American Shipper

FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

MSC raising Black Sea/East Med export rates

     The liner carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. said it plans to raise rates on a number of trades out of the east Mediterranean and Black Sea from March 1.    The increases are: $50 per container from Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, and Israel to South Africa, Mozambique and West Africa. $100 per container from […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

NY port hits record container volume in 2011

   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it handled a 5.5 million TEUs in 2011 (both loaded and empty), about 4 percent more than in 2010.    The port’s on-dock rail system – known as ExpressRail – also set a new record in 2011, handling 422,144 containers of all sizes, or 12 […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

LaHood’s son caught in Egyptian power struggle

By Eric Kulisch    Senate Budget Committee leaders expressed their concern during a hearing last week about the detention of Sam LaHood and 15 other young Americans by Egyptian authorities because of their work for non-governmental organizations dedicated to fostering and strengthening democratic institutions around the world.    The key witness was Transportation Secretary Ray […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

IBM buys Worklight for mobility strategy

     IBM has entered an agreement to buy Worklight, an Israel-based enterprise mobile applications development firm.    IBM said Worklight will become an “important piece of IBM’s mobility strategy,” and estimates in the Israeli press put the company’s value at about $70 million.    Worklight builds HTML5 apps plus the middleware and security features to support them, […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

TNT reports $230 million 4Q loss

Days after it rejected an acquisition bid from UPS, the Dutch document and package carrier TNT Express said it had a loss of 174 million euros ($230 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to a profit of 4 million euros in the same 2010 period.

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Foss ship resumes voyage after repairs

     Delta Mariner, the ship that slammed into a bridge across a reservoir on the Tennessee River last month, has resumed its voyage to Port Canaveral.    United Launch Alliance, the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that charters the ship from Foss Maritime to move rocket components from its manufacturing location in Decatur, […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Dachser names Diaz U.S. air cargo head

     Dachser Transport of America (Dachser USA) has appointed Mickey Diaz as director of U.S. air freight.    “This new position will better serve our customers, as Mickey is great asset for our shippers to meet the demands of logistics challenges faced in the U.S. market,” said Frank Guenzerodt, president and chief executive officer […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

AirNet sharpens charter activities

     AirNet Systems, an express air cargo airline based in Ohio, has changed its name to AirNet Cargo Charter Services alongside launching new services around chartered cargo.    The company said its goal is to enhance its express cargo charter airline operations in North America.    “This rebranding sharpens our focus around key market segments that require the […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Hyundai gets biggest containership

     The liner carrier Hyundai Merchant Marine has received the largest containership in its history, the first of five vessels larger than 13,000 TEUs.    The Hyundai Together is 13,100 TEUs and will be deployed in the Asia-Europe. The ship is also the largest vessel operated by any members of the newly formed G6 […]

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Safmarine receives vessel for Africa trade

     The shipping line Safmarine said Tuesday it has received the first of three new Safmarine-branded WAFMAX vessels to join the fleet of its parent company A.P. Moller-Maersk this year.    The 4,500-TEU Safmarine Chilka has been built for the African trades and will be deployed on the Far East-Africa trade.    Safmarine said […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

A tale of two waterways

   Remarks by Mike Toohey, president and chief executive officer of the Waterways Council Inc. (WCI), when the proposed 2013 Obama budget for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was released gave us pause.    Toohey focused his remarks on the Olmsted Lock and Dam on the Ohio River, which WCI spokesperson Debra Colbert told […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

Consumer spending overemphasized, analyst says

   Consumer spending in the United States is more than two-thirds of the economy. At least that’s what we’re taught to believe by most economists and journalists writing or talking about it. In fact, most analysts now put consumer spending at 70 percent.    That’s a fallacy, according to one contrarian.    Scudder Smith is […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

Gina jokes again

   Al Gina, assistant commissioner for international trade at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has a knack for warming up the crowd with jokes when he speaks in public. Last time I wrote about him on this page, he was trying out his comedy at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America’s event […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

Hillbilly counterfeiting

   Intellectual property theft when it comes to high-tech products usually involves sophisticated criminals. Sale of fake electronic products produced overseas is a big problem for manufacturers.    But a recent Louisville Courier-Journal story caught my eye for its rudimentary effort to con buyers.    In late January, a Tennessee man was arrested in Louisville, […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

Shippers will define future of NVOs

By Chris Gillis    Liner carriers and many large shipper logistics executives once made a sport out of talking down to the non-vessel-operating common carrier industry.     Twenty to 30 years ago, that rhetoric was warranted, especially when the NVO business was still in its infancy and struggling for validation among shippers and liner carriers. […]

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

The euro zone debt crisis and your supply chain

  By Tom Nightingale president of sales and marketing, ModusLink Global Solutions    Crisis over euro pits leader against leader,” “S&P defends mass European downgrade,” “Tensions rise over euro zone firewall” — these are just a few of the disconcerting news headlines we’ve seen in recent months.

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, February 20, 2012

Unconscionable?

  By Chris Dupin    The drayage company Unimax filed a class action lawsuit against liner carrier COSCO in the U.S. District Court in California, alleging it unlawfully levies fees for the late pickups and drop-offs of containers on weekends and holidays in violation of California law.     COSCO moved to compel Unimax…

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