with Russia -- our fifth-largest market last year -- is excellent news for American hog producers,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. According to the USDA, the U.S. e...

NYK Holding (Europe) B.V., a wholly owed subsidiary of NYK, has acquired a 26 percent stake in TM International Logistics Ltd., a logistics and port operating subsidiary of Indian steel giant Tata. TMILL was founded in 2002 as a joint venture between Tata Steel Limited and IQ Martrade Holding and Management GmbH, a German company that offers logistics services to steel and related industr...

FreightScan, an automated dimensioning systems provider, and Swissport International Ltd., a provider of aviation ground services, said they have formed a strategic partnership that will enable Swissport to install automated dimensioning systems across its global network. FreightScan installed a dimensioning system at Swissport's Amsterdam (AMS) air cargo station last September and André ...

Swiss WorldCargo has appointed Omar Bragatto, head of flight optimization, to director of contribution management. Bragatto will report to Ashwin Bhat, managing director of transportation management. In this new position, Bragatto replaces Christian Wyss, who will serve as head of cargo procurement and will report to Oliver Evans, chief cargo officer for SWISS. On the product manageme...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $15 billion jobs bill Thursday that also extends authorization for federal surface transportation programs until the end of the year. The vote follows a turbulent week during which disagreements between the House and Senate over a jobs bill led to a stopgap measure to extend funding for transportation programs, as well as unemployment and certain...

The U.S. Commerce Department released a report Thursday highlighting the differences between official trade statistics produced by the United States and China. “The findings will help to inform our understanding of trade data going forward and this effort lays the foundation for further statistical cooperation between both countries,” said Rebecca Blank, commerce undersecretary, in a stat...

A congressional watchdog agency has found numerous instances in U.S. trade statistics during the past several years reporting exports being made to Iran when in fact they were destined to other countries. The Government Accountability Office said the statistics captured in the Census Bureau’s Automated Export System indicated that U.S. exporters shipped 278 different types of goods to Ira...

The United States will continue its support for a proposed ban on all international commercial trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Doha on March 13-25. “In light of the serious compliance problems that have plagued the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fishery and the fact that...

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to pay Customs and Border Protection officials more than $700,000 to traffic counterfeit luxury goods through the Port Newark and Elizabeth marine terminals and other U.S. ports of entry, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Michael Hanna, also known as “Mike Nova” and “George Flores,” 28, of Little Ferry, pleaded guilty Wednesda...

Crowley moved to a new 70,000-square-foot warehouse at Jacksonville Port Authority's Dames Point location, doubling its North Florida warehouse space. The company said the bonded warehouse is close to the city's new TraPac container terminal and will allow Crowley to provide warehousing and distribution services to shippers involved in the Asia trade. "As the Panama Canal is expanded,...

The A.P. Moller - Maersk Group said it lost $1 billion in 2009 compared to a profit $3.5 billion in 2008 as it was negatively affected by the global economic crisis. Revenue was $48.5 billion in 2009 compared to $61.2 billion in 2008. “It’s a lot of money to lose,” said Nils S. Andersen, group chief executive officer, attributing the loss to an “extraordinary year with historically low...

Pacific International Lines will start its own China/U.S. West Coast service next month. The China-TransPacific (CTP) service will commence on April 6 with a sailing from Hong Kong and a port rotation of Hong Kong, Shekou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Long Beach and back to Hong Kong. The weekly service will have a round trip of 35 days deploying five ships of 1,3500-TEU capacities operated by P...

New World Alliance members said Thursday they will add a stop at Thailand's biggest port to their PSX transpacific service. The NWA will also add a ship to the loop to provide the direct service from Laem Chabang. The new rotation for the PSX is Laem Chabang, Cai Mep, Hong Kong, Yantian, Los Angeles, Oakland, Tokyo, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Da Chan Bay and Laem Chabang. According to America...

American Airlines Cargo said it has relocated to a new cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York that will streamline cargo handling. The facility has 135,000 square feet of space, 24 dock doors and a high-speed, automated Elevated Transfer Vehicle handling system with storage capacity for 385 upper-deck containers. The handling system features six doors for proc...

President Barack Obama is interested in a “comprehensive, robust” surface transportation bill, but remains dead set against a fuel tax increase to fund needed infrastructure repair and improvements, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday. LaHood said the president instructed him during a one-on-one meeting this week “to try and find a bipartisan way to get the money” to pay fo...

The Federal Highway Administration has set a new goal to cut delivery time for highway and bridge projects in half, Administrator Victor Mendez told state transportation officials on Wednesday. A typical highway project can take from 10 to 15 years to complete -- up to six years for the environmental review process and up to nine years for planning, design and construction, according to t...

Agility has appointed Hans Hickler as chief executive officer of its Asia-Pacific region. Hickler Hickler joins Agility from DHL, where he was CEO for global customer solutions, based in the United States. He was responsible for leading the development and sale of customer services for all DHL business units including DHL supply chain, warehousing and distribution, forwarding and express p...

Trade representatives in Washington on Wednesday asked House lawmakers to support the repeal of Section 211 in the fiscal year 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which prohibits the United States from honoring trademarks of Cuban origin that were associated with businesses nationalized by the Cuban government in the early 1960s. The repeal of this provision is included in several House bill...

Container carriers said their operations have experienced some disruptions from the earthquake in Chile last week. Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV), the Chilean shipping company that is the largest in Latin America, said its vessels and tugboats operating in Chile "are 100 percent technically operative and no significant damage have occurred to them." CSAV and the other major ...

The Georgia Ports Authority said Wednesday it has increased its capacity for reefer containers at its Garden City Terminal with the completion of 10 new electrified refrigerated container racks. The new racks bring to 44 the number of reefer racks at the Port of Savannah terminal, which can now accommodate 1,056 containers. “The completion of these refrigerated container racks reduces...

CMA CGM said it would hike U.S. export cargo rates to Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent effective March 15, saying the increases were need to provide "high quality of services." The increases are: • From U.S. East, West and Gulf coasts ports to Asia, $150 for 20- foot containers and $200 for 40-foot containers. • From U.S. East and Gulf coasts ports to the Midd...

In the wake of Horizon Lines announcement last week that it would stop wholesaling space on its eastbound transpacific ships to Maersk Line in December, the Danish carrier said it is working on a plan to replace that lost capacity. "Maersk Line is carefully watching market developments and reviewing customer requirements. Once these are made clear we will release a plan designed to replac...

DHL said Wednesday it will invest HK$360 million ($46 million) in a multiuser facility for DHL Supply Chain Hong Kong. DHL Supply Chain will occupy at least 25 percent of the "Interlink" facility being developed by the Goodman Group. The facility, to be completed in January 2012, is located in Tsing Yi, situated between the container ports and Hong Kong International Airport. DHL said...

Under heavy pressure from Republican colleagues, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky backed off his lone-wolf crusade to block a bill containing an emergency 30-day funding extension for surface transportation programs and unemployment benefits. The Senate, by a vote of 78-19, late Tuesday night passed the bill extending use of the Highway Trust Fund for highway construction and safety programs....

The failure of U.S. Department of Transportation officials to show up for scheduled speaking engagements at a gathering of state transportation officials in Arlington, Va., on Monday was tangible evidence of the shutdown of federal highway and transit programs due to a lapse in spending authority. The Senate, by a vote of 78-19, late Tuesday night passed the bill extending use of the High...

DB Schenker Rail Automotive said it has created a new box for the transportation of automobile parts from Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany, to a new plant in Kaluga, Russia. Beginning in April, the company will test the box -- designed specially for the automobile industry by the experts at Schenker Automotive Railnet in cooperation with Volkswagen Logistics -- before it decides in summer...

Six Democratic senators are seeking to give states the power to determine the need for and location of liquefied natural gas terminals. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon; Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Maria Cantwell of Washington; and Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin of Maryland, introduced legislation Tuesday to repeal portions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which gave that authority...

Intermarine has begun offering a heavy lift service between Europe and the East Coast of South America. The service will use 10,000-deadweight-ton vessels with gear capacity of up to 500 metric tons. The New Orleans-headquartered carrier said the service will be "perfectly suited to meet the needs of South America’s oil and gas, power generation, mining and infrastructure development ...

Vanguard Logistics Services has started a new less-than-trailerload in-bond rail service to Mexico City for freight originating in the U.S. Midwest, Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Containers are moved in-bond across the U.S.-Mexico border and stripped and customs cleared at the Pantaco Rail Yard in Mexico City. The non-vessel-operating common carrier said the service “virtually eliminat...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday launched its Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Farmers Program to help American agricultural producers adjust to the current economy. Vilsack The program is specifically designed to help farmers hurt by import competition. “Eligible producers will receive much-needed technical assistance and cash benefits to help them adjust to the current e...