International News Notes

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 2/1/2001

Ocean Carriers - Oceanbulk Line now offers a 23-day schedule between the U.S. Gulf and ports in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, using multipurpose vessels for containers, roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro), and unitized breakbulk and project cargoes. Germany's Egon Oldendorff GmbH & Co. and Concept Carriers GmbH have merged to form Oldendorff Carriers GmbH. The new company has 170 bulk and containerized vessels. Crowley Liner Services has added a fourth ro/ro vessel to its service between Port Everglades and Central America, enabling four fixed-day sailings each week. Wallenius Wilhelmsen has launched its third Mark VI ro/ro vessel, the MS Tarago, which will be deployed on the company's round-the-world route. Maersk Sealand now operates two strings of vessels in its U.S.-West Coast South America service. Through an expanded trans-shipment terminal at Balboa, Panama, the carrier can offer faster transit times to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Hanjin Shipping Co. will pay a total of $1 billion under a long-term lease for a 375-acre container terminal now under construction at the Port of Long Beach, Calif. The terminal will be completed in 2003. Hanjin also will open a 90-acre container terminal this spring at California's Port of Oakland. Lykes Lines, TMM Lines, and Contship Container Lines have added five new ships to their joint U.S. Gulf/Mexico-Mediterranean service. The faster vessels and added capacity will increase sailing frequency to weekly and cut transit times by up to 10 days.

Airfreight-SAS Cargo will introduce direct service five times weekly between Copenhagen and Washington, D.C., in May. The new service responds to growing demand by biotech and data communications companies in the region. Europort Vatry, a multimodal facility in France's Marne region, has opened for business. It boasts a dedicated cargo airport with a 12,600-foot-long runway and a 45,000-square-foot airfreight terminal that includes perishables storage. The airport offers immediate access to road and rail connections and to a logistics park with nearly one million square feet of warehouse space.

Logistics-Ryder System Inc. has expanded its Asia-Pacific operations by acquiring Ascent Logistics Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based third party that also has operations in Taiwan. The combined company will focus on manufacturing and distribution logistics, reverse logistics, and e-commerce for the high-tech, aerospace, automotive, and consumer-goods industries. EGL Eagle Global Logistics has acquired Concord Express Ltd. of Taiwan, renaming it Eagle Taiwan. International freight forwarders Interfreight Corp. and International Cargo Systems Inc., both based in Boston, have merged to form ICS/Interfreight. The combined company provides customers with a stronger network of foreign agents and takes advantage of the staffs' complementary strengths. The Rhode Island Export Assistance Center, administrator for the National Unaffiliated Shippers Association (NUSA), has received the President's "E" Award for export excellence. NUSA also reports that it has doubled its membership to 50 companies in the United States, Canada, and Brazil in its first year of operation.