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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Please note that in your cover story in the January issue — “The 3 percent rule” (pages 32-38) — the writer overlooked the fact that UASC also ordered nine 13,500-TEU ships ( A13 Class) of which two have already been delivered and the rest to be delivered in the first half of this year. They will […]
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. […]
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.
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…
By Pierce Homer transportation director Moffatt & Nichol As economic activity picks up things that were left undone during the last several years, such as development of a new transportation authorization bill, could become a barrier to recovery in the near term and prosperity in the long term.
The liner carrier Orient Overseas Container Line has made a huge commitment to its operations in Southern California. In late January, the Hong Kong-based line tied up a deal with the Port of Long Beach to pay $4.6 billion over 40 years to lease the to-be-completed Middle Harbor property currently being redeveloped by the port.
Oscar Hasbún, chief executive officer of the Chile-based container shipping company Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV), said his firm has sized itself correctly and strengthened its liquidity as the liner industry enters into what looks to be another difficult year. Hasbún told American Shipper in an interview in late January that he was “absolutely optimistic” about CSAV’s […]
The Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries is reportedly working on designs for a 13,200-TEU ship that would be able to transit the Panama Canal. Previously, it was thought that vessels of 12,000 TEUs would be the largest to transit the new wider set of locks due to open in 2014.
Exporters in Oregon and southwest Washington are benefiting from Asiana Airline’s new non-stop all-cargo service connecting Portland International Airport directly to Incheon Airport in South Korea, according to port authority officials in Portland. Asiana launched the three-times-per-week service in September using Boeing 747 jets, which first land in Miami and Atlanta.
President Obama signed legislation on Feb. 14 redefining the roles, responsibilities and funding priorities of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration after more than four years of delay that hindered progress on new fronts. The four-year reauthorization bill will accelerate deployment of a modern air traffic control system, dubbed NextGen, that relies on much more precise satellite-based […]
Old Dominion Freight Line has expanded its Pacific Promise less-than-container load (LCL) service to 10 additional ports in Asia. The ports covered by the wider service include Manila, Singapore, Jakarta, Surabaya, Penang, Port Kelang, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Busan. The service, launched in China in 2009, now covers 23 […]
In late January, American Shipper surveyed shippers on the transpacific eastbound trade and the results were, as expected, quite enlightening. But perhaps the most intriguing number to emerge from the latest Transpacific Pulse survey was this: shippers who don’t lock in their rates on the trade for the year were five times more likely to have their cargo […]
A third port in southern Georgia could help diversify the state’s marine business by concentrating on bulk cargo such as grains, sands, aggregates and wood pellets, according to a Feb. 16 press release by the Camden County Joint Development Authority, which is promoting the concept. David Keating, the JDA’s executive director, recently briefed […]
For decades logistics software vendors competed more with potential customers’ internal IT departments than with each other. Logistics service providers – particularly non-vessel-operating common carriers and freight forwarders managing containerized ocean freight — only had a choice between two types of implementations: custom-built or installed software from a third party. It was a “black […]
Eighteen years ago Sebastian Stahl was working at a freight forwarder handling what he thought was a routine shipment from the United States, when a couple of days later “I had about 20 young men in my office a couple of days later saying ‘where is my shipment, where is my equipment, where is my […]
On-demand transportation management systems (TMS) are capturing market share as more companies accept Web-based platforms across their entire supply chain. On-demand platforms — otherwise known as software-as-a-service or SaaS — can provide advantages over traditional TMS deployments such as lower initial costs, speedy deployments, and enhanced supply chain visibility. With lower startup prices, companies can […]
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