Journal of Commerce

Hong Kong Bans Poultry Imports From Catalonia, Spain

JOC Staff — Thu, 23 May 2013 02:32:17 +0000

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong has banned the import of poultry and poultry products, including eggs, from the province of Catalonia, Spain, in view of the World Organization for Animal Health’s notification regarding an outbreak of low-pathogenic H7N1 avian...

Japanese Exports to US Surge in April

JOC Staff — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:15:03 +0000

Japan’s exports to the United States rose for the fourth straight month in April on a year-on-year basis, surging 14.8 percent to 1.101 trillion yen ($10.69 billion), according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry. The April jump in U.S.-bound shipments was led by autos, organic compounds and mineral fuels,...

DHL Supply Chain Opens Warehouse in India

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:53:52 +0000

DHL Supply Chain has unveiled its new multi-user warehouse in Luhari, India. Spread across 320,000 square feet, the facility, worth Rs. 65 crore (about US$11.7 million), will serve customers from the consumer, retail and automotive industries. Procter & Gamble, a consumer goods company, is DHL’s anchor customer at the Luhari site. “We see...

Drewry Trans-Pacific Rate Benchmark Strengthens

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:07:11 +0000

Drewry Container Rate Benchmark, May 22, 2013 Full-size image Drewry’s Hong Kong-Los Angeles Container Rate Benchmark rose $250 this week, achieving almost 63 percent of a proposed $400 per-40-foot-container general rate increase by USL and CMA CGM set for May 21. This followed a six-week slump that saw a total decline of...

Crowley Maritime Invests in Cargo-Handling Equipment

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:27:06 +0000

Crowley Maritime’s liner services group is adding more than 3,000 pieces of cargo-handling equipment to its fleet, allowing the transportation company to expand its services in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America. The equipment includes 200 53-foot dry containers, 200 45-foot dry containers, 500 20-foot dry containers, 1,000 40-foot high-cube...

Port of Long Beach Adopts Power Supply Policy

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:15:52 +0000

Long Beach’s Board of Harbor Commissioners has unanimously approved a Port of Long Beach energy policy that will guide efforts for a more sustainable supply of power as demand increases. The energy policy declares that the port will implement measures to boost efficiency, conservation, resiliency and renewable energy in collaboration with...

'E' Awards Honor 57 US Firms for Export Successes

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:54:46 +0000

Rick and Susan Held of Held & Associates receiving the “E” Award for Export Service from Secretary Blank.Rebecca Blank, U.S. acting secretary of commerce, has honored 57 U.S. companies and organizations that export goods or services at the 2013 President’s “E” Awards ceremony, which recognizes significant contributions to increasing American...

Containerized Exports From Europe to North America at Eight-Month High

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:47:59 +0000

Containerized export volume from Europe to North America reached 322,300 20-foot-equivalent units in March, its highest volume since July 2012 and the second highest volume in this lane since the JOC began collecting this data in January 2011, according to data from Container Trades Statistics, Ltd. Europe to Far East Asia Europe...

Con-way Freight to Build Facility in Wisconsin

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:14:44 +0000

Con-way Freight will build a new, 96-door freight service center in Fond du Lac, Wis. The $8 million, 47,000 square foot facility will serve as the local hub from which the less-than-truckload trucking company will provide daily local freight pickup and delivery services connecting the greater Fond du Lac metropolitan area...

US Diplomat: Piracy Falling But Progress 'Fragile and Reversible'

Mark Szakonyi — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:17:48 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Somali piracy is declining as more commercial vessels employ armed guards, foreign navies ramp-up security and courts dish out justice to offenders, but “progress is still fragile and reversible,” a U.S. State Department official warned yesterday. Advances in piracy prevention could easily be lost if vessels stop hiring...

Carriers Elevate Rates to Avoid Renegotiating Trans-Pacific Contracts

Peter T. Leach — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:21:30 +0000

Trans-Pacific container lines got a reprieve from sliding freight rates this week when they put a general rate increase into effect on May 21, but freight rates are likely to continue to slide in the major east-west trades because some carriers continue to slash rates after repeated GRIs in an...

IMPEX Logistics Launches Purchasing Co-op for NVOCCs

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:58:25 +0000

IMPEX Logistics has launched an ocean transportation purchasing cooperative for small and medium-size non-vessel-operating common carriers. “Over the past 15 years, IMPEX Logistics, as manager of the United Shippers Alliance, has helped more than 150 shippers across the country achieve competitive ocean and [less-than-truckload] transportation rates,” said Randy Smith, president of...

DAT Freight Index Sees Steep Drop in April

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:54:10 +0000

The DAT North American Freight Index fell 16.5 percent year-over-year in April 2013, down to 1488, compared with a record April high in 2012, according to the latest release from DAT. This is the third straight month of declines. DAT North American Freight Index Full-size image The current spot market freight volume slipped roughly...

10 Steps to Improve Discretionary Grant Programs

Paul Lewis and Joshua Schank — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:52:34 +0000

Recent years have seen a strong shift in emphasis toward a more performance-based federal transportation policy in Washington. Performance-based competitive grant programs can be an important component of this shift. A few federal discretionary grant programs, such as TIGER Grants and Transit New Starts, already award transportation funding on a...

MOL Enters Canadian Liner Market

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:50:26 +0000

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines will begin operating in Canada as “MOL (Canada),” effective Aug. 1. The liner agent agreement between MOL (America) and Montship will expire on July 31. Montship has represented MOL’s Canadian liner services for more than 53 years. All other agent agreements between MOL’s non-liner divisions and Montship will continue...

MSC to Raise Asia-Europe Rates

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:44:56 +0000

Mediterranean Shipping Co. will boost rates for all cargo on its route from Asia, excluding Japan and Bangladesh, to North Europe, the U.K., Scandinavia and the Baltics, effective July 1, by $750 per 20-foot-equivalent unit. Maersk Line has also announced a similar rate increase for July 1. MSC will also increase rates for all dry and refrigerated...

Average US LTL Yield Increases 3 Percent

William B. Cassidy — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:23:09 +0000

Average change in U.S. LTL yield through the first quarter of 2013. Sources: company reports, JOC analyses.Average less-than-truckload yield increased 3 percent in the first quarter among large publicly owned motor carriers tracked by The Journal of Commerce. That rise was the first sequential quarterly increase in the percentage rate of...

Increased IT Spending Drives CargoWise's Americas Revenue Up

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:24:40 +0000

Despite challenging economic conditions, CargoWise’s revenue for the Americas region has increased 34 percent year-over-year in the last 12 months, and the number of users has expanded 47 percent, the logistics technology provider said. Expenditure on enterprise resource planning systems, which were postponed in the first half of the year, are now...

NOAA Report Traces Potential Oil Pollution From Shipwrecks

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:15:13 +0000

May 14, 1942 – U.S. Army Air Corps photograph of the burning tanker Potrero del Llano. Source: National Archives in College Park, Md.The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has presented to the U.S. Coast Guard a new report that found that 36 sunken vessels strewn across...

Next Phase of Construction Begins at Toledo Industrial Park

JOC Staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:37:36 +0000

Overland Industrial Park is expected to be completed by the end of this year.Ohio’s Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, City of Toledo, Lucas County and other officials have held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 1,500 feet of new roadway and utilities at Overland Industrial Park. Overland Industrial Park is a...