American Shipper

   Transportation and energy ministers from 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region, including the United States, on Tuesday agreed to continue initiatives for cleaner and more energy-efficient transportation in the region.    The announcement came during the first-ever joint Transportation and Energy Ministerial Conference held in San Francisco by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the […]

van der Jagt    Nicolette van der Jagt, the long-time secretary general of the European Shippers’ Council, will become director general of CLECAT, the European association for forwarding, transport, logistics and custom services.    She will succeed Marco Sorgetti, who is leaving CLECAT to become the director general of FIATA in Zurich, effective Jan 1. […]

   A.P. Moller’s freight forwarding and supply chain management subsidiary Damco has begun providing customers with an online calculation of carbon dioxide emissions.    The new information is available online at myDamco, the browser-based customer interface with Damco, and will enable customers to track carbon dioxide emissions for all products shipped by ocean and air. […]

   Marine terminal equipment manufacturer Cargotec has opened a marine service company in Klaipeda, Lithuania.    The new company, MacGregor BLRT Baltic UAB, is a joint venture owned by Cargotec (51 percent) and Western Shipyard (49 percent).    “In Baltic, cargo access equipment repairs and annual maintenance are mainly carried out during dry docking repairs […]

Analysis: Daily Maersk a tough act to follow

   The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has criticized the Department of Homeland Security for its handling of Jones Act waivers in a report accompanying the DHS Appropriations Act (H.R. 2017).     The Jones Act requires goods moving between U.S. ports be moved on U.S. crewed, flagged and built vessels, but the Senate said, “U.S. vessels, […]

   California’s clean fuel regulations and voluntary slowdowns by shipping companies have substantially reduced air pollution caused by commercial cargo ships near the state’s shore, according to a study published online Monday in Environmental Science & Technology.     The study, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), examined a containership operating under a […]

   A new report by Drewry Maritime Research projects that by 2014, about 74 percent of reefer cargo will move on containerships instead of purpose-built breakbulk reefer vessels.     Drewry’s latest Reefer Shipping Market Annual Review and Forecast 2011/12, said 12-month charter rates for conventional reefer ships continue to fall after a 10 percent drop […]

   Container carrier Hamburg Süd and the classification society Germanischer Lloyd said they are jointly developing a data management system for systematically capturing information about shipboard emissions.     Data recorders installed on ships collect information that is then fed automatically to a central server located at Germanischer Lloyd from which queries and reports can be […]

   Yehuda “Yuli” Ofer, 87, who with brother Sammy co-founded one of the world’s largest shipping companies, dies late Sunday night at his home in Herzliya, Israel.     Sammy, 89, died in June.     The Ofer Brothers Group is a wide-ranging conglomerate that among other things owns and operates Israel’s largest privately owned shipping enterprise. […]

    Titan Salvage, a Crowley Maritime Corp. company, has appointed Dan Dolson to operations manager for the Americas.     Dolson has responsibility for the operations and profitability of Titan’s U.S. office and depot in Pompano, Fla. He will relocate to Florida from Bellevue, Wash., and report to Titan Vice President Richard Habib. Dolson has more […]

   Old Dominion Freight Line said Monday it has opened a new service center in Madison, Wis.     The center is designed to complement Old Dominion’s four existing service centers in Wisconsin, where the trucking industry hauls roughly 90 percent of the state’s manufactured tonnage. The 24-door facility is intended for a radius of 50 […]

   Congress is poised to pass bills providing short-term extensions for aviation and surface transportation programs without which funding for non-essential services would expire. Congressional leaders reached a deal on both measures late Friday.     According to Politico.com, the agreement would provide the Federal Aviation Administration $5.4 billion to keep the agency running through the […]

   The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that after 10 years of negotiations, U.S. cherries can now be exported to Western Australia, making cherries the first U.S. fresh fruit to gain access to that market.     The market opening positions Australia as the seventh most valuable export market for U.S. cherries, USDA said. U.S. […]

    On Monday at Round 8 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in Chicago, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a white paper outlining a new USTR strategic initiative, Trade Enhancing Access to Medicines (TEAM).     TEAM offers trade policy tools to promote trade and reduce obstacles to access to both new and generic […]

   Wayne State University’s School of Business Administration, with support from General Motors, is bringing in logistics students from across the country to Detroit on Sept. 22-25 for an in-depth look at the supply chain systems that support the automotive industry and its high-tech vehicles.     The General Motors-Wayne State University Supply Chain Case Competitio, […]

   Maersk Line on Monday unveiled a new concept for its westbound Asia/Europe customers aimed a providing a fixed transportation time for goods shipped from four key Asian ports to three northern European ports.     The product, Daily Maersk, will provide shippers a daily cutoff at each of the four Asian ports, compared to less […]

allreports

   Washington State’s two U.S. senators have asked the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to investigate the extent to which the federal Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) and “other factors” are causing U.S.-bound cargo to be routed through ports in Canada and Mexico. In a letter to FMC Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky Jr., Sens. Patty Murray Sen. […]

    Asia/Europe ocean freight rates continued their nosedive in July, according to the latest figures from Container Trades Statistics (CTS), which gathers volume and price information from carriers on trades to and from Europe.     CTS’s rate index on westbound head-haul Asia/Europe shipments dropped below 80 (the benchmark is 100) in July, its lowest point […]