New Items

People, Projects and Companies on the Move

• Ports America announced Pacer International is a customer of its Puerta México intermodal facility, an inland port located in the
industrial zone of Toluca, 65 kilometers west of México City. In May, Pacer initiated six-day-per-week direct rail service to and from the terminal in Toluca to handle shipments, including automotive and third party domestic traffic (FAK) northbound and southbound.
n FedEx Corp. and OfficeMax Inc. announced a multiyear agreement to offer domestic FedEx express and ground shipping services in more than 900 OfficeMax stores beginning this fall.

• Hong Kong-based shipping group OOCL announced its environmental stewardship efforts have been recognized by one of its logistics partners, Baydelta Maritime, in a ceremony in San Francisco on July 1, 2009.

• Volkswagen Group of America opened a $30 million parts distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida. The new center is expected to receive an average inbound of three trailers or 1,000 inventory lines a day and send out nearly 6,000 outbound inventory lines per day.
n The South Carolina State Ports Authority (SCSPA) announced its board of directors today voted unanimously to hire James I. (Jim) Newsome III as president and chief executive officer, effective September 1. Newsome, 53, is a 30-year shipping industry veteran, and becomes the fifth leader of the SCSPA in its 67-year history. He most recently served as president of German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd (America), Inc.

• A newly-completed tunnel spanning of 2,254 meters will now link the Shanghai port located on the on the west bank of the Huangpu River to its finance and trade center, Lujiazui. The tunnel took 10 months to build at a cost of RMB1.8 billion and runs under the Huangpu riverbed.

• The Danish shipping provider AP Moller-Maersk announced it would merge its supply chain management subsidiary Maersk
Logistics with its forwarding unit Damco, re-branding both under the Damco name on September 7. CMA CGM China and CMA CGM Hong Kong Shipping will become agents of CNC International Liner Services as of August 1.

Spate of new Vietnam-U.S. West Coast shipping services
The opening of the new deepwater port facility in Ho Chi Minh City has offered up opportunities for new shipping services out of
the booming manufacturing region there, including the following:

APL — New container service from Ho Chi Minh that includes: PS1 direct 15-day service from Ho Chi Minh City to Seattle; 17 days to Vancouver; 16-day service to Los Angeles on APL’s PS2 service with a connection at Yantian, China.

MOL — New barge service linking Cambodia, via Vietnam, and onto North America utilizing Phnom Penh’s river barge terminal.
Containers are shipped via barge to Ho Chi Minh’s deepwater terminal and trans-shipped onto MOL’s line-haul vessels for direct service to North America and intra-Asia with new transit times to West Coast ports including: Los Angeles: 20 days; Oakland: 24 days; Seattle: 19 days; Vancouver: 21 days.

Hanjin Shipping — The SJX (South East & Japan Express) added to current HES (Haiphong Express Service) utilizing six 4,000-TEU ships. The rotation on the SJX (South-East and Japan Express) is Port Kelang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen (Yantian) Osaka, Tokyo, Long Beach, Oakland, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Port Kelang. And from July 7, Port Kelang, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Shenzhen (Yantian), Osaka, Tokyo, Long Beach, Oakland, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong and Port Kelang.

On the HES (Haiphong Express Service), the port rotation will be Busan (New Port/Gamman), Shanghai, Haiphong, Shanghai and Busan (New Port/Gamman). The two vessels deployed will be 600-TEUs. On the CAX (China America Express), the existing old rotation is Shanghai, Busan, Osaka, Tokyo, Long Beach, Oakland and back to Busan. But the new route will be Shanghai, Busan, Long Beach, Oakland and back to Busan.

Ceres and Ports America named as bidders for Baltimore terminal

The Maryland Port Administration (MPA) announced in late June that Ceres Terminals, Inc./Alinda Capital Partners LLC and Ports America Group/Highstar Capital have qualified to submit offers to enter a possible public-private partneship agreement with the MPA to operate the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal.

The MPA issued a Request for Qualifications on April 15 with that information from interested private bidders having been
due on June 4.

Under the proposed P3 agreement, the MPA said it would lease the 200-acre Seagirt Marine Terminal, which opened in 1990, exclusively to a private entity for a minimum of 30 years.

The lessee would invest in a new berth, cranes, and other infrastructure at Seagirt, and pay an annual rent.

Ceres Terminals, owned by the Japanese shipping group NYK Shipping Line, operates 32 terminals around the world. Ceres handles more than three million TEUs annually at 23 ports in the U.S. and Canada. Ceres currently performs some stevedoring services at Seagirt and has had a presence in Baltimore for more than 30 years, the port authority said. According to the MPA, Alinda Capital Partners the largest infrastructure fund in the U.S., with $5.8 billion in capital commitments and possessing about $15 billion in purchasing power.

Ports America is the largest terminal operator in North America, handling nearly 13 million TEUs containers annually at 15 container terminals. Ports America has operated the Seagirt Marine Terminal since it’s opening in 1990. Ports America is owned by Highstar Capital Fund L.P., which is a $3.5 billion private equity fund.

The MPA said final negotiations with the two bidders would be conducted later in the fall with a possible agreement reached by the end of this year.

EPA proposes tough clean air regulations for large ships
The Environmental Protection Agency announced July 1 what it says are the next steps in a coordinated strategy to cut emissions from ocean-going vessels.

The EPA said it is proposing a rule under the Clean Air Act that sets tough engine and fuel standards for U.S. flagged ships that it said “would harmonize with international standards and lead to significant air quality improvements throughout the country.”

“These emissions are contributing to health, environmental and economic challenges for port communities and others that are miles inland. Building on our work to form an international agreement earlier this year, we’re taking the next steps to reduce significant amounts of harmful pollution from getting into the air we breathe,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Lowering emissions from American ships will help safeguard our port communities, and demonstrate American leadership in protecting our health and the environment around the globe.”

The rule comes on the heels of a proposal last March by the United States and Canada to designate thousands of miles of the two countries’ coasts as an Emission Control Area (ECA).

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) begins consideration of the ECA plan on July 13, which could result in stringent standards for large ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the coasts of Canada and the United States.

By 2030, the EPA said the domestic and international strategy is expected to reduce annual emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from large marine diesel engines by about 1.2 million tons and particulate matter (PM) emissions by about 143,000 tons. When fully implemented, the EPA said the coordinated effort would reduce NOx emissions by 80 percent and PM emissions by 85 percent compared to current emissions.

The EPA said it estimates that in 2030, the emission reduction effort would prevent between 13,000 and 33,000 premature deaths, 1.5 million workdays lost, and 10 million minor restricted-activity days.

The proposed rulemaking is designed to reflect the IMO’s stringent ECA standards and broader worldwide program, EPA sad. The rule adds two new tiers of NOX standards and toughens EPA’s existing diesel fuel program for
these ships.

In This Issue

Up Front

News, Trends & Analysis
New Items

The Growth Paradox

Supply Chain
Industries to watch

Trade compliance in the workplace

Logistics costs dropped in 2008

Overseas trade experts have some tips for you

Five things you should know about U.S. trade policy

Supply Chain product review
Inventory container management

Features
Gateway at a glance U.S. Northeast

Bulk Up

Ports & infrastructure
Port of Seattle nets new container business

Clean trucks at your ports: How to pay for them?

Port Product Review
Project cargo equipment

Commentary
Are we thinking inside or outside the box?

On the horizon: Wave Energy - A future power source for your port

Casualties