American Shipper

   Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt on Tuesday warned that successful passage of legislation that would target user fees at cargo entering the United States via Canadian ports would be challenged by Canada and would harm trade between the world’s largest bilateral trading partners.    Speaking before the American Association of Port Authorities spring conference […]

   Canadian regulators have introduced railroad legislation that would set a grain-transportation minimum for the country’s rail carriers in reaction to a grain crop in Western Canada that is 50-percent higher than normal.

   The Global Shippers’ Forum is calling for shippers to have a greater voice in global discussions as the debate on how to tackle maritime greenhouse gas emissions continues. GSF said it is vital that shippers have a place in the debate.

   Groups representing drayage drivers in the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, said Wednesday they had reached a deal to end a month-and-a-half-old strike.    “We did it,” said a posting on the Facebook page of the United Truckers Association of British Columbia. “Back to work deal has been signed.”    The group is said […]

   PortMiami Director Bill Johnson will switch jobs within the Miami-Dade County government to head the water-and-sewer department. Johnson, 59, has also solidified Miami’s position as the No. 1 cruise port in the world.

   ZIM, the Israel-based container carrier, said it had a net loss in 2013 of $530 million compared with $428 million last year.    Excluding extraordinary expenses, the annual loss amounted to $369 million.    Revenues in 2013 amounted to $3.7 billion, compared with $4 billion in 2012, a decrease of 7 percent, resulting mostly […]

   The U.S. maritime industry is “at the precipice of potential failure” said acting U.S. Maritime Administrator Paul “Chip” Jaenichen during testimony to the Coast Guard and Maritime Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. Jaenichen    Jaenichen, head of the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, said his concern was based on a […]

   Lufthansa Cargo generated revenues of 2.44 billion euro in 2013, a 9.2-percent decline from 2012’s result.    Operating profit in 2013 fell by 26.7 percent to 77 million euro, and operating margin fell by 0.7 points. Freight and mail tonnage fell by 1 percentage point during the same period to 1.72 million tons.    […]

   SeaLand, the newly founded intra-Americas regional carrier of Maersk Group, said it has appointed the following executives to lead the company under Craig Mygatt, who was named earlier this year as chief executive officer of the new unit.    The appointees will join the company within the next couple of months. Alfredo Di Palma […]

   A World Trade Organization panel has sided with the U.S. in favor of its claims that China’s export restraints on rare earth metals, tungsten and molybdenum breach WTO rules. They are used in a variety of U.S-made products.

   At a waterfront rally Tuesday, the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association along with several business leaders and government officials called for limiting the power of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

   The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday against Con-way Freight, saying the company violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Con-way has denied the allegations.

    This year’s outlook for the container shipping industry is “bleak” and publicly-listed global container shipping companies “face a greater risk of financial distress, including possible bankruptcy, than at any time since 2010,” according to the global business-advisory firm AlixPartners, which Tuesday released a new study titled “Change on the Horizon: The 2014 Container Shipping […]

   Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Bill Shuster on Tuesday deferred accepting their “Port Person of the Year” awards until the new version of the Water Resources Development Act is passed.

   The U.S. Export-Import Bank said one of its guaranteed bonds funded by the capital markets raised $40.7 million for the Brazilian airline VRG Linhas Aéreas S.A. (GOL) for engine-maintenance services performed by Delta TechOps in Atlanta.    Delta TechOps is the maintenance, repair and overhaul division of Delta Air Lines.    The bond was […]

   Hapag-Lloyd said Wednesday that it had a net loss of €97.4 million ($134.3 million) in 2013, smaller than the €128.3 million net loss in 2012, adding that the outlook for liner shipping is brighter.    Revenue declined to €6.57 billion in 2013 compared with €6.84 billion the prior year. The company said this was […]

   COSCO Pacific, the container terminal and container leasing arm of COSCO, had a profit attributable to equity holders of $702.7 million in 2013 compared with $342.2 million in 2012, with much of the increase coming from the disposal in May of its 21.8 percent equity interest in China International Marine Containers, one of the […]

   Fednav said it is the first shipping company to use drones to check ice conditions on the water during a commercial voyage, using video-equipped drones to scout ahead of the vessel in the Labrador Coast. 

   The U.S. Coast Guard began allowing ships to move through special zones of the Port of Houston’s ship channel Tuesday afternoon after being closed since Saturday due to an oil spill.      The first transits started with deep-draft vessels moving outbound from Houston. By 6 p.m., the Houston port pilots reported 14 vessels […]

Obama    President Barack Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will meet with European leaders Wednesday in Brussels for a summit on EU-U.S. relations, which will include a discussion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.    Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, will also be in attendance. The European Council’s […]