American Shipper

   Third party logistics provider ASF Logistics recently entered an agreement with Australia-based A&A Industries to oversee the transportation management of Airstream travel trailers from the Port of Baltimore to Australia’s Port Kembla.    “With our Atlantic Coast and Australian presence, along with significant experience working with specialized cargo including recreational vehicles, ASF is uniquely situated to coordinate […]

   “At a moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs, more momentum, we’ve got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back,” President Obama said Thursday. “And for what? There was no economic rationale for all of this.”

Dekker    The drive to build more operationally efficient vessels will lead to a cascading of oversize vessels is still nascent trades, Drewry Shipping Consultants Head of Container Research Neil Dekker said Wednesday.    Speaking at the Journal of Commerce-organized TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen, Dekker said large vessels displaced on the Asia-Europe trade have […]

   Evergreen’s Bronson Hsieh said increased production of shale oil and gas, a push to increase U.S. exports, and the potential migration of manufacturing back to the United States would all have an indelible impact on liner carriers.

   Ships at the port’s public marine terminals were not being worked. Work on five ships was idled on Wednesday. Private terminals that handle commodities such as coal, sugar and salt remain open.

   The EU Commission has published maps outlining the “backbone” of its new single-market transportation policy, the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), and has announced transportation financing will rise to 26 billion euros ($35.56 billion) between 2014-2020.     TENT-T will include nine major transportation corridors  — two North-South lanes, three East-West lanes and four diagonal routes. […]

   All members of the air cargo value chain need to work together to improve the efficiency, quality and security of air freight, according to Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association.     Speaking at the World Congress of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) in Singapore, Tyler pointed out […]

   Green Marine, a voluntary marine industry environmental improvement initiative, and the American Association of Port Authorities signed a memorandum of understanding underscoring a new collaboration to advance the environmental sustainability of port and terminal operators.    The MOU, signed today during AAPA’s 102nd Annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., will increase cooperation between the two […]

   A U.K.-based provider of maritime research, Dryad Maritime Intelligence, is renewing calls for heightened vigilance by ships traveling near Somalia following the recent attack on two ships, including the British-managed Island Splendor, stating that “just one successful hijack and holding to ransom of a large merchant vessel could revive Somalia’s maritime criminal infrastructure.”    […]

   Self-employed truck drivers who own their own equipment and contract with trucking companies and shippers to move freight are a dying breed and can’t be counted on as an additional source of truckload capacity if the economy picks up steam and large fleets are too busy to take on extra business, analysts say.    Owner-operators aren’t going […]

“It makes no sense for rates to be at current levels, and it threatens the ability of individual carriers to maintain service levels heading into 2014,” said Brian Conrad, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement’s executive administrator.

John F. Reinhart, the long-time head of the Norfolk, Na.-based U.S.-flag vessel arm of Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, will continue to lead the company until his departure at the end of January 2014.

According to a William Blair analysis, Wednesday’s stock price valued the 32 million shares at $3.84 billion, making each share worth $120. FedEx reported $5.1 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal first quarter.

   CSX gained net earnings of $463 million in the third quarter, generating $8 million more than the same period in 2012.    Revenues of $3 billion, when combined with an operating ratio of 71.5 percent, led officials to estimate earnings-per-share to rise from 2012 levels. By 2015, officials expect to achieve an operating ratio […]

   The Port of Los Angeles said it handled 710,892 TEUs, including empty containers, in September, 4.57 percent fewer than in the same 2012 period.    Combined total loaded imports and exports for September decreased 6.55 percent from 557,683 TEUs last September to 521,165 TEUs this September. Empties increased 1.33 percent year over year.    […]

   Earnings during the third quarter for J.B. Hunt rose to $89.5 million from $78.2 million during the same period in 2012, as operating revenue topped $1.44 billion, an increase from $1.3 billion, year over year.    Intermodal experienced a load growth of 11.6 percent, which propelled a segment revenue increase of 12 percent. Revenue […]

   The domestic transportation industry experienced “tepid” growth for the first half of the year, and only modest improvements are expected for the rest of the year, according to a study by Fitch Ratings.    In Global Infrastructure & Project Finance U.S. Transportation Trends, Fall 2013, the agency noted the industry is still exposed to […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday it has postponed its annual Trade Symposium, scheduled to take place Oct. 24-25 in Washington, because of the two-week long government shutdown.

   The effect of the mooted P3 alliance between liner carriers Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., and CMA CGM could be more aggressive pricing behavior, according to Tan Hua Joo, executive consultant for Alphaliner.    Speaking Wednesday at the TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen, organized by the Journal of Commerce, Tan argued the alliance would […]

   FESCO Integrated Transport North America has launched a new regular container service from North America to the Russian Black Sea ports of Novorossiysk and Sochi where the 2014 Winter Olympic games will be held Feb. 7-23.    FESCO will offer service as a non-vessel-operating common carrier every nine days from the ports of New York; […]