UPS has expanded its preferred less-than-containerload (LCL) ocean freight offering to Western Europe with new port access in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Belgium. The program has now expanded to 26 ports in Asia and four ports in Western Europe. The preferred service (PLCL), introduced two years ago, leverages UPS’ North American freight network for […]
Bilateral trade balances skewed by not counting domestic content in imports. By Eric Kulisch Trade statistics about a nation’s imports and exports may not accurately reflect the true value of inputs because of the fragmented nature of global production and supply chains, according to new analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. […]
The requirement under the Jones Act that ships moving cargo between two U.S. points be built and registered in the United States and crewed by Americans has attracted attention from everyone from television stock-picker Jim Cramer to groups such as American’s for Tax Reform and the Heritage Foundation. American Maritime Partnership (AMP), a […]
The Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index that we published in January pointed to a swing from air freight to ocean freight. Overall ocean volumes in and out of emerging markets grew by 1.7 percent at the expense of air freight which fell by 2.4 percent in 2012. No surprise there — and there is […]
Since the forced budget cuts took effect March 1, federal agencies in charge of overseeing trade into and out of the United States have had to make due with less. To deal with the budget cuts, U.S. Customs, the country’s primary border agency, has essentially implemented plans for how it would operate in […]
The financial restructuring firm AlixPartners has been appointed by Taiwan bulk shipping carrier Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) to manage the company’s restructuring and turnaround. Reuters reported in the fall that TMT defaulted on payments for 12 bulk cargo ships from Hyundai shipyards and had to cut its fleet in half since the financial […]
Miasolé, a solar energy company in Santa Clara, Calif., was able to export its thin-film solar panels to a solar photovoltaic project in Rajasthan, India, with help of a $9 million direct loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The Indian borrower, Sai Maithili Power Company Private Ltd., a single-purpose solar company formed by […]
Hapag-Lloyd said it will begin operating its weekly Finland Express Service (FEX) to Baltic ports next week. Two ships with about 1,000 TEUs of capacity will call Bremerhaven, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Kotka, Rauma and Gaevle (Sweden) before returning to Bremerhaven. Hapag-Lloyd is currently looking into calling at the Russian port of Ust-Luga as well. The […]
“Entry to the TPP must be supported by a consensus… TPP parties will also want to be reassured that the entry of new members will continue to keep up with the good momentum that they have achieved so far,” said a negotiator.
Softship, a provider of liner and agent software applications, said Wednesday it has partnered with Comarch, a Poland-based developer of business enterprise software, to provide integrated operations and financial software to the global liner market. The companies said the integrated offering will allow liner operators and agents to manage sales, quotations, contracts, bookings […]
Evergreen said it will launch a new service linking South China, the Philippines and East Malaysia in mid-April. In addition to providing regional transportation links for shippers in three countries, the new loop will connect to Evergreen’s global network via Hong Kong. Two ships of 1,700 TEUs will be deployed on the weekly […]
In a press release issued by the dockworkers on March 26, ILA President Harold Daggett said “Our organizing mission will go global. We will really make our union an international one like we’ve never seen before.”
The Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) hosts its 17th Annual Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference in Newport, R.I. on April 2-4. The two-and-a-half day conference features dozens of trade and transportation executives speaking about industry issues. Speakers will include importers and exporters such as Hasbro, The Gem Group, Ocean […]
The International Civil Aviation Organization has started an environmental project with the Indonesian government to improve the sustainability of Indonesian air transport. ICAO’s technical cooperation bureau will help the government devise a long-term plan to combat carbon emissions while also focusing on immediate changes to lower the spread of greenhouse gases. The agreement is […]
Behind the Wheel with Randy Mullett Almost 50 years ago, in 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore put forth the now-famous prediction that every 18 months to two years, technology would allow the number of transistors on a given computer chip to double. To this day, his prediction has proven true, accurately forecasting an […]
Nation’s motor carriers navigate FMCSA rules for industry. By Jon Ross More than 12 years ago, President Clinton signed a bill to create the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, tasked with spreading safety throughout the trucking industry. Almost immediately, the agency set about creating new hours-of-service guidelines limiting the amount of time drivers […]
Big ships from Europe-Asia trade expected to enter the transpacific. By Chris Dupin The next couple of years could see big changes in transpacific liner services, as many large containerships now trading between Asia and Europe are expected to “cascade” or be repositioned into transpacific services. That change will present major across-the-board challenges: To […]
Even with slow steaming and economies of scale of bigger containerships, fuel is still a significant cost for carriers, amounting to about 60-70 percent of a voyage across the Pacific, recently noted Brian Conrad, Transpacific Stabilization Agreement executive director. Bunker fuels jumped from $450 per ton in September 2010 to $745 per ton […]
The Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners voted today to restructure the state-owned operating company, Virginia International Terminals, instead of outsourcing cargo and vessel-handling operations at the Port of Virginia to private terminal management firms, the VPA said in a statement issued this afternoon. State officials spent almost a year evaluating two competing […]
The building supplies retailer recently achieved $1 billion in e-commerce sales out of its $70 billion of annual revenue, and officials are making strides to connect this aspect of its supply chain strategy with more traditional retail sales.
