Policy of not giving dedicated terminals to lines stays: MPA Singapore port not overly dependent on any one shipping operator
Pirates attack Malaysian ship
Ship sales
Hanjin's profit up 5-fold
Air and Land Transport
Emirates plans US$3.5b London listing Middle East carrier Emirates likely to float within five years: analysts
China Eastern to buy regional airline, lease jets
Deregulate UK airports, think tank urges
Decision on cause of crash delayed
Beijing Airport may acquire nearby Tianjin airport
Features
Lessons for Singapore's port Eleven prominent personalities from the international maritime and port community gathered in Singapore last week to give it advice o how to develop further as a leading port and international maritime centre
Policy of not giving dedicated terminals to lines stays: MPA Singapore port not overly dependent on any one shipping operator
Pirates attack Malaysian ship
Ship sales
Hanjin's profit up 5-fold
Air and Land Transport
Emirates plans US$3.5b London listing Middle East carrier Emirates likely to float within five years: analysts
China Eastern to buy regional airline, lease jets
Deregulate UK airports, think tank urges
Decision on cause of crash delayed
Beijing Airport may acquire nearby Tianjin airport
Features
Lessons for Singapore's port Eleven prominent personalities from the international maritime and port community gathered in Singapore last week to give it advice o how to develop further as a leading port and international maritime centre
Policy of not giving dedicated terminals to lines stays: MPA Singapore port not overly dependent on any one shipping operator
Pirates attack Malaysian ship
Ship sales
Hanjin's profit up 5-fold
Air and Land Transport
Emirates plans US$3.5b London listing Middle East carrier Emirates likely to float within five years: analysts
China Eastern to buy regional airline, lease jets
Deregulate UK airports, think tank urges
Decision on cause of crash delayed
Beijing Airport may acquire nearby Tianjin airport
Features
Lessons for Singapore's port Eleven prominent personalities from the international maritime and port community gathered in Singapore last week to give it advice o how to develop further as a leading port and international maritime centre
Carnival earnings warning after cancellations TOP cruiseship operator Carnival Corp has warned that its fourth-quarter earnings will drop one penny a share following the cancellation of two week-long voyages by its cruise vessel Elation.
CSAV calls time on acquisitions Companhia Sud Americana de Vapores has entered a period of consolidation after two years on the acquisition trail.
QBE reshuffles Limit pack A MAJOR shake-up in marine underwriting is underway as Australian insurer QBE takes full control of Lloyd's operation Limit.
Ex-Hyundai chief steps in as cash saviour for unit SOUTH Korea's largest conglomerate, Hyundai Group, has revealed that former chairman Chung Mong-hun plans to buy a 23.86% stake in its shipping unit Hyundai Merchant Marine.
Wah Kwong intrigue grows New owners, George Chao Sze-kwong and Bocimar Far East, have been uncharacteristically quiet in the month since Hong Kong's Wah Kwong Shipping was delisted and went private.
Buyers get in line for Samsung 12,000 teu design Designs for ships able to carry up to 12,000 teu developed by Samsung Heavy Industries are attracting considerable interest from potential buyers.
Spot market for LNG? A report from the New York brokerage and consultancy, Poten & Partners describes liquefied natural gas carriers as 'strategic assets'.
Pilot transfer concept now being tested The new 'Elbe Range' pilot transfer concept, now being tested in the North Sea, is designed to transfer pilots to large vessels more safely, more quickly and more economically.
After less than six months in business, FedEx Home Delivery says it plans to cover all of the country in just two years. It's an ambitious plan but FedEx is refusing to grow the business too fast at the expense of reliability. Like the rest of FedEx, the Home Delivery unit is highly automated and leaves little room for error. But unlike FedEx, the drivers operate in a much less structured environment and see themselves as small business owners, not employees. In an era of stock options and company-sponsored health care, you might think it would be hard to find employees who want to take the risk and front the money to work for the new venture, but they are out there.
Coal-hauling railroads must pay more attention to the prices they charge and the service they render to power generators, said Edison Electric Institute official and transportation expert Charles Linderman, "because there is potential for loss not by what railroads do, but by what they don't do." Linderman said that if railroads don't construct a sturdy new partnership with power generators to make them more competitive by reducing delivered coal costs and improving rail service, electric utilities will be forced to increase their demand for natural gas. But increased dependence on natural gas for peak-load generation, said Linderman, could result in interrupted energy supplies and reduced American-industry competitiveness in world markets because the supply and price of natural gas are subject to wide fluctuation.
There's not much comfort in the home furnishings business these days. The two largest furniture retailers in the nation have filed for bankruptcy and dot-coms have been falling like dropped pianos. Yet there are rich pickings for third-party logistics companies with the right expertise. High-end brands are looking to expand and there is plenty of scope for streamlining the industry's convoluted supply chains.
There will be no fire sale of Overnite Transportation Co. by parent Union Pacific Corp. The Richmond, Va.-based carrier, the nation's sixth-largest stand-alone LTL carrier and biggest nonunion LTL carrier, has had its initial public offering shelved indefinitely because of poor market conditions for all trucking companies. Overnite has another unsettled cloud, the 10-month-old unfair labor practice strike by the Teamsters union, although it seems to be recovering from that. Overnite reported its best 90-day financials in the last six years when it posted $12.6 million net income on $283.4 million revenue for the second period ended June 30. Expansion plans are under way in Overnite's regional and Canadian operations and a move into Mexico is planned soon, senior Overnite executives said.
Pressure from its customers forced Solvay Minerals, the world's second-largest producer of soda ash, to find a software company able to effectively keep track of its customers' inventory and get a better handle on rail car management. It wasn't as easy as it seemed; Solvay found out that most software companies lacked the total package - most, that is, except Transentric, formerly Union Pacific Technologies. Transentric provided Solvay a means to keep track of both inventory and rail car transit times from start to finish along the industrial logistics chain - to the benefit of Solvay and its customers.
While many shippers are buoyed by the options now available under the relatively new ocean-shipping contracting laws, some chemical shippers are foundering. "Last year, the competitive bidding really made it difficult," said Greg Nikiper, who handles transportation for chemical manufacturer FMC Corp.'s operations in Philadelphia. He's also an official representative for the U.S. Chemical Shippers Association. "Many of us are going back to the carriers we've had our contracts with in the first place," he said. "It's easier to deal with those carriers than to go out for bid."
The massive recall of Bridgestone/Firestone tires has become an air freight project. In order to expedite the delivery of the 6.5 million tires that have been recalled, the Japanese tire manufacturer is shipping finished tires by air for at least 10 days to speed up the replacement process. Since the Aug. 9 voluntary recall, 560,000 tires were replaced by Aug. 20, but the U.S. plants can't keep up with demand, so the Tokyo area plant is working around the clock to churn out as many tires as humanly possible. Ford Motor Co. is taking a huge financial hit from the recall. Ford shut down three manufacturing plants, idling 6,000 workers, to free up its in stock tires for the recall effort. Thai Airways, Northwest Airlines and probably any airline that has space out of Asia will have new tires in the cargo hold.
The clouds are clearing and the sky is looking blue - the investment sky, that is, for technology companies receiving funding. Among the recipients are Yantra Corp., FreightWise and AnythingOvernight.com. Supply-chain software company Yantra announced it secured $41 million in funding from investors, including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity, Amerindo, Broadvision, VerticalNet and Eastman Chemical Co. FreightWise, an Internet venture of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., said it received an undisclosed amount of venture funding from General Electric Co. Internet-based AnythingOvernight.com snagged $2.25 million in its first formal round of funding led by Dana Commercial Credit Corp., a customer.
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