American Shipper

   The White House on Thursday requested new World Trade Organization dispute settlement consultations with Indonesia to address the Southeast Asian country’s import licensing restrictions on horticultural products, animals and animal products.    The United States previously requested consultations on prior versions of Indonesia’s trade-restrictive measures. The United States is now asking for additional consultations […]

   “Lake Superior’s ice was so challenging that the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards had to convoy freighters the entire month,” the Lake Carriers’ Association said, noting that vessels couldn’t cross Lake Superior unescorted until May 2.

   Non-vessel-operating common carrier Shipco Transport has opened a new office in Chongqing, China.    Consolidations from Chongqing will route through the NVO’s Shanghai gateway.    “China’s focus is moving west in recent years, with the great Moving West strategy led and encouraged by the government. More and more, world-leading manufacturers are moving to the […]

   The much-anticipated negotiations on a new contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their employers at 29 West Coast ports, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, started Monday. 

   When the ocean shipping e-commerce network INTTRA announced a new partnership with the rate and contract management solutions provider Catapult International in late April, it seemed like significant news.    The merging of INTTRA’s ocean schedules and booking modules with Catapult’s rate engines provides a perfect match for freight forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers […]

Public-private partnerships provide $26 billion to upgrade country’s maritime facilities.    The government of Brazil has embarked on an ambitious, multibillion-dollar port modernization and expansion program to help make the maritime system more efficient and the nation’s exports more competitive in world markets.    Brazil has the potential to become an economic power. It has […]

   Cargo at Southwest Airlines is in expansion mode, with an eye toward entering overseas markets.     During the remainder of this year, the U.S. carrier will begin converting international flights serviced under the AirTran banner as part of the final steps of the Southwest-AirTran merger. Once technical upgrades are conducted on these flights, Southwest […]

Investors help risk management visibility software startup, incubated out of Flextronics, make splash.    There aren’t a whole lot of supply chain software providers that fly out the gate with celebrity investors attached and that’s what made the startup Elementum’s public unveiling in early April so noteworthy.    The company didn’t just enter the marketplace. […]

Latin America’s growth is attractive, but carriers to the region face potential for overcapacity.    In January, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced the government’s “Look South” Initiative focused on increasing U.S. trade with 11 Latin American economies with which the United States has free trade agreements: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, […]

Businesses that control freight have leverage to keep down additional costs.    Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF), an umbrella organization of shippers groups such as the National Industrial Transportation League (NIT League) in the United States, said it will organize a new global campaign to confront what it says are “unsubstantiated shipping surcharges, terminal charges and […]

Retailers’ tighter delivery options put more power in buyers’ hands.    With every move toward the standardization of same-day, or even next-hour, shipping, the transportation industry is moving closer to putting shipping power into the hands of the consumer.     This trend, according to Rob Howard, chief executive officer of Grand Junction, a local-delivery software […]

   The Port of Long Beach in May held its first Environmental Achievement Awards ceremony and honored 22 shipping lines for their efforts to improve air quality by slowing down or deploying cleaner vessels.    Previously, the port authority held an annual event for its Green Flag and Green Ship Awards. Port officials have now […]

   Maersk Line, the world’s largest containership operator, has achieved substantial reductions in exhaust emissions for the past six years in large measure due to its careful network planning and execution, according to Lee Kindberg, director of environment and sustainability in North America.    Last year, the carrier’s carbon emissions dropped 12 percent even though […]

   Sen. Orrin Hatch, ranking member on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, recently urged Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation and the Obama administration to ensure that strong language supporting trade facilitation is a central part of any new free trade agreements. But time is of the essence, he said.    In January, Hatch, […]

   While not the sole cause, lack of adequate infrastructure to keep up with the rapid growth in container traffic in Latin America is one of the contributing factors to corruption at some of the region’s ports, said Thomaz Favaro, an analyst at the consulting firm Control Risks and co-author with Niels Lindholm of a […]

How Vietnam’s once promising container future was scuttled by poor port planning and an ill-timed economic downturn. Editor’s note: The cover story of the December 2007 issue of American Shipper chronicled the potential of Vietnam as a sourcing location for containerized cargo. The country was a couple of years away from seeing the opening of […]

   As representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association negotiate a new labor contract to replace the one that expires July 1, shippers say they should be thinking about how to make the ports more productive over the long term.    “A good contract, in my view, would be one […]

By Jerry Cook    As we dash through spring, I remain positive about the exciting developments in our trade realm, in particular the Customs community. The U.S. Senate confirmation of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske ushers in new opportunities…

   Is an offshore drilling rig — a vessel so large that it cannot pass through the Panama Canal — “merchandise” subject to the Jones Act’s restriction that cargo transported between two domestic points be carried on ships built and registered in the United States and crewed by Americans?    Yes, said a federal judge […]

By Walter Kemmsies, chief economist, Moffatt & Nichol    The freight movement industry has had a lot to worry about — the drawn out, often hesitant economic recovery, a changing landscape due to infrastructure investments and larger ships, and more recently, some speculation that world trade has reached its peak…