American Feeder allies with labor, shipyards

American Feeder allies with labor, shipyards    American Feeder Lines said it is part of an “emerging labor and industry coalition that also includes the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the Seafarers International Union, the International Longshoreman's Association, and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.
   The container shipping company recently started a service connecting Halifax and Boston and is seeking to build a coastal U.S. shipping network.
   “With the ability to move volumes of freight over the water seven times more efficiently than on gridlocked highways, ships are the ‘green’ trucks on America's Marine Highway,” the company said, announcing a white paper, The Way Forward — U.S. Commercial Ship Building: A Strategic National Asset.
   The paper said, “the downward spiral of the commercial ship building industry can and must be reversed.'
   American Feeder Lines said there is a need to “improve and balance America's transportation network to increase efficiency. Stakeholders say that waterborne transportation of domestic freight would augment, not supplant, other modes.'
   “Our coastal marine corridors are the country's natural transportation assets on which this nation was built, but today they are also the most underutilized,” the paper said. It suggests the country needs “in the range of 300-500 vessels constructed in U.S. shipyards over the next 25 years in order to transform our nation's coastal highways from unused assets into vibrant water connectors. Today the corresponding number of coastal feeder ships servicing northern Europe and the Mediterranean is about 2,000. In contrast the U.S. has zero ships and a few barges in feeder service.”