Grand Alliance reveals trans-Atlantic itinerary The grouping will be the largest in the trade with 31 ships of well over 1 million-TEU capacity.
Maersk Sealand pares Med-Gulf rotation The carrier will drop calls at Valencia, Spain, and Freeport, Texas, on its Med-Gulf Express service.
Container port volume jumps at Singapore Figures for the first half of the year at the world's second busiest port increased by 13% to 8.6 million TEUs.
Celadon taps exchange for its B2B service The online load-matching service from National Transportation Exchange will become available in 30 days.
Auckland averts strike Dockworkers reach agreement with New Zealand's main port.
Rules of Origin: The textile mess gets messier Sections of the Sub-Saharan Africa/Caribbean trade bill makes illogical U.S. textile rules virtually incomprehensible.
Alianca to charge for late SED filing
Report underscores containerization's impact on ILWU
DHL launches Web services aimed at international customers
Wrightson new Consolidated Freightways CFO
Grand Alliance reveals Atlantic itinerary
Market expected to surge for application service providers
Circle International put on S&P CreditWatch
Con-Way Central Express ramps up freight center
Overnite names Gentry Western VP
Airborne expects earnings swoon
China Southern offers passenger-style cargo books
UPS subsidiary offers credit card
Swissair chief rejects rumors of financial difficulties
ITF and IMEC negotiate new pay scale for seafarers Negotiators for the ITF and IMEC have agreed the text of a model collective bargaining agreement. It provide for staged increases to the monthly AB benchmark wage.
U.K. continues to detain OBO for ISM deficiencies Britain is continuing to hold a Liberian flag OBO detained on June 30
OECD calls for fair yard prices The OECD is to seek a fresh legally binding agreement among the world's leading shipbuilding nations in an attempt to create a level playing field in the industry.
Top carriers eye India's state carrier LEADING carriers P&O Steam Navigation, Canadian Pacific and Maersk Sealand are making a pitch for the large slice of equity being offered by Indian national carrier the Shipping Corporation of India.
Transatlantic boom goes on VETERANS of the transatlantic trades say they have never experienced a boom quite like it.
HMS Invincible The aircraft carrier HMS Invincible has arrived at moorings off Greenwich on a courtesy visit to London, writes Jack Gaston. Fresh from an eight-month refit, the 20,000 tonne ship will remain in London for one week. Due to her length, Invincible was swung by three tugs in the entrance to the West India Docks and towed to stern first to Greenwich; a distance of about one mile.
Pilots protest to IMO MARITIME pilots have filed a formal protest with the International Maritime Organisation against the proposed introduction of a standardised form for master/pilot exchanges prior to the pilot's embarkation.
Taiwanese boat A Taiwanese boat cruises in the port of Kaoshiung, south of Taipei, as waves from weakening typhoon Kai-tak crash on to the harbour walls following storms which killed 28 at the weekend.
Eagle Global Logistics, which took a pass on Circle International two years ago, has come back for the kill, announcing that the 102-year-old freight forwarder and logistics company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of EGL. The merger, a one-for-one stock swap worth nearly $500 million, was announced July 3 and should close in September. Eagle shareholders will own 63 percent of the combined company. Circle shareholders will hold the remaining 37 percent. The marriage of the international giant and high-flying, fast-growing EGL is expected to erase key issues at both companies.
It took the Federal Railroad Administration two years to translate congressional intent into a final rule but come Labor Day railroads will have access to $3.5 billion in low-interest government loans and loan guarantees. The Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program, which reserves $1 billion of the total for shortline railroads, was authorized by the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
In this age of multimillion-dollar global information systems, it is reassuring to know that streamlining the supply chain does not necessarily mean throwing money at it. With ingenuity and teamwork, even a modest budget can go a long way. Ask air conditioning equipment manufacturer Carrier Corp. An information system it developed in-house is linking the company's assembly lines with its distribution network. The system has improved product reconciliation rates from around 30 percent to more than 99 percent, the company said. The system is generating a stream of accurate, timely product information that will fuel further improvements in supply-chain management and feed a much grander warehouse system. And all for around $60,000 in equipment costs.
Peter J. Vroom is back at the Truck Renting and Leasing Association - this time as CEO. Vroom left the group in 1997 to form his own Washington lobbying firm. But when TRALA Chief Executive Officer Mike Payne announced his intention to retire, the group turned to Vroom, who will be executive vice president until he picks up the CEO reins at the end of next year. Vroom plans to use his ties in Congress - as well as his nine-person staff and $2 million budget - in dealing with the biggest issues facing TRALA's 680 members: state tax and regulatory issues.
Fuel is back. It's a story that never really left. Airlines, once again, are going back to the well trying to wring more money out of shippers to pay for the rising cost of fuel. Northwest and American are increasing international fuel surcharges on a per-kilo basis beginning Aug. 1 and Aug. 3, respectively. United Airlines is expected to chime in with its own increase. All three airlines tried to force an increase a few months back but when additional airlines didn't join in they yanked the increase before it went into effect. Forwarders, meanwhile, bemoan the increases and try to pass the additional costs on to the shipper.
Intermodal equipment companies are gaining efficiency by becoming more internet savvy. InterBox, an Internet-based container exchange, has revised its service with the introduction of a module called slotXchange, which it claims is the first web-based exchange for vessel slot capacity. In addition, Transamerica Leasing has introduced a number of new features to its online container service, TradexOnline. The service now is able to view global container availability, get on- and off-hire references and review and approve damage estimates. But there is still some way to go before the Internet is fully harnessed in this area. "By and large there is still a lot of potential for automating a lot of these transactions," said Stuart Downie, Transamerica vice president, fleet operations.
Corporate raider Carl Icahn has turned his sights to the railroad industry. Icahn, fresh from his battle over food conglomerate Nabisco Holdings, recently informed CSX Chairman and CEO John Snow of his intentions to buy up to 15 percent of the railroad. CSX responded by adjusting the poison-pill threshold to discourage a hostile takeover. Snow publicly stated only that Icahn believed CSX stock represented a good value. However, there was much speculation over the financier's true intentions, from splitting up the railroad to opening up the line to competitive access.
The Internet and intermodal are not often mentioned in the same sentence - but they should be. The complexities of multiple carriers handling a single freight move lends itself to the simplification of web interaction. Internet-based intermodal companies - Webmodal, for intermodal freight moves, and LoadMatch, for equipment matching - are two that are bringing this sector of the industry into the 21st century by linking companies to the web.
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