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Last updated
Thursday April 10, 2008
Carriers face critical shortage of box ships
Ocean carriers face a critical shortage of big container ships
on the charter market over the coming two years, jeopardizing
plans to expand their networks to keep pace with surging trade
volumes.
There are no ships above 4,000 TEUs available.
The dwindling supply of charter ships coincides with continual
upgrading of analysts' traffic forecasts for the coming two
years as China's explosive trade growth, which has driven the
market rally this year, shows little sign of slowing.
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December in History
Website of the Month
ten by ten
This site
features a visual representation of one hundred of
the most important images and words gathered automatically
from RSS newsfeeds every hour.
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Congestion over at LA-Long Beach
LOS ANGELES
- November
18,
2004
-- For the first time since June, there are no vessels sitting
idle at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. This marks a
dramatic turnaround from recent months when as many as 90
vessels were in port on a daily basis, with about one-third of
those waiting at anchor for a berth. It took as long as 10
days to work some vessels, compared to a normal turn-time of
two or three days. Employers anticipate that a temporary
congestion problem will develop over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Thanksgiving is a no-work day, according to the waterfront
contract - the congestion should be short-lived.
However, at other West Coast
ports...
Vancouver:
Currently there are 21 miles of containers waiting for transit
to principal points in the Midwest/East coast of the USA.
This is leading port authorities to restrict vessel
unloadings. The congestion is chiefly affecting imports.
Exports appear to move smoothly through the port. Vancouver
hopes to double capacity by 2006. The railroads have promised
to make the necessary investment.
Seattle/Tacoma.
Slight delays currently as significant (for Seattle) upsurge
in diverted LA/LB traffic. Port operations are running
smoothly. Seattle has pumped more than 1 billion into
infrastructure in less than a decade.
Portland:
No delays in Portland. Ample unused capacity.
Oakland: Minor
delays due to So Cal diversions.
The
Port of Seattle set a record for container volume in September
with 161,620 TEUs moving through the port's four container
terminals. The volume is due to the growth of trade with
China and from diverted vessels from the ports of Long Beach
and Los Angeles. During the peak season the New World Alliance
has shifted an entire string of vessels from Southern
California to Seattle.
The congestion in
the ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach continued to ease this
week with only 71 vessels at berth or anchor, down from
between 80 and 94 through last week.
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Politics
and international trade are eternally mixed. Our country
and especially our current administration are advocates
for trade around the world. But in the real world, the
Bush Administration has done much to raise trade
barriers rather than reduce them – as is their stated
goal.
Monday,
October 25th, the Bush administration
announced plans to impose restrictions on the imports of
Chinese-made socks. This follows pressure from the U.S.
textile industry and may send a positive pre-election
message that the administration may heed numerous other
requests to limit China's textile exports to America of
trousers, knit shirts and underwear. November 2003 saw
restrictions on the importation of Chinese dressing
gowns and bras. |
LA Long
Beach congestion unabated
To
date, the addition of new dock workers have not had an impact
on reducing congestion in southern California ports. This is
true despite adding 1,000 dock workers in the last 60 days. As
of October 5th, 81 vessels were in Southern
California ports, 47 of those container ships, and 27 of those
waiting because there was no berth space available. Turn time,
usually three to four days, now typically averages seven
days. APL and Maersk Sealand vessels are skipping
southern
California
and going directly to Oakland.
There are 13 terminals in southern California. Together they
are able to operate 105 gantry cranes. Each crane requires a
gang of 12 – 14 longshoreman. Each day, only about 75 of the
cranes are utilized as available longshoreman have disappeared
due to high labor demands from the terminal yards and
intermodal rail usage.
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October in History
Websites of the Month
world on fire
$150,000 was spent to make this music video for Sarah
McLachlan.
That's a pretty standard cost. The difference, is that
only $15 was spent on video production, and the balance
was spent to help approximately one million people in
developing countries. Check
here
for more information.
Gallery
of Obscure Patents
Just what it
says
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Top of Page
News Items:
-
Libya
has been granted trade privileges with the United
States.
-
Imports from Iran are limited to Foodstuffs, carpets
and other floor coverings.
-
Titanium from Russia has been excepted from GSP duty
preference
-
Effective September 22, 2004, Iraq has been extended
duty preference under the Generalized System of
preferences (GSP)
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Intermodal Pipeline
Still Clogged At L.A.-Long Beach
It appears that nothing
is going to break up the cargo jam at the ports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach before the end of the
year. The line of ships waiting at anchor to get a
place at dock seems to be growing, not abating. By
Thursday, there were 74 ships in port, including 27
at anchor, according to the Marine Exchange. That’s
down slightly from a peak the previous weekend when
the count was 76 in port with 33 at anchor.
Turnaround time for
container ships – from arrival to departure –
remains almost twice the normal amount, running as
much as six to seven days for some ships. So far,
the Marine Exchange has confirmed 21 diversions with
the latest one, the Lykes Provider, originally due
in L.A.-Long Beach today, heading instead to
Oakland.
The Coast Guard is
reported to have detained six ships at the 12-mile
limit since July 1 – five for failure to file a
96-hour notice of arrival in time and one for having
an expired oil pollution document. |
Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion
worsens
WTO Members retaliate - up to
more than $150 million against the U.S. for failing to
comply with its international trade obligations
US Exports to EU Penalized
Trade Barrier on Electrical Goods
Exported to EU
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AES
This fall, the Census Bureau will propose the end of
paper SED filings for export shipments. Census
intends to require the use of the Automated Export
System for all export cargo sometime during the 1st
quarter of 2005.
PANAMA CAM
The
Panama Canal Authority has installed live web
cameras as selected sites along the canal. You can
visit at
www.pancanal.com. Choose ‘Live Cameras’ on the
menu bar. |
Top of Page
No relief in sight for L.A.-Long
Beach cargo jam
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State adds 10,500
manufacturing jobs in June. This
is certainly good news for this sector and Wisconsin
as these jobs typically are high wage jobs. As a cautionary note,
Wisconsin is overly dependant on the manufacturing
sector for employment. And as a result, is more
vulnerable to worldwide competition. |
Dollar drops on record U.S. trade
imbalance
LA-Long Beach fighting cargo jam
Union Warns: Lack of Manpower at
US West Coast Ports
China agrees not to manufacture
everything on earth
WTO won't discuss textile quotas,
for now
BN
announced new free time/storage rules for their
Minneapolis ramp. There are some in the industry who
believe that this will become the norm – very soon.
Effective
9/1/04
Below is a summary of the changes.
Free Time calculation:
-
Starts upon notification (shipment availability).
Scheduled availability will no longer be a factor in
calculating free time.
-
Free
time is day of notification: Plus 48 hours for private
equipment Plus 24 hours for rail-controlled equipment
-
If
notification occurs after 5:00 p.m. CT, the day of
notification is the following day.
Storage Charges:
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Your
documents or your money
Free time
is being squeezed at the port, the rail head and the
terminal. Airfreight terminals are especially
egregious. Now waiting time has a real cost. This is
what Cast North America is telling their customers in a message from July 27, 2004:
"Dear
Valued customer: Please note you have 1 free hour to
unload goods before waiting time occurs. Waiting
time rates are $60 per hour."
What
you can do? Get your documents in our hands as
quickly as possible. Airfreight? If you are
bringing in new articles that we have not previously
handled – give us a heads up – so we can consider
the classification issues and guide you
accordingly. Of course, FDA, USDA, F&W and other
government agencies often intervene and delay
freight. Accurate, timely documents are essential.
Call us. We have a huge library of solutions. |
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LA-Long Beach adds 1,000
dockworkers, but vessels still wait
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Responding to
pressure from US. textile manufacturers,
the Committee for the Implementation of Textile
Agreements (CITA) announced that it is soliciting
public comments about whether to limit imports
from China of cotton, wool, and man-made fiber
socks. The trade groups calling for safeguards
include the Domestic Manufacturing Committee of
the Hosiery Association, the American
Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, the National
Council of Textile Organizations, and the National
Textile Association. CITA requests that public
comments focus on the issue of whether imports of
Chinese socks threaten to "impede the orderly
development of trade in the products." We believe
that the likelihood of continued protection of the
domestic textile industry beyond the scheduled
demise of the Quota/Visa program at the end of
this year. Textile and wearing apparel imports
from China are the probable target.
The harbor-wide labor shortage
at the
port of Los
Angeles / Long Beach continues to cause vessel
delays. On average, arriving vessels are
encountering a 2 shift wait before receiving their
first round of labor. Further, vessels are only
receiving one round of labor which is extending
port stays up to an additional 36 hours. These
delays to vessel operations are subsequently
delaying train departures from Los Angeles / Long
Beach as well. |
Japan doubles growth forecast
New Zealand proposes security fees
Labor shortage idles ships at
LA-Long Beach
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Legislation
to implement a free trade agreement with Morocco
is expected to come up for a vote in both the
Senate and House, possibly this week.
This trade agreement has won the endorsement of
our U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. The chamber noted that U.S.
products exported to Morocco face an average
tariff of more than 20 percent. If approved by
both chambers as expected, the Morocco FTA would
the second free-trade agreement completed and
approved this year. Congress approved an agreement
with Australia last week.
ALLIANCES STOPS
CALLING PORTLAND: The New World
Alliance, which includes ocean carriers APL,
Mitsui and Hyundai Merchant Marine, has notified
the Port of Portland it will suspend container
vessel calls to Portland in September.
CHINA SHIPPING DROPS LA: China
Shipping Container Lines has dropped Los Angeles
as a direct port of call on its weekly
transpacific "Asia Pacific Northwest Express"
service. The service will now be dedicated to the
Pacific Northwest port range. |
"Deemed Export" is a concept that
exporters, should be aware of
Pratt & Whitney (Pratt) agreed to
pay a $150,000 civil penalty
Sarbanes-Oxley Impact on
international trade
FDA'S automatic detention
rules
Worker shortage eases at LA-Long
Beach
So. Calif. ports could face strike
by office workers
LA-Long Beach braces for July 4
labor shortage
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July in History
Websites of the Month
aneki.com
Country information,
regional and world rankings. This site has a heap
of statistics gathered around the world. Be sure
to check out the page of
lists.
Cassini-Huygens
After nearly seven years
of space travel, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft
arrived at Saturn on June 30. |
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