Crowley names Sweeney VP of safety and health

Crowley names Sweeney VP of safety and health Pulled down by a drop in import boxes, the Port of Oakland's container activity during January grew 4.3 percent over January 2006. Imports fell 4.3 percent over the same period in 2006 while exports grew 13.1 percent and empty boxes moving through the port grew 5.2 percent.
   The January numbers are a reversal of import and export volume trends recorded by the port last year. During all of 2006, import volumes rose 4.9 percent to 877,649 TEUs. Export loads in 2006 fell 0.8 percent to 840,127 TEUs over the previous year. Empty containers jumped 14 percent to 673,822 TEUs.
   Oakland, the state's third-busiest port, has shown steady growth for more than a decade, only falling into the negative once, in 2001.
   At the same time, the Pacific Shipper magazine is reporting that Mediterranean Shipping Co. will cancel a planned express service between Oakland and Asia after a lukewarm response from shippers.
   'The volume just wasn't there,' Allen Clifford, MSC vice president, told the Times. 'We don't take a 'build it and they will come' attitude. MSC doesn't drop rates to gain market share or fill vessels.'
   He said MSC would continue regular services through Oakland, but that the Asia/Oakland service had been scrapped for now.