American Shipper

   The United States signed a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement last week with Uruguay.    The bilateral agreement helps the U.S. and Uruguay’s respective customs administrations to prevent and investigate customs offenses, including duty evasion, trafficking, proliferation, money laundering and terrorism-related activities. CMAAs also serve as foundational documents for subsequent information-sharing arrangements.    “Customs authorities […]

   With two years into the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, the White House reported that U.S. manufacturers have substantially increased exports of transportation equipment, petroleum and coal products, processed food, and computer and electronic products into the South American country.    U.S. farmers and ranchers have also witnessed strong growth of agricultural exports, including in […]

   Port Freeport in Texas is expecting the delivery of two post-Panamax cranes by late July.    The 300-foot-tall cranes, which can lift up to 75 tons, departed Shanghai by vessel on May 7. They will be delivered to Berth 7 at Freeport’s Velasco Terminal.      “These cranes will allow the port to continue […]

   A congressional watchdog agency warned that weaknesses in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) export control policy and implementation of foreign national access procedures at some centers increase the risk of unauthorized access to export-controlled technologies.    NASA policies provide center directors wide latitude in implementing export controls. However, NASA procedures do not […]

   Cargo volumes were up because of a rebound in March, when 280,519 TEU moved through the port. In January and February, container volumes were off by 0.4 percent and 3.5 percent, year-over-year, respectively.

   On the final day of Infrastructure Week, during which organizations around the nation have held events about modernizing the nation’s aging infrastructure, the importance of improving infrastructure can’t be overstated.

   After a five-year absence, a new company has begun ferry service between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.    The 528-foot long roll-on, roll-off passenger (ropax) ferry Nova Star was scheduled to dock in Yarmouth Friday morning after its inaugural 10-hour voyage overnight from Portland. The ferry will make one round trip per day, […]

   Consumer demand for coal during the first quarter’s extreme cold helped ease the blow from a continued downshift in coal exports, Cowen and Company noted. Class I coal activity is up 9.3 percent so far in Q2.

   WiseTech Global, a provider of logistics enterprise platforms, said Thursday it has started a new business partnership with the ERP integrator Axline to bring its system to the Chinese logistics provider market.    Axline operates in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and “has a wealth of regional market knowledge,” WiseTech Global said. Axline will […]

   SAP this week released the latest version of its transportation management software.    Version 9.1 of SAP Transportation Management has extended the software provider’s reach, enabling both buying- and selling-side capabilities for analyzing, collaborating on and creating freight agreements with through its strategic freight management solution.    The new platform also adds a collaboration […]

   The sixth round of TIGER grants is heavily oversubscribed, with application requests running 15 times above the amount of money available for the competitive program, the U.S. Department of Transportation said.

   The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have reported strong growth in container volumes in April.    The Port of Los Angeles said container volumes in April were 706,037 TEU, an increase of 10.26 percent. Loaded inbound container volume was up 11.43 percent to 364,126 TEU, while loaded outbound containers was 172,945 TEU. […]

   Marubeni Corp., a Japanese trading company involved in the handling of products and provision of services in a range of sectors, including power generation, was sentenced Thursday in the United States for its participation in a scheme to pay bribes to high-ranking Indonesian government officials to secure a lucrative power project, the U.S. Justice […]

   The U.S. Commerce Department this week initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into imports of 53-foot domestic dry containers from China.    Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than its fair value, while countervailable subsidies are  financial assistance from overseas governments that benefit the production […]

   The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has extended the comment period on its proposed rulemaking regarding electronic logging devices to June 26, extending the initial 60-day comment period.    In a proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, the agency wrote that the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance requested a 30-day extension on comments on the […]

   In a meeting regarding global flight tracking, the International Civil Aviation Organization has developed an industry plan on the short-term needs for enhanced flight tracking and has paved the way for longer-term efforts.    The new developments will be introduced by an Aircraft Tracking Task Force lead by the International Air Transport Association. ICAO […]

   During the live broadcast of yesterday’s webinar, “The Free Trade Zone Boom: Using Automation to Power FTZ-Driven Duty Savings,” we asked our audience to participate in three poll questions. We had more than 150 attendees respond, and the results were quite interesting. Please view the results below: Source: American Shipper.    The free webinar […]

   The facility, which will be served by eastern railroad CSX Transportation, will be located at the Dames Point Marine Terminal and will eliminate the need for shuttle trucks to travel 16 miles to the current CSX terminal.

   Hanjin Shipping said it had a net loss of 224.5 billion South Korean won ($219 million) in the first quarter of 2014, compared to a net loss of 34.7 billion won in the same 2013 period.

   Norfolk Southern and CSX have petitioned the Surface Transportation Board to exempt the carriers from a 2010 rule requiring them to submit to the board summaries of contracts regarding agricultural products transportation.    CSX and Norfolk Southern argue that filing these contract summaries is a significant burden that “outweighs any potential benefit,” according to […]